Marketing Advice


Price is rarely the reason for losing customers


In this month’s column, Colin Sinclair McDermott, aka The Online Print Coach, explores how price isn’t always why customers choose to go elsewhere.


Y


ou don’t lose customers because your prices are too high. You lose them when


you let them down. Customers will usually accept a fair


price. But very rarely will they forgive feeling ignored, misled, or, worst of all, left to explain your failure to their own stakeholders. That is what really damages trust. Most signage businesses do not


lose customers because they are too expensive. They lose them because they do not turn up when they say they will, they do not communicate when things slip, or they overpromise and leave someone else to deal with the fallout. Your customer can usually explain


a higher invoice. They cannot explain why their sign is not on the wall for an opening they promised to their own boss. That is what sends them looking for a new supplier.


Managing expectations As a business coach, I hear this pattern over and over again. Senior decision makers are not spending their days trying to squeeze every last pound out of your quote. They are trying to remove risk from their own workload. They do not lie awake thinking about vinyl and LEDs. They lie awake wondering whether the signage will be ready for the store opening, the launch event, or the brand rollout to which they have already committed. What stands out to them is rarely the


finished product. Plenty of facilities can turn out decent work on a flatbed. The real difference is how that work is


wrapped with clear expectations set at the start of a project, honest lead times that you actually hit and straight answers when something changes. They want a sense that someone on your side owns the job and will keep them in the loop without being chased.


The painful part is that many


good signage businesses lose clients without ever seeing the real cause. From inside the company, a project can look like a tough job that everyone pulled together to get over the line. A few late nights, a bit of scrambling, a couple of awkward phone calls, but it got done. From the client’s perspective, the same project can feel chaotic. Dates move with little warning. Different people give different answers. They have to chase for updates and then justify the uncertainty upwards. By the time the invoice lands, they


have spent more time managing you than managing their own job. When they eventually move to a new supplier and say the decision came down to price, that is often just the easy story to tell. The deeper truth is that they no longer trust you to make them look good.


Reliability This is why reliability is such a powerful differentiator. If you can position your business as the partner that delivers without drama, you immediately stand apart from the noise. That does not mean pretending you can do the impossible. In fact, it often starts with being braver about saying no. Pushing back on unrealistic dates. Being honest about what can and cannot be done with the capacity you have. Customers would rather hear a realistic timeline at the start than a string of excuses at the end. If you are tired of hearing that price


is the problem, when you suspect something deeper is at play, this is your signal to act. Take a hard look at how reliable you seem to customers. If you are ready to turn reliability into your advantage, book a discovery call and we will find your quickest wins, so the customers you have worked hard to win have every reason to stay.


www.signupdate.co.uk March/April 2026 | 31 |


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