Your Price or Your Value… Which one is out of line?
What value are you bringing to your customers beyond your products and services? Think about it?
Most DSRs go through the motions of making sure all their orders are in each day, each week. The company delivers the products, and again, you go through the motions of responding to customers in need. You respond to all the things that happen during that process like: writing pickups and credits, filling outs, and telling your customers why certain items are out of stock, and when they are scheduled to be back in stock. Sometimes you might even bring an idea in about a product that has a spiff on it.
I have operators tell me all the time that when DSRs are taking care of these routine tasks, they are just paying the price of admission…that is just to get a chance with them as customers.
You may think that you’re really good friends with your customer and have a good business relationship with them. They may even be real friendly to you, but if your price is 10 cents higher, you lose the business because they buy it from the other Rep who has a cheaper price, or maybe has a little better relationship with them than you do.
Is it that your price is out of line…or…is it that your VALUE is out of line?
DSRs, if your customer’s “value perception” of you is this low, then all that’s left is PRICE. Your customers need to see and experience the value in what you and your company provide them, week in and week out. If they perceive this, they will prefer to do business with you, even if your price is not always the lowest.
Relationships are not based on pennies/your price. Long-term customer Relationships are built on the VALUE you bring each week.
Value is what you do up front, before the sale, and what you do during your relationship with a customer; you have to show them what’s in it for them.
Value must be perceived by your customers. If you think it’s of value, but your customers see NO VALUE, then your perceived value is worthless. Price will be the main topic of each of your discussions.
What does VALUE mean to your customers???
· VALUE = how you help your customers use your products or services —TO MAKE A PROFIT
· VALUE = how you help your customer use your products or services — to produce more Output
· VALUE is about process and outcome, it is NOT about price
Your role as a DSR is to be like a detective with each customer. If you are having pricing problems with a customer, you need to get your “problem-sniffing dog” out to those customers and find the opportunities that you and your company can help them with, before your competitor does.
Start TODAY and take action with those customers that seem to value price more than anything else.
Here are a few ideas to get started with:
· Get on the internet and see what folks are saying about your customer; print it off and have a few solutions for them on your next visit.
· Check their restrooms out every time you visit to make sure they’re clean and that all dispensers are filled.
· Check overall cleanliness of the place because most operators get complacent being there every day.
· Be a customer and always order something as a quality check.
