As business owners so many of us convince ourselves that the only way for us to get ahead in business is to offer the lowest price possible, but the fact is if your prices are too low people will look at your goods and services and wonder what’s wrong with them.
A low price indicates low quality or poor work.
Here’s a true story … today I went looking for a new jacket so I can keep warm and dry while I am walking my dogs.
Now, I don’t claim to know the first thing about what’s warm and what isn’t, or what the waterproof rating of each jacket really means to me, but because I want soemthing of quality I am prepared to pay more for it. Sometimes a lot more for it.
Consequently, because I didn’t want rubbish, I actually WANTED to pay large sums for my jacket.
In my mind, I wouldn’t even look at anything which was lower priced because I wanted quality, and no one seriously believes you can get a Rolls Royce for the price of a Fiat.
So, here’s the problem … many business owners are performing top quality work but only charging a small amount for it. What’s worse, many are quoting low to start with, then, when the quote is rejected because it’s too low (and the customer doesn’t want to pay low prices because she wants something of quality) we reduce our prices even further because we convince ourselves the only reason the quote was rejected was because we feel the quote was too high!
The saying “cheap and nasty” is always perceived to be true, so if you are not selling “nasty” goods or services then don’t be cheap! Cheap prices can seriously work against you and your reputation!
There is so much more to any purchasing decision than price alone.