Toward Healthier Markets...

In a previous post I stated the following:

“If your business is doing well, it contributes to the overall health of the marketplace. My business is healthier when it exists in a healthier marketplace.

If your business is falling apart, it negatively affects my business. Not because I can't sell to you, but because a failing business is a drag on the entire market.”

This concept is ignored when I race to the bottom on price. If I cave to demand and come in with the lowest price possible, I will have to ruin the integrity of my product in order to survive. This destroys your business and mine. Your business suffers because customers will not return if you sell shoddy merchandise. My business fails, because I no longer have you, and other businesses like you to sell my products to. By seeking the bottom, we end up there.

By the same token, it makes no sense for me to charge more than my product is worth. Not because my competitor will beat me on price, although that will happen too. It is foolish to overcharge because doing so weakens the purchaser. If you can't recover the value you expend for products you use in your business, your business suffers, and again, the health of my business is tied to the health of yours.

The goal of the market builder is to work within a market to expand the value to all participants within the market. Too often the market is seen as a “zero-sum game”, in which there is a finite number of dollars, and every dollar that company “X” gets is one less dollar available for company “Y”. In a healthy market, the available sum of money is limited only by the creativity and willingness of producers to continually build value into the market.

An Open Letter to My Customers:

When I say “Let me know what I can be doing for you”, I'm not really saying “Let me know what else I can be selling you”. I'm saying that I want your business to succeed. That's all. And I will do what I can to make that happen.

The motivation here is simple, but sometimes hard to see through the maze of sales and marketing gimmicks that stuff your email boxes. From my perspective, your success is a benefit. Even if you don't buy from me. If your business is doing well, it contributes to the overall health of the marketplace. My business is healthier when it exists in a healthier marketplace.

If your business is falling apart, it negatively affects my business. Not because I can't sell to you, but because a failing business is a drag on the entire market. My job is to connect you with as many ways for you to succeed as I can. Some of them may involve purchasing a product from me. Many of them will be service or expertise related, and money will never change hands between us, but I am glad to do them.

In the long run, I realize that I cannot fill every need your company has. I don't sell everything you use. What my company can offer, aside from a few of the things you need to do your job, is support. We have decades of experience in the industry and vast networks of suppliers and leaders in the industry to get answers from. And we are set up to do this while you do what you do to make money. What I get in return is the business you do give me, a healthier market in which to do business, and a greater understanding of the problems you face every day, so I can focus on solving those problems, to your benefit and mine.

It's All About The Benjamins

When you look for a car, what is the very first thing you consider? Model? Capacity? Mileage? Price?

For most people, price is in the top three or four considerations. Price is present in every purchase. You can't get away from it. So if price is the objection to a purchase, it is common to all purchases. That being the case, when price is raised as an objection, it should be acknowledged, then set aside. Explore alternatives to price as buying motives.

What, besides price, is important to the customer. On-time delivery? Quality? The security of an insured product? American made? The answer for every customer will be different. The challenge to the salesman is to find which issue is the key motivator for the sale. If price were the only consideration in every business deal, we'd all be driving 1987 Yugo's.