Effective Selling (CONT’D FROM PAGE 72)
account because the buyer liked them and because they had a lower price than their competitor. I would recom- mend moving away from selling on price. The more you understand how to help the customer to be more prof- itable, the more you separate yourself in a positive way from your competitors and the more your prospect will like and respect you. A lot of energy is expended in negotiating with man- agement within the seller’s organization to get a lower price to offer on a quote. This may be necessary and, of- ten, the buyer does make decisions weighted significantly by the price of the box. However, it is very important to remember that material cost is not the only component of overall cost and the more adept the seller is at uncovering the total cost of packaging, the more likely that salesper- son will be to succeed. In addition to helping your customer to reduce pack- aging cost, it is important to explore ways to help them to sell more of their product or at least get their product out to their customers more efficiently and attractively as a way of adding value to their marketing process. If you can find a way to improve the appearance of the box through structural design or print, make it easier for the custom- er’s customer to handle the box or impress the custom- er’s customer with the look of the package, your customer will appreciate your efforts to help them to be more com- petitive. If your helpful ideas in these areas show greater
ated product sitting inside a box on a dock in the heat of summer? Space: What is the cost of the space boxes take up on the customer’s floor or in racks? How does the customer calculate the cost of managing the space required to han- dle these products? Who pays the price when too much space is used to handle them? A buyer may choose to buy more of a product in exchange for a lower unit cost but what is the buyer giving up to total profit for doing so? How can you go about calculating the cost of floor space in the customer’s facility? What is the cost of space on a truck? Can you help your customer find ways to get more of their packed boxes out to their customers through more efficient pallet configurations? Labor: What is the labor cost of packing a box? How much labor cost would be saved if your design team came up with a redesigned box that would take 30 seconds less to pack than the box they are currently using? What is the cost of labor when the customer has to repack a box be- cause the initial box failed to perform as promised? What is the labor cost to the customer if the box supplier misses a delivery date? Material: This is the component of cost that gets the most discussion. Typically, it is discussed as, “the price of the box” either per thousand or as an individual price. Most salespeople think they are successful in capturing an
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