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How to Sell at Margins Higher Than Your Competitors : Winning Every Sale at Full Price, Rate, or Fee
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- ISBN13: 9780471744832
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Praise for How to Sell at Margins Higher Than Your Competitor
“This is the complete book for both new and experienced salespeople and business owners to learn and re-learn the essentials for success. How to Sell at Margins Higher Than Your Competitors emphasizes the pricing strategies and tactics to increase the market share and profits of any organization. This is a book that is as important to presidents as it is to salespeople.”
–Bill Scale… More >>
How to Sell at Margins Higher Than Your Competitors : Winning Every Sale at Full Price, Rate, or Fee
Tags: Winning, business owners, business owner
Categories: All About Selling
With books like this it is hard to believe that people and companies still believe in the volume sales trap. If you are new to sales or have been in the field for a while you will see the sales patterns that others have falsely bought into. Plainly said if you are giving up your margins you are giving up the lifeblood of your company. This book is fairly easy to read and understand and a quick read. For the new salespeople out there you will be given great ammo against those who just shop on price. If you are a sales pro you will just get great information reinforced for what you already know.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is an extremely well written book. Lots of Tips. Great insight into how buyers try to get you to reduce prices. I have purchased 5 copies of this book and given them to all of the people with direct influence on pricing, negotiation and financial decisions in the company. Once you understand and begin applying the principles, the margins just go up. The book will change your whole outlook such that you don’t feel guilty turning down business that is only price based. This is probably the most significant business improvement book I have read in the last 5 years,
Rating: 5 / 5
I can think of 5 business books everyone should read, this is number 1
Rating: 5 / 5
There are two types of people who want to absorb this book: salespeople and business owners or executives.
If as a salesperson, you’ve found yourself getting “beat up” by prospects and customers, this book teaches you in simple and easy to understand language how to not only put an end to getting beat up but how to also make the sale.
If as a salesperson, you find yourself spending inordinate amounts of time with customers who are difficult to work with, this book reveals how to work with only the best customers – and make more money while you do it.
If as a salesperson your commissions are slim because your selling price is too low and you haven’t been able to sell at a higher price, this book will expose exactly how to raise your selling price and your commissions.
If you are a business owner or executive, you will want to read this book for two critical reasons.
One, you will learn how to put an end to your salespeople’s whining and complaining about losing the sale to low-price competitors. You’ll FINALLY KNOW HOW TO CALL THEIR BLUFF! No longer will your salespeople be able to “snow” you with their inability to sell. Now, you will be able to “call the shots” they way they really are so that your salespeople produce results instead of excuses.
Two, you will learn exactly how to keep your business out of bankruptcy and move your business away from break-even mode to high margin, high profitability mode.
On my end, I wish someone would have pointed me to this book when I first got started in sales so that I could have saved myself years of hardship. On your end, you’ll be glad I recommended that you get this book for yourself so that you too are able to save years of hardship.
Rating: 5 / 5
Those of us who have read Steinmetz’s How to Sell at Prices Higher Than Your Competitors (first published in 1992) were delighted to learn that he has co-authored a new book with William T. Brooks. The need for Steinmetz’s insights is even greater now than it was 13 years ago, especially given the focus in this book on margins. Of course, this presumes that margins have been accurately measured, as have been those of competitors. For many of who read this book, I suspect, one or both assumptions are incorrect. Frankly, I am astonished by the nature and extent of ignorance and/or misunderstanding of margins. The consequences are predictable.
Consider these statistics which Michael Gerber cites in The E-Myth Mastery: “Of the 1 million U.S. small businesses started this year [2005], more than 80% of them will be out of business within 5 years and 96% will have closed their doors before their 10th birthday.” These are indeed chilling statistics. Now consider this one: The average life expectancy of all businesses in the U.S. is 7.7 years. The reasons are varied, of course, but one of the most common is to sell a product or service for less than its total cost to produce or provide. If decision-makers in companies (regardless of size or nature) do not know exactly what the given costs are, they sure as hell don’t know what the margins are. Anyone who challenges that statement are urged to re-read the statistics just cited.
Steinmetz and Brooks carefully organize and then present their material within 19 chapters, followed by an appendix, “The Premium Price Seller’s Ready Reference Guide.” (This appendix all by itself is worth far more than the cost of the book.) What especially impresses me about their approach is primary emphasis on effective application of the strategies and tactics recommended. To me, the word “downsizing” is frequently misapplied. The more appropriate word would be “right-sizing.” Within the frame-of-reference within which Steinmetz and Brooks present their observations and recommendations, the key word is “right-pricing.” Their expertise is based on dozens of years of real-world experience with thousands of different companies. They are determined, indeed passionate about helping decision-makers to answer questions such as these:
1. What is the total cost of what we sell?
2. Given that, what must our margins be?
3. What are general guidelines on how to price?
4. How can service be a decisive competitive advantage?
5. Why should we avoid those whose purchase decision is based solely on price?
6. How can we sell at higher prices with lower volume and thereby increase profits?
7. What are “the two cardinal sins” of selling? Why?
8. What are the indicators of over-pricing?
9. What are the indicators of under-pricing?
10. How to close on a sale when price is the only remaining barrier?
The observations and recommendations which Steinmetz and Brooks offer in this brilliant book are, however, essentially worthless unless and until the first question has been answered accurately. It is impossible to manage what cannot be measured; fortunately, costs can and must be measured. Moreover, they must be monitored constantly. As marketing initiatives create or increase demand for what you sell, keep in mind Warren Buffett’s assertion that price is what is charged for a product or service but value is what buyers think it’s worth.
This book really does explain “how to sell at higher margins than your competitors” so that those who read it will be better prepared to “win every sale at full price, rate, or fee.” I strongly recommend that you read it before your competitors do. Of course, if they do and then apply what they have learned, your competitive marketplace will become especially lively. Forewarned is forearmed.
Rating: 5 / 5