Friday, 31st May 2019 | Sales,Marketing

What to do When Competitors Undercut Your Prices

When competitors undercut your prices, it’s tempting to engage in a price war. Here are some reasons why that strategy might backfire, and a look at some alternate battle methods.

What if a new player enters the market and starts charging a fraction of your price? When competitors undercut industry prices, it’s impossible to know what the impact on your business will be. But if your knee-jerk reaction is to lower your price, keep reading!

Before you engage in a battle with low-ballers, follow the steps below to understand why competitors undercut your prices, and devise a plan for combat.

Understanding The Pros and Cons of Setting Prices Low

Pricing is part of marketing strategy. It is something you establish intentionally. In order to understand why a company would go with a low-price strategy, it’s helpful to understand the alternatives. Here are the four basic pricing strategies:

Economy: Ideal for low price, low-quality products and services where the goal is to profit by selling a high volume.

Premium: In premium pricing, a high-quality product/service is set at a high price point. Sales volume will be lower, but profit margin higher. A good example is a luxury brand where the product or service is sold at a premium thanks in part to perceived value.

Skimming: Skimming refers to selling a low- to mid-quality product/service for a high price. This may seem counterintuitive because over time the brand’s credibility will suffer and sales will decline. The goal of a skimming strategy is to have a burst of initial sales.

Penetration: When a high-quality product/service is priced low, it’s referred to as penetration pricing. The idea is to gain market share by tempting people. Over time, the price would be raised. It’s a good strategy for a new entrant to a saturated market where you want someone to try your brand in the hope that they’ll remain loyal to you after you raise the price.

Hopefully, now it’s more obvious why a company would adopt a low-price strategy and your knee-jerk reaction to compete on price will be lessened. While buyers may flock to a business when prices drop below the competition, this won’t necessarily make them the victor. In some instances, a flurry of sales means quality cannot be maintained, and the reputation will suffer. The perception of the brand could also take a hit (a luxury brand competing on price is an oxymoron). 

Before you engage in battle, be sure to revisit your marketing—and specifically your pricing—strategy (or establish if you don’t have one). There are many ways other than discounting to attract and retain customers. Here are four ways to do this:

  • Highlight the value: Instead of showcasing prices, bring your product or service’s value back into the spotlight to edge out your competitors. Focus on reframing your marketing and communications tactics to divert any attention from costs to value propositions instead. You could even go so far as to publish a comparison chart on your website to explicitly show how your offerings stack up in the marketplace.
  • Focus on the customer experience: Nothing beats exceptional customer service. Instead of reacting to predatory pricing, evaluate your customer service efforts by taking strides to improve every touch point and ensuring your customers’ journey is optimized end to end. More so than pricing, customers are likely to share stories about brands that go the extra mile.
  • Offer free resources: To build added trust in your brand, put more effort into content creation when competitors undercut your prices. By offering tip sheets, helpful videos, blogs, infographics, and other resources – for free – on your website and social channels, customers will come to view your brand as an authoritative one.
  • Modify your offering: If your competitors are all offering identical products and services, you can set yourself apart with a new type of inventory. Even the slightest variation can make you more visible in the marketplace by appealing to consumers who are looking for variety or stand-out products and services. You can even consider bundling your offerings for a slight discount without directly undercutting any competitors, but adding value and convenience for buyers.

If you focus on pricing alone when competitors undercut your prices, it’s likely that you’ll never win the undercutting war. Instead, differentiate using one or more of the tactics above. It is more effective and far less risky to stand above the competition by highlighting your business’s uniqueness and addressing customers’ pain points.

Read Also

Customer retention best practices for your small business

In 2023, the business landscape will be more dynamic, with constantly evolving trends and changing customer demands. You can keep your customers engaged and returning for more with the right strategies. Here are some invaluable customer retention best practices to help you stand out from the crowd and keep your customers coming back for more:

Embrace Omnichannel Sales

The pandemic accelerated the shift to online shopping, and customers are now more comfortable than ever buying online. This means providing a seamless experience across all channels, from your website to social media platforms, mobile apps, and online marketplaces. Investing in innovative technologies such as AI and automation can deliver personalized and efficient products that set you apart from the competition. 

Use Social Media to Build Relationships


Social media is a powerful tool for building relationships with your customers. You must use social media to build a community around your brand, engage with your customers, and create meaningful relationships. By actively listening to your customers and responding to their queries, feedback, and concerns, you can show that you care and establish trust. Furthermore, social media allows you to showcase your brand's unique personality and values, which can help you stand out from the competition. Sharing customer stories, testimonials, and reviews can also be an effective way to humanize your brand and build social proof.

Leverage Data Analytics


Data analytics can help you understand your customers better and identify opportunities to improve customer retention. You can identify opportunities to improve customer retention and create personalized experiences by tracking customer behaviour, preferences, and feedback. Investing in data analytics tools can help you make data-driven decisions and optimize your marketing and sales strategies to meet your needs.

Be Transparent and Authentic


Customers are increasingly demanding transparency and authenticity from the brands they do business with. Customers are looking for open and honest businesses about their practices, policies, and values. This requires being transparent about pricing, shipping, and returns policies and using authentic and inclusive marketing messages. Doing so can build trust with your customers, which is essential for long-term loyalty. Customers are also more likely to recommend businesses they perceive as transparent and authentic.

