Pricing for Profit: How to Command Higher Prices for Your Products and Services

by Dale Furtwengler

Many small business owners are trapped by industry pricing and market misconceptions, when they could be compensated for the true value of the product or service being offered. The low price they feel compelled to offer limits their ability to generate profits which, in turn, slows their response to changing customer needs. The good news is that a business can command almost any price it chooses by focusing on the value--not the cost--to the customer. "Pricing for Profit "shows businesspeople how to break out of the stranglehold of industry pricing and charge more for their wares (regardless of the competition) without alienating their customers. Readers will learn how to: - Quantify the value of their products or services - Distinguish between price buyers and value buyers - Bundle their offerings for competitive advantage and increased customer value - Craft a powerful marketing message that communicates value - Generate more unit sales and close more sales overall, at higher prices - Make more money with less effort Filled with easy-to-use formulas, sample scripts, clear examples, instructive exercises, and more, this accessible and practical guide is a must-read for businesspeople who want to be well-paid for the value they provide.

Genres: Business

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

Reviews

[Keith]

This book contains a quite a bit of good information, the bulk of which comports well with other pricing books I've read recently. That said, as the title implies, this is more about "how" (and a little "why" to convince the many who are reluctant ever to raise prices) than "to what," more strategy than tactics. There are no price elasticity curves here, no calculus, just some examples with little real math mostly aimed at demonstrating what the increased profit would be taking all major factors into account. The "how" focuses mainly on giving customers options, bundling techniques, relative pricing (i.e., the gaps between one's levels of offering), tuning one's sales pitch, and so forth. At the same time, all of this struck me as more useful for the established business, and less so for the initial startup phase (though not useless there either).

For such a case, I would recommend covering Setting Profitable Prices first, or instead—its more expensive and harder to find, but has far more exercises geared toward setting, rather than changing, prices, and the sort of market research that should be part of any good business plan to begin with, along with formulas and spreadsheets to work it all out. Pricing for Profit would then be more useful for tuning the results from the latter, and applying to (or deciding whether and how to hire) one's salesforce.

[Ben Love]

This is a very simple book and it does more than I think it portrays on the cover.
Breaking down what people buy, why they buy it and how – it handholds the reader through a logical and understandable path to quantify all the intangible elements there are to selling and buying.
It’s as simple as that, but this is the first book I’ve read on the topic that cuts out the fluff and gets straight to the core of what you need to know. A valuable read.

[Robert]

Helpful for an entrepreneur thinking about how to price a product and sell it.

[Margot Note]

"The real reason that business owners don't raise prices is that they don't know how to monetize the intrinsic value of their offerings" (27).

"Creating name awareness is the function of your marketing message, not your pricing. Using low prices to 'market' your offerings ends up sending the wrong message to the market -- a message of poor quality/service" (27).

"Value buyers view integrity, quality, dependability, friendliness, convenience, ambiance, image, and other aspects of the offering to be more important than price" (30).

"People resist being told things; they'd much rather figure them out on their own. That's why it's essential that you lead them on a journey of discovery--discovery of the value you provide and the joy it affords" (100).

"Regardless of what value proposition you use, your prospects need to discover what they value and the integrity with which they value it. The higher the intensity, the greater the value" (100).

"You need to understand value from the customers' perspective. What you think is irrelevant; it's your customers' perspectives that count" (168).