How To Better Manage Your Product Pricing Using Web Based CRM Systems

Inconsistent pricing is a problem that has far reaching consequences. It can also be quite strenuous to solve. Recently a limited selection of web based CRM providers have introduced software that can make even the most complicated pricing models simple and accessible to sales teams of any size.

Firstly let's deal with the negative effects of inconsistent pricing. When you start business, pricing is easy. Generally you have a single price list covering all your products and services. But what happens when you raise prices on some products?. What happens if you open a new office that charges different rates? Or you open an office in a new location with a different pricing scale for that community? What about wholesalers or special clients, do they get preferential prices? You might even run a time sensitive special discount, how do you enforce the cutoff?

This is when manual pricing systems break down and begin to affect your staff and customers. There are 3 specific problems caused by inconsistent pricing:

1. Time Squandered If you have a large collection of products, different prices for specific offices, temporary discounts, special rates for special clients or have recently implemented a price increase it is easy for staff to get confused. Most companies manage their pricing by publishing PDF documents or excel spreadsheets . Depending on the length of the document staff may find it difficult to find the price relevant to the customer they are dealing with. Or they may not even be able to locate the most up to date pricing document.

This wastes time and staff productivity. Your sales team should be interacting with customers not searching for prices. It can also make your sales team look ignorant and amateur, they really should be able to quickly quote product prices.

2. Misquoting-- Price Too High If your staff can't access the most up to date pricing information they might quote the client a price that is either too high or too low.

If the customer is given a price that is too high they may decide to go with your competition instead. Costing you a sale. The customer may also engage in 'salesman shopping' where they call your company over and over again until they find a sales person who will give them a reduced rate. This is simply unprofessional and it makes your organization look sloppy. If a client sees your organization as sloppy this impression may be transferred onto the product or service. No-one wants to rely upon a company that can't even get their own pricing right.

3. Undercharging So what happens when your sales team quotes a price that is too low? If you decide to honor the price quoted you could end up running that particular deal at a loss. Too many of these deals could send your company bankrupt. If you tell the customer that the price you provided was incorrect and provide the correct price then you run the risk of losing the sale. It's a no win situation.

To avoid these pitfalls it is important to have consistent pricing information that is easily accessible to all staff. The easiest way to achieve this is through Web Based CRM software.

Web Based CRM (customer relationship management) systems are hosted by your CRM provider online, meaning your staff can log in anytime, from anywhere all they need is an internet connection.

A few innovative web based CRM providers have even created software modules designed to automate complicated pricing models. For example some CRM systems allow you to program different prices based on quantity breaks (if you buy 1 bowl it is $ 7.50 each but if you buy 10 + bowls they are $ 6.00 each). You can also flag customers who get special prices, your staff only need to look up the clients name in the database and they will see the prices that specific customer has been allocated.

Keeping all that in mind, your best results will simply come from having all of your pricing housed in the same place where it can be updated easily. This will prevent staff from wasting time looking for prices or passing on out of date information to clients.

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