Marketing Clinic Feature by Dee Blick of The Marketing Gym & award winning Chartered Marketer.
How you can put your prices up without losing customers
There comes the day when you realise that your expertise and experience is worth far more than your prices. Or perhaps you’ve absorbed so many increased costs in a bid to remain competitive, that your profi t margin has diminished to the point where you have to increase your prices to stay in business. The decision to increase your prices is usually met with anxiety.
How will your existing customers react? They have become accustomed to paying you a certain amount, have budgeted for your services or products and suddenly they’re faced with paying more.
Here are 4 tried and tested ways you can manage a price increase and hold onto most of your customers.
1. Instead of immediately imposing a price increase on customers, let them know you’ll be increasing your prices a little further down the line so it gives them time to adjust to your news. People rarely respond well to negative news being sprung on them.
2. If possible, don’t charge the full price increase to your existing customers. Let them know that new customers will be paying the full whack, even going so far as to tell them what this will be to reassure that because of their loyalty they’ll still be getting a preferential rate.
3. Let your customers know of the additional things you do now and that you will continue
82 To advertise in thewire t. 07720 429 613 e.
the.wire@btinternet.com
to do, that you don’t charge for. Don’t assume that customers are aware of all of your nice touches.
4. Sniff out your competitors’ charges. If you’re still price competitive after an increase you can be confi dent that if some clients do talk to competitors, they will most likely come back to you.
Of course, no matter how sensitively you handle the news of your price increase, you may still lose some customers especially those for whom price is everything. Accept this. You can’t please everyone!
Perhaps the best advice I can share with you is to charge a fair price in the fi rst place. If you started your business charging a rock bottom price, although it may have suited you at the time in bringing customers to your door, it doesn’t take long for you to become resentful that you’re delivering so much for so little – and as a knee jerk consequence you hike your prices, alienating many of your customers, surprised at the suddenness of the increase.
So stand in the shoes of your customers and handle the price increase process with care and sensitivity.
Clinic
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100