When it comes to pricing your products, one size does not fit all

We all work so hard to make our businesses a success. We focus on quality, customer service, innovative technology, smart branding — you name it.

So, it seems a shame when I see a company take a one-sizefits-all approach to its pricing. After all the hard work devoted to designing great products and putting great customer service procedures in place, too many companies fail to put the same thoughtfulness into their pricing strategies.

They calculate their costs, add a standardized percent margin, and then they’re done. Or, underdone is actually more like it.

So much of a company’s profit potential is connected to its approach to pricing.

A McKinsey & Company study found that a 1% improvement in pricing typically leads to an 8% increase in operating profit. That’s 50% more impact that a 1% reduction in costs, and threetimes the impact of a 1% increase in sales volume. So a well-conceived pricing strategy is definitely worth the effort.

But I’ve seen the disastrous effects of a one-size-fits all pricing strategy many times. One client, for example, used to calculate their costs and then add a standard “mark-up” to all their products in all of their markets.

But a pricing analysis found that their one-size-fits-all price only “fit” 6% of the time. The rest of the time their pricing was undermining their profits. In

26% of their major markets, they were losing sales because their prices were too high. In an astonishing 68% of the time, they were losing revenue because their pricing was too low and they couldn’t make up in volume what they were losing in price.

So we threw out their old onesize-fits-all pricing approach and used their own sales data and competitive intelligence to tailor a pricing strategy to better fit each of their main markets.

The process took a few weeks and involved a lot of hard work. But the profit increases will be even more than the 8% average found in the McKinsey study.

The standard steps to create a tailored pricing strategy are common to almost every business, including your own. Here they are:

1. Understand that customers don’t know and don’t really care how much it costs you to make your product. They care about the value they derive from using it. Therefore, the well-tailored price falls between your costs and the value you provide to your customers.

2. The better you are at communicating value, the further you can set your prices above your costs. Do a great job of selling value. Remember, an iPhone 12 costs about $400 to make but sells for more than $800.

3. Know that people have different willingness to pay. Some people are attracted by products that are stripped-down, bare bones and low priced. Others want all the bells and whistles or crave convenience and service — and they’re happy to pay a premium.

4. Therefore, two prices are better than one. Three prices are better than two. You can capture a broader spectrum of people’s willingness to pay with a good, better and best product offering.

5. Keep an eye on your competition. Ultimately, your customers determine the prices you can charge for your products, and they’ll keep buying from you as long as they get sufficient value. But don’t leave too much room for copycat competitors to swoop in and steal your lunch.

6. Similarly, keep your costs low. Strive for efficiency. It will add flexibility to your pricing strategy.

7. Not many of us set perfect prices right off the bat. So, learn to move prices up and down seamlessly. Keep prices in electronic media that can be quickly and easily changed as you learn what works best.

Sure, a one-size-fits-all pricing approach is quick and easy. But a pricing strategy that fits like a glove will make your business much, much more profitable.