Focus on Customer Experience


Customer experience will be a major differentiator for small businesses. As a small business owner, providing exceptional customer experience across all touchpoints should be a top priority. This means investing in customer service training for your staff, optimizing your website for usability, and gathering customer feedback to improve your products and services continuously. 

 

These customer retention best practices can help your small business to stand out from the competition, improve customer loyalty, and grow your business. By embracing omnichannel sales, using social media to build relationships, leveraging data analytics, being transparent and authentic, and focusing on customer experience, you can create a loyal customer base that will continue to do business with you and recommend your brand to others. 

Sales ,Marketing ,Management

7 ways how AI empowers small businesses to achieve more in less time

What is artificial intelligence (AI)?

AI is a revolutionary technology that enables SMBs to automate tasks, predict trends, forecast demand, improve decision-making, streamline operations, and scale up. With advanced AI models like Stable Diffusion, DALL-E 2, and GPT-3, and the emergence of AI-powered products like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot, we can now utilize technology that was once considered exclusively human.

In this blog, we will explore the benefits of AI for SMBs and how you can gain a competitive advantage in your respective markets by optimizing operations and maximizing output with minimal resources.

1. Automating Repetitive Tasks

AI-powered tools can automate time-consuming tasks such as data entry, invoicing, and email management. This frees up valuable resources that can be redirected toward high-value activities, such as strategic planning, customer engagement, and product development.  

2. Improving Customer Experience

Chatbots and virtual assistants can provide customers with quick and accurate responses to their inquiries, improving their overall experience with your business. Additionally, it can analyze customer behaviour and preferences to personalize marketing efforts and provide targeted recommendations, further enhancing the customer experience. 

3. Improving Decision-Making

SMBs are frequently required to make critical decisions that impact the trajectory of their business. AI-powered tools can enhance your decision-making by providing real-time insights and analytics. For example, an AI tool can analyze sales data and identify trends, empowering owners to make data-driven pricing, promotions, and product development decisions.

4. Predicting Trends and Forecasting Demand

AI-powered tools can help you predict trends and forecast demand. By analyzing data from various sources, including social media, sales history, and online reviews, AI has allowed you to identify emerging trends and help your SMB adjust strategies accordingly. 

5. Enhancing Marketing Efforts

AI can also help enhance marketing efforts. Analyzing customer data that will identify the target audience, create personalized marketing campaigns, and predict which marketing strategies will most likely be effective.

6. Enhancing Cybersecurity

With the rise of cyber threats, SMBs can use AI to strengthen their cybersecurity measures. AI-powered tools can detect and prevent cyber attacks, identify vulnerabilities in systems and networks, and provide real-time alerts to potential threats. This helps SMBs protect their sensitive information and prevent costly data breaches.

7. Improving Decision Making

Lastly, AI can help improve decision-making by providing data-driven insights. AI-powered tools can assist you, and your managers in making well-informed decisions regarding crucial aspects such as hiring, resource allocation, product development, and pricing.

 

Marketing ,Management

5 Strategies for Growing your Business

What can I do to start developing a plan for growth?

Deciding to grow your business is a big step, so take a moment to congratulate yourself. Now, let’s get to work. The first thing to do is to develop a plan, and these five strategies can help.

1. Take care of your cash flow

Just for everyday operations, businesses need to have a steady flow of capital coming in and going out, but the importance of your cash flow intensifies when you’re planning to expand. 

Survey your income and expense reports to determine your current cash flow, and identify trends so you can estimate how much you’ll have in the future. Don’t stop there. Make sure that you return to this information regularly to ensure you remain on the right path. 

Should you find yourself in a cash flow crunch, you can consider a business line of credit so you can continue to take care of your responsibilities. Alternatively, you can take out a small business loan. 

2. Invest in marketing and sales

It’s common for sales and marketing costs to fall to the bottom of a small business’ priority list, but they’re an absolutely crucial investment, especially if you’re expanding. Bear in mind that marketing and sales strategies and tactics can be tailored to your business’ unique needs, so you’ve got a variety of options to choose from–all with different budgets. Consider your audience, sales goals, and business forecast to build regular (think monthly) marketing efforts into your long-term plan. Marketing your business is an investment in its success. 

3. Attend to your core audience while attracting new customers 

Expansion often involves courting new customers, weather from different market segments or simply additional regions. It’s important that during the growth process resources and attention aren’t stolen from your core customers. They’re the ones who got you here, after all. 

One way to give everyone the attention they deserve is to break your audience (and marketing dollars) into distinct segments and sell each according to their wants. Be open to different configurations. For example, depending on the situation you might want to serve everyone under a single brand, or develop distinct brands for different segments. 

4. Confirm your supply

Few things can turn customers away faster than hearing you don’t have the products or services they need. Supply chain issues and slow delivery since the pandemic have put an increasing number of businesses in a precarious position when it comes to meeting customer demands, so your expansion plans should include the establishment of relationships with multiple reliable suppliers. Your efforts in advance demonstrate good business practices and respect for your customers. Plus, positive relationships with multiple suppliers can help you with your expansion goals. 

5. Ensure quality and consistency 

It should go without saying, but the last thing you want to happen when you expand is to have your quality or customer experience decline. Plan against this by establishing production, operations, and customer service standards. .

You have a better chance of expanding successfully if you plan carefully in advance. Attend to your finances, marketing, suppliers, and customers in advance to make sure you’re growing on a solid foundation. 

 

Speak to an iCapital advisor about small business loans or lines of credit to ensure steady cash flow during your expansion process. 

Marketing ,Accounting ,Management

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