Balancing Price, Quality and Functionality

27 November 2009

Author - Allan Kent

Imagine a three legged stool, sitting perfectly level and stable as it was designed to be.

It is a bar stool, so it sits nice and high off the ground. Each of its legs are represented by:

Price
Quality
Functionality.

If the Price leg is to be reduced, it immediately means that the stool is no longer level and now looks out of sorts. The remedy is either to shore up that leg, which will certainly have an impact on its visual appeal and no doubt its stability, or to trim the Quality and Functionality legs to match.

OK, the stool is now level and stable, but it is no longer the same stool it was. Will it match the other stools, will it look right against the bar?

I accept that this example is highly simplified, but it does still represent the impact cutting price can have to the end product or service. It's worth thinking about if you're in sales yourself, and certainly worth considering if you're shopping around for something and price is your main criteria.

I look forward to your feedback on this concept!

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6:22 p.m. Friday, 27 November 2009

Thank you for sharing this tips

Anne-Marie

9:01 a.m. Monday, 30 November 2009

Hi,

I'm based in the UK, but I came across your site and Blog a few weeks back and I now eagerly await your articles as I find them useful to me and my business.

The Blog above is a great example for me to use when someone is trying to pin me down for a lower price. One comment I would like to make though is that 'Service' can also be substituted in for one of the legs. I've certainly found when I've been purchasing that it is the level of service that is reduced when I've bought mainly based on a low price.

Karen Reed

10:01 a.m. Friday, 11 December 2009

Allan, your insight above is great. The 3-legged stool is really is easy to envisage to explain to clients what happens when they want to cut costs. Such a simple idea, but really effective. It might be a good visual device that we could include in our sales approach - not in a standard sales pitch, but to 'bring out' - when a client has cost reservations.