Over my 30 years selling in the packaging industry I have encountered many situations where I had to battle a competitor who had a lower price. One example was an existing account of mine—our price was 25 cents more per thousand than a new competitor. It was only a 6% difference but it added up to thousands of dollars.
If you want to be successful—never totally ‘drop your drawers’—you have to put a value on your experience, knowledge and your company’s expertise against the ‘lowballer’.
I noted to the client that the combined product knowledge of my company and me--plus our proven service record compensated for much of the difference. I then lowered the price slightly so the buyer could show some savings to his manager. It was a successful win/win solution vs a lower-priced competitor.
