The Relative Importance of Price: It’s QUALITY First

Recently I posted a quote that I like on LinkedIn. It is: “Price is only ever an issue in the absence of value”. From both a sales and marketing strategy, truer words were never spoken.

There are many layers to this statement but I’ll start with the obvious: If you sell or market based on price, you must have no real advantages or “value” to the customers’ science. What does that say about your product? If the only value you can deliver is a low price then you are missing most of what the customers need. While people are cost-conscious for sure, what they want/need more than anything is quality results. Did any drug ever make it to market faster because the research cost less? Did anyone ever publish the first paper on an important topic because they paid less for their reagents? Of course not. Quality, the enabling of better research and unique attributes of the benefits you can bring to their research are deliver value and enhance the value of what you sell.

There are hidden messages as well. If your price is low, the automatic assumption is that your quality is low. So, even if you are lucky enough to have the lowest price, you must FIRST POSITION QUALITY or key differentiators that make your product unique, enabling, and have value to the customer. THEN you can add in, that in addition to the great capability of your products/services you offer a price advantage; a double win for your customer base. This strengthens the perception of what you have to offer rather than weakens it. If your price is higher, you will have to sell value even harder but in the end, this is what people buy; they are investing in their own success.

Finally, almost anyone can find a way to undercut your price. If that is your only value to the customer, once someone can offer the same products/services at a lower price your choices are to get out of the business or cut your prices (margins, profits, revenues, etc.) in an effort to stay below the competition. Then, the “race to the bottom” is on; no one wins that race.

Value is what sells products or services, not price. WHY you can help the customer succeed, WHAT you do to make their research more productive/effective, HOW you can deliver the highest quality results the first time to enable their science to more quickly and flawlessly are what delivers value.