Being successful in business needs some level of wisdom. A good product may end up not being interesting to customers because something of such is being sold elsewhere. So what's the difference here?; ‘affordability’. Many miss this over and over again.
I was scouting for some materials for production earlier this week and I happened to reach The General market. The difference here can be it being a place for mainly wholesalers. This means there should be affordability.
Nothing bad to try and save some buck by leveraging my presence to buy some of those little things we often spend on in the course of production.
Maybe I was wrong or was it actually because of where I branched to buy. It was something I had to converse over with the sales person. They were selling exactly as those small retail vendors did despite the fact that they were much closer to manufacturers' buying prices than the retailers. After making enquiries about a few things around there, I wasn't impressed to buy much.
All I did was pick some few things and paid for it and left. Why stress myself carrying a much heavier bag and spending even ahead of time when there is no gain to compensate.
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Considering the next point for this article, I have been thinking of how to stay on a competitive pricing while also delivering quality in my business. One of those areas is in-between my affiliates. We have had to pair with others who have gone ahead of us in our field do we could have access to diverse machines which are expensive for us to afford for now. Nothing bad about the deal, in short, it has been one of my bold steps this year. All we are left to do is to keep delivering and heightening out customer’s trust.
Speaking of trust, how do we stay as a ‘sometimes middle man’ and satisfy our customers at an affordable price? One of those views I have in business is always delivering quality at a price that cuts across other reputable brands. It had been something still challenging for me to ascertain. I have had to turn down some deals because of this, let's just hope I figure out just the right approach ahead of next year.
Even my affiliates don't understand that I am not after all those hyped prices to stay in profit but rather looking for how to take off my pricing exactly from their price list. The advantage here on my side becomes numerous. Let's assume a customer came to do business with me and felt I have overpriced so decided to confirm from another brand assuming my pricing was N5000.
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Getting to another business premises to discover it can be done to standard at N4,500 will be a blow to me. The idea is that he will see me as one trying to exploit for so much gain. I lost the customer both for NOW and for the later. What would have happened if the scenario was the vice? Maybe the later brand was keeping it at let's say, the same amount or something on TOP. It makes much sense from here. In short if my pricing was N4550 or at most N4600 against their N4500 it would have still been understandable.
One of the nearest solutions to this here is bulkiness of the service or product; this is something we have to gradually push to attain. Here even a N50 middleman gain makes sense. Till then, we will have to strategize to make sure clients know we can deliver. It has always been one of such doubts when they show up and feel maybe we are just talkers. This even calls for another set of strategy because I have to be good in this field’s vocabularies
To conclude, let me add, doing business requires so many thinking throughs. As I earlier said, some level of wisdom and much to your good if even higher. Competitive pricing coupled up with quality service or product is a hedge. When a customer or client shows up, that's an opportunity or a threat depending on what and how your moves starts and ends the entire conversation.
