Tag: cost

Is Your Price “Right?”

The Price Is Right is a fun game show, but deciding the right price for your product or service is no game. Charging enough to make a profit and stay competitive in your market is a careful balancing act. You need to pay the bills without driving customers away from your business to the competition.

 

Figuring out Your Right Price boils down to three fundamentals:

 

  1. Cost – Start by identifying all of the costs associated with making your product or delivering your service. Not as easy as it sounds. The most obvious costs are usually the direct costs, like materials and labor. Rent, utilities and supplies are also easy to identify. Less obvious are costs that don’t happen all the time, like marketing and memberships. Add up all the costs to form a budget for the month or year to get a feel what it costs to deliver your product or service.

 

  1. Competition – Know your market, industry and competition to use as a benchmark, but not your only guide. Your competitors’ prices do not tell you if they are operating at a profit or anything else about the inside of the organization. Is there a lack of competition or unmet demand in your market? Competitive pricing under the right circumstances is a great opportunity to capture market share.

 

  1. Value – Identify and market the value proposition that differentiates your product or service, and use it to command a higher-than-average price in your market. Does your team have credentials, experience or knowledge that the competition doesn’t have? Do you offer a higher quality, longer lasting product? All of that can be reflected in a higher price.

 

Making sure that Your Price is Right is no game. Should you charge less to gain market share, or charge more to highlight your quality? Will you be able to cover your costs and make a profit? Feel confident that Your Price Is Right by considering the three fundamentals — cost, competition, and value.

Your Price Should Reflect Your Value

Pricing is one of the biggest questions for businesses that are new or launching new service or product line. How do you strike the right price? It’s not as simple as covering your costs and checking out competitor’s prices.

 

Your price should reflect your value. Just covering costs and having a little profit to show for your hard work isn’t enough. That approach doesn’t recognize the value that distinguishes you from your competitors.

 

Pricing boils down to three elements: Cost, Competition, and Value

 

Cost

Start by figuring out all the costs you need to cover, both direct and indirect. Direct costs are usually the most obvious, like materials and labor. Indirect costs, like rent and marketing, also need to be recognized in the total cost per service or product. Consider recovering the cost to replace equipment that will wear out within three to ten years.

 

Competition

Once you know your costs, check out the competition to get some perspective. Take care not to use competitor prices as your only guide. You don’t know enough about how the situation or profitability. Does your market have unmet demand? Competitive pricing and great customer service create market presence and capture market share.

 

Value

Should your price reflect your superior quality, experience, credentials, or team? Absolutely! Don’t hesitate to charge more than the competition as long as you can distinguish your service or product from the others. Identify the qualities that create more value to your customers and reflect them in your price structure.

 

Pricing your service or product should consider Cost, Competition, and Value. Identify your value proposition and make sure that Your Price Reflects Your Value. Deliver more value to your customers and earn that higher price!