First
I would find some unique characteristics of my product that made it stand out
from my competitor’s products.
Most
of companies are buying external equipment or external products to support
their operations or product development, which would generate profits for their
own firms.
Do
buyers really care about buying a premium or fashionable product for company’s
use? They would consider the following criteria:
- Is the product performed as expected or
as marketed?
- Could they use the product to shorten
development cycle?
- Does it help to generate more profits
and lower internal expense?
- Is this product affordable based on
allocated budget?
- Is this a long term investment or must
be replaced after a short period of time?
We
have to market our products based on benefits to customers. We have to avoid telling
customers about "paying premium prices for our exceptional products."
B.
Selling
There
is a simple strategy to sell your products. Of course your product must be good
performance or comparable to your competitors:
1.
Lower price than your competitor if both products are about the same
performance and quality.
2.
Same price as your competitors if your product outperformed your competitors.
The
above 2 strategies would help your customers to pick your product quickly. You
don't need to spend time talking and convincing your customers, i.e. time is
also money.
If
you have to travel and book a hotel for a series of conversation with your
customers in order to sell your outperformed products at higher prices, it'd be
expensive or factored in/lower the profits.
You
may try to sell your "outperformed" products at a little higher price
in such a way that it's negligible to customers, and then they'd pay. For
example, $105 for your product while your competitors quoted $100. If you
quoted $200, customers may think twice.
C.
Sell your product to governments or public sector
Usually
you shouldn't expect high profit margin by selling products to governments.
However, it's good to sell products to governments for other indirect benefits.
For
example, Tesla sold 100MW batteries to Southern Australia; they got worldwide
free media coverage, i.e. like huge free marketing and recognition.
Governments
are usually careful in purchase a product for its performance and price. If
they made a bad purchase, they would be scrutinized by media and tax payers. Thus
it's good to sell a product to government, i.e. your product is good and
reliable.
Of
course if you sold a good product to governments, you would be able to ask for
some help in some legitimate administrative issues, if needed. I'm not talking
about bribery or corruption.
D.
Quote your product
How
to price your product in order to make sales is a hardest part.
To
come up with an idea and R&D was a concrete step. You could develop a
product based on staff expertise and research.
We
don't have anything to base on for a quote.
If there are similar products in the market, we
could try to see the price range, where our products could be priced for quick
sales. Otherwise we have to guess the reasonable profit margin in the industry
or sector that our products are in.
There is a perception and thought about "Made in Japan" and "Made in Germany" products, i.e. high quality products.
ReplyDeleteCustomers are willing to pay more for products made in Germany or Japan. It's not products designed by Germans or Japanese and manufactured somewhere else.
Canada also needs to make "Made in Canada" label be a high standard label as Germany and Japan. This would draw customers to Canadian made products, i.e. jobs creation.
It's not the case to assemble products with materials Made in China to qualify for Canadian contents in order to say "Made in Canada". We can't not print "Made in Canada" products, but with Chinese standard. Whenever "Made in Canada" must mean "Canadian standard" of quality and performance.
Many companies have moved their production to China for lower labor cost, but they have screwed up their products at the same time.
ReplyDeleteFirst: they have open their intellectual properties (database servers) to China, where Chinese took those and produced at no R&D cost. Counterfeit products started from China and sold every where.
Those companies lost revenue and key patents. All research for machines and robotic manufacturing plants have been lost to Chinese. Chinese started to sell those products at lower prices, because they didn't pay for R&D.
Second: Chinese philosophy is to sell lower quality products, so customers would buy replacement, i.e. more money generated.
Many well recognized companies in USA, Canada, Germany, Japan, etc. have their flagship products made in China sucked.
Those companies sold their Made in China products at the same prices as made else where, but with Chinese quality. Of course, customers paid attention about lower quality.
So, products designed by American, German, Japanese, etc. but Made in China is no longer worked. Customers knew by now.
Third: customers started to look at labels to make sure that products were not Made in China or Made in PRC (people republic of China).
Why did Chinese change Made in China to Made in PRC? Confuse consumers? Why?
Hong Kong is part of China.
Fourth: we have to make sure that Chinese didn't open a company in a western country making Chinese standard products with another "Made in ..." label.
As my personal experience, I bought a "Made in Canada" sofa, but they imported materials from China, and assembled in Canada. The materials were torn out after 1 year of use.
Those suckers must be punished or chopped.
Have you heard of (former Microsoft CEO) Steve Ballmer said about Windows sales in China?
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft opened offices in China to create UI in Mandarin and other stuff. The results were "Microsoft sold less Windows copies in China than sold in Belgium."
Chinese sold "cracked Windows" and created a similar Windows OS in China with no R&D costs.