Forum Moderators: buckworks
did post something similar few months ago but just wondered if there was any new advice or new people on here that might have a opinion, right problem is:
we sell a range of products to customers we have had years who all pay different prices and buy in different quantitys.
At our last sales meeting a cart was brought up yet again, and we can see no way of putting this on our site with prices without annoying our current customers. Because to appear attractive to new customers surely we have got to appear competitive and this might like I say annoy some customers that are paying a bit more than others.
things we have come up with:
1) work out highest price paid by our customers and put the online price as that - this wont annoy anyone but will obvously not appear competitive on the online market. anyone tried this?
2) start a new website under a different name - but we rank really well for our prodcuts and dont really want to start from scratch and we think our company name and reputation is a good selling point.
3) sell a economy product range online - but I can see all our existing customers saying "well we'll have the economy range please"
any ideas please welcome.
thanks in advance
Thats a bit of a connundrum. I would go with the 'economy' idea- and hope for 'stickyness' of existing customers.
Or have "Call for latest pricing" if you tend to talk to people, and give out a voucher code.
I believe the traditional plan is advertise low, and upsell when you have them hooked. Often, you do this by deliberately sabotaging your main product, and rebranding it as 'economy'- then saying "you know that annoying problem/drawback- well its addressed in our best-selling XYZ.
If they are getting different prices and buying the same items and amounts this should obviously be corrected.
the "call for latest price" we do now and is sucessful but we wanted to move into a straight shopping cart format. some good points though thanks.
ispy: we have been selling our products for 10 years and obviously had a very good margin that is now reducing due to people selling the products online and saturating the market. the current price and quantity breakdown relationship is all over the place so we cannot just place a 1-10 for £5, 11-20 for £3 breakdown on the cart, we have people acting as distributors too. correcting different prices and amount structures is a non starter im afraid, thanks though
any more ideas or things you have seen that might work
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Also, in economic theory, you are making super-profits. That's profits over and above what you would be happy to make and remain in the market. This is clear in that you are happy to accept a lower price from new customers. This is not a stable situation in a competitve market, especially a transparent one such as the internet. I think you may have to accept that the good old days of raking in the money is over.
Anyway, you cannot explicity charge different prices to different people for the same product for no reason without repercussions (loss of trust for eg). If you wish to offer better rates to new customers, you will either have to set up a different trading name, or sell them an obstensibly different product.
Do remember above all- it costs far less to retain existing customer than attract new ones- so make sure you keep the existing ones on board.
Why are your competitors able to sell below your price reducing your margins? Do you have some type of high overhead which they don't have?
You may want to consider the across the board price changes eventually, or gradually worked in, to stay in business since you are bleeding now and it probably will not get better if people are saturating the market. When it comes to the bottom line in the current economy they will probably not stay with you because of your service or loyalty.
If you charged everyone equally with one swift stroke you would make the old customers you have very happy and they would not slowly move to your competitors, possibly giving you other reasons if you were to ask. In the long term you would make money rather then lose it, but there would be what feels like a loss on income in the short term.
Or, you could approach them when they are on the verge of leaving and say, Oh, I have a senior customer appreciation offer if you stay with us, reduced prices just like our new customers! But, they are getting mean now and demand an additional discount over the newer customers. A vicious circle.
If you cant tolerate the short term loss of income you must have overextended and may be at risk of going out of business in the future.
The trouble is that you can't can't bolt catalogue based sales onto an existing business model based on individually negotiated prices. You need to address your whole sales process from the ground up.
Do business. Just do it right. Determine the profit mark and go from there. Getting rich is not a bad thing, getting filthy rich by screwing SOME customers will only come back to bite you in the @ss.
...getting filthy rich by screwing SOME customers will only come back to bite you in the @ss.
Moral is- screw all customers equally!
The trouble is that you can't can't bolt catalogue based sales onto an existing business model based on individually negotiated prices. You need to address your whole sales process from the ground up.
Yep, thats what I was trying to say, but coudn't quite get to the crux of the matter. (It's also the reason the log-in wont work, you're effectively saying "here's my catalogue, log in to get worse pricing")
Either, migrate your existing customers onto the catalogue-based model, or launch a new trading name, or sellk an obstensibly different product, and upsell. But once you publish a price, all customers should be entitled to that price. Existing customers might feel they should get a BETTER price.
