An editorial by Bill McCurry

Even at Megastores, Hagglers Find No Price Is Set in Stone

Story in the New York Times

Read the story, then come back to this commentary. We'll wait. . .

That's just what you needed, front page news on Easter Sunday's New York Times. In case your customers missed it, they may have seen the story on Sunday night ABC News or the Today Show on Monday morning.

So, your customers are learning from the media it's OK to haggle with you, "it's about being a smart shopper" is what they're being told.

So, you can curse the darkness or you can light a candle. You can fight this additional attack on your margins or you and your team can be prepared to win the battle AND win the war by keeping both your margin and your customer. Will it work every time? Probably not. But it will work better than complaining about it or not giving your people the tools to combat this latest unfavorable shift in the marketplace.

Let's suppose you were the salesperson behind the counter at the Ritz store when the customer in the article came in. You would have taken the time to determine how they were going to use the camera. Then when they told you the price they wanted to pay for the camera you would have said something like, "sure we can make you a deal. And, I want you to be successful with your new camera. Based on what you indicated, you will want to not run out of power when you're taking pictures so this is the extra battery and car charger you'll need. You don't want to have the "memory card full" error pop up during your picture taking so here are the three memory cards you will need . . ."

The point is NOT to overload the customer but make sure they get everything they need to be successful. Then, you can offer them a package price that makes them feel like they have been a "smart shopper". Through this process give your employees the confidence to say, "Plus you get me and my colleagues at this store who care that you get great pictures to treasure for a lifetime."

To get caught in "what's the price of the camera?" debate is probably a losing battle. Instead, focus the customer on the entire experience of what they need. At that point, if you're buying right, and pricing right, you would have some wiggle room to make a kit package price so they think they have won and you have won as well.

Don't be afraid to say "no" either. The best lesson on this came from Mark Hilligloss (Country Raisin's Garden Center- Kokomo, IN) He got a call from the city of Kokomo who wanted hundreds of plants to put downtown in a beautification program. "Not only won't I give you a discount, you can't buy that from me because you won't be successful, the plants will all die and then my nursery will get a bad name." This so shocked the purchasing agent Mark was able to explain all the care and feeding the products she wanted would take. Mark then came up with a package price for the products needed which included soil, fertilizers and plant food that would insure success for the city and a larger margin for Country Raisin's.

It may be more difficult, but not impossible to do something similar with services. If you're hammered for a discount on photobooks or collage posters or even a quantity of 4x6 prints, think what else you can do that the customer would value that allows you to recover some of your margin. Wide format inkjet prints have to be mounted on something, right? Photobooks could use a gift box or maybe a second copy. Give a discount on the mounting, packaging or extra quantity that makes the whole package attractive if you're getting price pressure. At a minimum, extend the delivery time if you lower the price - this way the customer has to give up something to get something.

We all have to do what is best for our own business. My suggestion is to never drop your price just because the customer asks for a lower price. Take something off the table so they aren't getting the same exact thing that they would have gotten at the higher price. It has to be a give/give on both party's side or you start down a slippery slope that every transaction has to be severely negotiated.

Wow, did our readers dig the idea from Tim Jones about "Film Amnesty." In case you missed last week's issue Jones, of Perfect Prints Camera Centre in Tasmania, Australia, came up with a super project to get customers' rolls of unexposed films out of the junk drawer and into his C-41 processor.

From John Perchulyn - Riviera Imaging - Redondo Beach, CA

This "amnesty" concept sparked some ideas. We ought to be offering "digital print" amnesty for all those that have "thousands" of digital prints and keep saying, "I need to print them someday". Maybe a 10 cent print per thousand. food for thought.

Your fearless editor got to see the article before our readers, and I will steal no idea before its time. So my own ad was going to the newspaper about the same time our readers were finding out about the idea for the first time.

The ad ran as 4 columns by 15" and it was in black and white. The same layout was blown up as a window poster on our Epson 7800 and there, of course, we used color.

Terry Ross - FOTO SOURCE - White Rock, B.C. - www.whiterock.fotosource.com/

Not really an "off the wall idea" but something that has generated business for us over the years.

When we first started doing passport photos a number of years ago we let it be known that any one who works in a local travel agency just has to present their business card when they need passport photos and we will do them at no charge. The travel agent gets to see the quality of the passport photos that we produce and the little folder that we present them in, and we get referrals from them for the next few years until it is time to renew their passports again.