Apples vs. Apples or Pears?

When a prospect compares your proposal to their current pricing, they feel they are comparing apples with apples. But, that’s often not the case!

It is all about how your pricing structure works in comparison to their existing supplier’s model. If you, like most in the industry, prefer to lump a whole stack of services into a single seat/month price; you can inadvertently appear more expensive, even if you are packing your proposal with considerably more value than the customer has from their current provider.

Let me explain why…

Most business owners see everything you deliver as “IT Support”. Whether that’s cyber security, backup or indeed Helpdesk support – they think it’s all the same thing.

I have personally seen countless prospects over the years dig out their supplier’s contract when vetting my service proposal. What do those supplier’s contracts fail to contain? All of the other managed services the customer has bolted-on over the years.

So when it comes to the prospect comparing pricing, they’ll look at your £x/seat, month against what’s in their contract, and fail to realise you have already considered the full stack they actually need and that their contract price excludes all of that. They’ll simply see IT Support vs. IT Support.

Now, of course that won’t be the case with every prospect. Those with a little more logic will compare their most recent invoice – provided that’s clear(!).

But it’s not all about price I hear you groan…

That’s very true. But it’s a fact that we’re entering a prolonged period of economic restraint once again. Price, or clear value for money at the very least, will matter now more than before whether we like it or not; and if you want to ensure you’re on a path of growth, you will inevitably have to compete or quite possibly have to show your hand with all of the services in your stack and their associated price. Whether that’s by reducing your margin or reducing your perfect stack to ensure you close the deal.

However, setting yourself on a path to easily closing that deal, all starts with understanding the pricing model expectations and awareness of the prospect. If you can understand how they are priced now, my advice would be to try and best match that structure – that’s not to degrade your offering, but simply to present it in a way most digestible by the prospect you’re in front of.

That might not be perfect, but a tactic to make winning new business an easier and more fruitful venture.

Want to inject some energy into your growth?

We’d love to help. We spend all day every day supporting technology service businesses with their sales & marketing challenges – from data and content to telemarketing.

If you are an MSP, ISP, SaaS provider or distributor, and if you are considering some help to keep on top of all those prospects, please book in some time with us for a chat.