What is the Price?

Pricing in our business is confusing. One of the longest processes in our business is the ISO Work Instruction called Pricing. We are not unique in this aspect of our business. We are competing with others on the same playing field. Contracts, list prices, discounts off lists, volume pricing, matrix pricing, retail pricing, net pricing, discount off net, cost plus. The work instruction describes what each of these mean and when it is used. In most cases, a customer understands his/her own pricing. The confusion can arise when someone goes on line or looks at a catalogue not knowing that the catalogue is list prices and maybe subject to (significant) discounts, depending on customer volume. Comparing a price between customers or competitors may not be comparing apples to apples. We need to make this easier to figure out. Is the office products business pricing as confusing as the cell phone industry? I don’t think so (but hey, I’m in the industry)
Speaking of pricing, have your bank charges gone up; part way through your year or in the middle of a “contract”? The Bank’s margins have declined and they have been forced to cut costs to offset this drop. The last thing they would have wanted to do in this tough time is increase fees to their customers. And yet they did. I wonder if there will be some fall out or movements to new banks as a result of this.
Over the years I have referred others to our bank. The HSBC has done a great job for Monk Office for many years. Referrals are a hot topic in sales discussions now. Are your customers and staff promoting you to people they know? At a recent charity golf function one customer went out of his way to introduce us to folks he knew and tell them how great a job we did for his business. This is the PR that comes from years of Monk Office staff making his professional life run smoothly.