1. Pricing and why. Finding pricing is as easy as calling or checking out your competitor’s website, but also look for any hidden fees for services if applicable. Many industries are notorious for this. That information can be helpful in marketing materials for example. It can also give you an idea of where your business is at by comparison. That’s the easy part. Next, try to find out why competitors charge what they do. Maybe they have to charge X due to overhead and other costs, maybe they are able to charge more because they are better known or more trusted, maybe they charge less than you are able to. Whatever the case, understanding why they set their prices where they do will let you know what your options are. Maybe you can start charging more. Maybe you need to figure out ways to lower your prices or to better justify prices. Maybe you’ll discover methods that will allow you to lower your prices. This information will change regularly, so try to keep up to date. (more…)

For the last 10,000 years two-thirds of the buying and selling (or trading) process has been controlled by the seller. The seller has control over the product, the seller has control over information about the product (for the most part) and the only aspect the consumer controls is whether or not to buy.

That is no longer the case, not to the extent it had been. Today the customer is framing the information around the product to a far greater extent, and it’s going to continue to increase.

It’s not doom and gloom though, it’s a good thing. It means better products and service for consumers, which means better businesses rise to the top regardless of bankroll or tricky messaging. Think about it, as scary as it sounds at first to lose control over much of your messaging, would you rather let the customer decide, let the chips fall where they may? Or risk some business like yours, but bigger and richer coming in and putting you out of business, just because they have 100% control over perception and the ability to drown your business out? Wouldn’t you rather a fair fight? (more…)