Are you ever tempted to cut your prices?
That happened to me recently. I was pitching for a big training project with a major printing company. Somehow, I had convinced myself that I needed to cut my prices in order to win the work.
That's a dangerous place to be. I needed to do something fast. I needed to remind myself of a very important fact.
It's not all about price
Printing companies that know it's not all about price will find that they often achieve higher profit margins. They will certainly find that they win new customers more often. Because they are selling on more than price, they will find it easier to create a worthwhile relationship with a prospect. The prospect will respect them.
Printing companies that believe that business can only be won on the price won’t get the same respect from prospects. The prospect will treat them as a commodity supplier. There won’t be much of a relationship. These printing companies will also find it harder to get the same level of profit margin.
The difference between these two groups of printing companies is one of mindset.
Mindset makes a big difference to the way that you sell
The trouble is, many in the printing industry have the mindset that buyers only choose on price. Therefore, they make the conversation all about price.
If the conversation is all about price, then that's what the customer will decide on. It can have other dangerous side effects too.
Next look at a real-life example of this
I’d just picked up the phone to find out that I was on the receiving end of yet another print sales pitch. It was a quiet morning so I was prepared to spend five minutes with the sales guy. I was prepared to be educated, entertained or even mildly bored.
But I wasn’t prepared to be totally gobsmacked I couldn’t believe the opening line. It was: “We’ve got a new press so we’re cheaper now.”
What made this approach so completely baffling was the fact that I was already placing work with the printer.
So in less than 30 seconds they had just cut their profit margins on my account.
The sales person had just assumed that he would need to cut prices to keep my business.
What he actually did was to end up driving me away
He hadn’t researched me or my business.
He assumed I was a commodity, price-led buyer.
He effectively told me that the only reason to choose his company was price.
Here are three action points to avoid this situation
- Remember, it's not all about price
- If you are ever tempted to cut prices, talk to a colleague first
- Challenge your mindset
If you can avoid the wrong mindset you can stop selling on the price
Having the right mindset could have made the printing sales pitch I received so much more effective.
Having the right mindset made my sales pitch to the major printing company more effective. I didn't cut my price. And I won the work without having to negotiate.
P.S. Download Matthew’s free e-book “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them” at http://profitableprintrelationships.com/e-book/
- Categories:
- Business Management - Marketing/Sales
Many printing companies are frustrated how hard it is to engage buyers in today’s world. That’s where Matthew Parker can help. He is a gamekeeper turned poacher. Parker has bought print for more than 20 years and received over 1,400 print sales pitches. He now uses his buyer’s point of view to give practical advice to printers. He helps them engage with prospects and customers to create profitable relationships.
Download his free e-book, "Ten Common Print Selling Errors And What To Do About Them" and check out his recently launched book, "How To Succeed At Print Sales: Setting targets, planning the right activities and making sure goals are met."