Nearly all of us at one point in time have been told that our price is too high. My most recent experience happened just a few days ago.
A little background. We have been performing work for this particular client for nearly a year. The current consulting project is going well. Additionally, we had previously conducted a successful cross functional area training engagement for 50 students.
We were then introduced by our current client contacts to a new person within their organization. This person happens to work within Strategic Sourcing.
The very first thing spoken was “We have some cost reduction goals for this fiscal year. We would like to continue to use you, but you will need to reduce your price.”
There is no doubt that a statement like that can make even the most experienced person frustrated. What about all the positives we have brought to the project??? What about the knowledge transfer than has occurred between our team and yours???
Our discussion then turned to value. We talked about the investment each party has made over the course of the last year. We discussed the familiarity and working relationship of our teams. We discussed the successful project work (consulting & training) we have accomplished to date. We discussed the fact that we have been engaged since the project’s inception and had initially been hired to construct the overall technical architecture. We discussed some challenges we have overcome (late payment, management error, etc.) that sometimes initially occur when setting the foundation for a long-term relationship.
I’ll let you know how it all goes. We are still “discussing” our various price vs. value positions.
