Howard Davis of @Contextworld asked a great question at #GTDCEMEA16: Do list prices matter? I’ve heard this question lots of times before, and I’m sure Howard asked me because he’s heard it even more times than I have. This is a continuation of a series responding to that question.
Customers need to know – before you even try and sell them something – is this going to be the price of a Yugo, a Corolla or a Rolls Royce solution? They need to know if they are wasting their time, and you also need to know if you are wasting yours. The sooner you know, the sooner you can move onto a customer who might actually buy something.
There was a nice thread on Spiceworks last week which highlighted this really well. This all came out a frustration with IT folks not being given a List Price (MSRP) by an IT vendor. These people may all be in SMB outfits, but at the end of the day, we all do business in a similar-ish sort of way, irrespective of the size of the organization. Here are some selected highlights. When you read these ask yourself this: is this how you want your prospective customers to react to your offer?
J: “It was an interesting concept but they refused to tell a room of over 30 SpiceHeads even a basic MSRP when directly asked. I fucking hate that.”
S: “They refused, that’s weak. That kinda says that pursuing any further information isn’t worth the effort.”
N: “‘Good grief. Not even an average price for their “Custom” configs? If they won’t tell you in a situation like that, then they’re too expensive.”
S: “I think a lot of sales people really forget how tremendously important it is for us to have some idea what things will cost. If something is “you know, round about $5,000” we might be looking to rip and replace everything, today. But if is “somewhere north of $500K” we can write it off and never think about it again. If they won’t tell us, we are forced to assume the later.”
J: “As one of the people that was at the SpiceCorp meet up, the presentation and presenters were decent. They taught us well and answered questions well. Except for the point on price. But for me, that is a walk away issue. … If you make me sign up for spam and marketing email/calls just to get a basic, rough MSRP, then you will not get me as a customer. Ever.”
N: “When you’re shopping for a mid-range new car do you go test drive a Rolls Royce or a Lamborghini? No, because you know they are way out of your price range and there’s no point wasting your time or setting your expectations too high. All we’re asking for is a general indication of what price category we’re looking at. Are you a Yugo, a Corolla or a Rolls Royce solution?”
J: “I do not care what you like to do and how you want to play safe with some guarantee on a piece of tech that I may or may not even damn buy. I am not going to waste my time doing the discovery you want in order to decide I do not want to pay for your damned product. FFS give me a price.”
R: “Most IT folk don’t want to fight a sales dick for pricing just to see if their solution is in the ballpark. What S said about instantly dismissing your product/company over you not providing pricing is spot on. That’s how we do things. For me no pricing = no sale.”
So there you have it. List prices (MSRPs) do matter. Customers need to know if they are in the same ballpark as the vendor. They need to know if they are wasting their time looking at your product. Don’t you need to know if you are wasting yours looking at them as a customer?
Out of the mouths of babes. Well, maybe not babes …..
BTW, a user with experience of the vendor suggested that their pricing was that of a Tesla roadster. Now why couldn’t the vendor have either said that or had that accessible on their website?
More to follow.
Thank you Howard Davis of @Contextworld! Once again, great question!
