Understanding Your Customers’ Needs
Let’s be clear about one thing right now: It is not just the asking price that a buyer considers when deciding whether to purchase a product or service. It is that and everything else, such as quality, exactness of fit, and delivery time, which goes along with the product or service being bought. It is easy to make assumptions about what customers want and need but that is not the way to go. You need to understand customer priorities, and clarify their likes and dislikes if you are to secure the best possible price from your customer. Knowing what they are, for each of your customers, is important because their purchasing function is one vital link in their organization’s value chain. As such, the buyer must understand if the total cost of using your product or service allows them to add value for their organization in a meaningful way.
Think!
Do you really know your customers? Do you have a system that records their buying needs? Do your selling prices take these needs into consideration?
Of course, not only will your product or service have a different impact on each customer’s value chain but also each of your customers will have different expectations of how their needs should be met. What is more, the impact of your product or service and their needs will change over time and so your pricing must also change along with them even if there are no changes in the other aspects of price determination.