Price and Perceived Value

Knowing how customers and prospective customers view your products or services is important to your pricing structure. Customers will generally only pay a price that they believe closely reflects the value offered by the product/service. Most of this is based purely on perception. Perhaps they had an experience with your products/services and related customer service in the past and have established some mental threshold in terms of what they will pay for your products/services. Or, through word of mouth or some other means, they heard about your company, products or services and have formed an opinion about value. Maybe they have seen ads or some other promotional or information piece and have been influenced in that way. In any case, perceived value is important to the level of pricing established. If the value is perceived to be less than the price, sales will suffer. And if price and value are in line or value is perceived to exceed price, sales should be strong. The key is understanding how customers and prospective customers view your company and its products and services. Market research is the best way to determine this. Do you know how customers "value" your products or services?

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Attributes Of Successful Long-Term Businesses

We believe there are attributes that are common to successful businesses. While there are probably others, we feel that the twelve attributes below represent the most important:

1. They are focused on the customer and gather feedback and input from the customer on a regular and consistent basis.

2. They understand the concept of relationship development, both internally and externally and they work hard at forming new relationships and strengthening old ones.

3. They are externally-driven (customer) rather than internally-driven (operations).

4. They have a high percentage of talented and high performing employees.

5. They understand how to apply their resources in a manner that maximizes their opportunity for success.

6. They have a high level of morale and teamwork and foster that kind of environment.

7. They do not constantly shift and change priorities.

8. They have well defined and simple, efficient processes.

9. They have a long-term mentality.

10. They have a long-range plan with goals that all employees understand.

11. They spend money wisely and are not afraid to spend money to the benefit of the organization.

12. They have strong and effective communication taking place consistently and regularly.

Good Luck & Good Selling!

Russ