If someone tells you that they took their business elsewhere based on price, it means one of several things:
- They’re using price as an excuse to work with someone else
- You didn’t properly explain the value of your product or service
- Multiple options met their needs, so they were able to simply choose the cheapest option
Price is an easy cop-out if our customer doesn’t want to get stuck explaining themselves or if they don’t have a legitimate reason for making a given decision.
Similarly, it’s rare that two options are truly equal in every aspect besides price. Reputation, customer service, warranty agreements, past satisfaction, and proposal quality are just some of many ways that we can distinguish ourselves from the competition.
#3 feels like the default when we hear that someone took their business elsewhere “because of price,” but I’ve found that this happens a lot less than we might think.
And in the few cases when the decision really comes down to price, it’s worth reflecting on (1) was our pricing aggressive enough? and (2) was that the type of customer we wanted to work with in the first place?
-Brandon
I know that in most case cheapest wins. But when I am looking purchasing something I challenge myself and my team what the value is. Why is it more expensive? What do they offer in addition to their competition’s offerings? I personally would spend more money (my own or my company’s) based on a better experince, better ROI, etc instead of just showing that I saved money.
I like the mindset of challenging thought processes, but I’m not necessarily sure that cheapest wins in most cases. Just taking Amazon shopping as an example (where I would say I tend to be most price-sensitive) I rarely buy the cheapest option. I buy the cheapest option that has an acceptable rating from a decently large sample size.
Minor detail, but I don’t think cheap alone sells if the quality doesn’t stack up to expectations.