Cheaper Doesn’t Mean Better
Unlike their Japanese counterparts, the American automotive industry is well-known for cutting corners.When they’re building a car, American companies look at the sticker price and go with the cheapest part possible. Never mind that nobody wants a car that ignites when it’s rear-ended; it costs less than a safe one!
When Cheap is Just Cheap
Gluttonous executive compensation and high manufacturing costs aside, American automakers are failing because they’ve made inferior products for too long and nobody wants to buy them anymore. They could make a little bit less per car that they sell but end up selling more because their cars wouldn’t have plastic hulls, flimsy vinyl dashboards, or spontaneously-combustible gas tanks.
Many businesses throughout America think this way and are successful anyway.They don’t change till it’s too late it because they’re still profitable and because it doesn’t usually do immediate damage to their bottom line. It can even boost profitability for a little while since customers can take a while to notice.
CRM Can Help
Trimming the fat without cutting into the bone is just as important when a business is buying a business-to-business product. Buying a customer relations management system without good deal management capabilities is a lot like buying a Pinto with a shoddy gas tank: It’ll get you from point A to point B for a while but you’re going to wish you got the Toyota when you get rear-ended.
Potential deals have many steps, such as initial contact, negotiation, and closing. This is where most CRM deal management stops, but a good deal management system goes beyond this. Users need to instantly know what was said at the last meeting, what the client’s expectations are, and what their company’s goals are.
Furthermore, a good deal management system seamlessly incorporates task management so that different employees can be assigned different sub-tasks to help complete the deal.CRM systems should be elegant enough so that they can manage deals effectively but simple enough to not require any training. If it isn’t intuitive, it isn’t good CRM.
Losing a few big deals because somebody didn’t know what happened at the previous meeting or couldn’t figure out how to use your CRM system will cost your business a lot more money than you’ll “save” from buying a substandard CRM solution.
About the Author: Steve Sims is the Junior Sales and Marketing Manager for amoCRM, a hosted application developer and service provider known for its eponymous customer relations management solution. amoCRM is a proud sponsor of Small Biz Bee.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
I have found this out the hard way a couple times. Sometimes you really do need to spend money to make money.
Colocation Hosting´s last blog ..Colocation Server Hosting Options and Pricing
I’m not sure if I agree that it’s a japanese/american thing, it’s more of a corporate thing. And I think all of the toyota recalls over the last few years have demonstrated that cutting corners crosses cultures.
Johnny Web´s last blog ..Create a Website Like Craigslist
Yeah, cheap is good in short term but the quality is the winner in long term.
Dana´s last blog ..What is Stochastic Oscillator?
It is so true, cheaper doesn’t mean better, I totally believe in this.
katie´s last blog ..????? ?????
Hey Cheaper indicates to low quality whether its in any form
free real estate investment newsletter
Kevin kentt´s last blog ..Guess Who Owns All the Houses?
Definitely cheaper doesn’t mean better. People think a cheap product doesn’t work. Always it’s better to make a good product to then sell it with a good price.
Regards,
Juan
Juan Como vivir del internet´s last blog ..Qué se Necesita y Qué se Puede Vender en Internet
I completely agree. When we set out to start our business, we focussed on value, not price. Sometimes this means that we get told, a competitor is cheaper but the question is, are they better value?
Whenever we’ve been questioned on price we’ve stuck to providing quality service not budget pricing, and I believe this has been key to our success to date.
It’s true the American auto industry designed and built cars to a price point but that doesn’t hold true anymore. Cars like the Chevy Cruze prove that if you put quality first people will notice. That car is now the best selling compact in America.
This is so true, if you produce products or services and you use the cheapest raw materials, your final product will be of low quality and even if you manage to increase your sales cause of the low price, at the end you will lose most of your clients…
Online Opportunities´s last blog ..What Constitutes a Good Online Marketing Opportunity?
It seems all commenters agree. The old saying, you get what you paid for is so true. Buying cheap products means replacing oftern, which can be more expensive than buying a more expensive model in the first place.
As a buyer of clothing in Europe for our company, do we always check the retailer’s premises, machinery, board and always look on the park’s site to see how expensive cars of staff and the board has.
A well-managed and economic company can sell cheaper than competitors at the same quality.
Change of policies is much required in the American automotive industry to compete with foreign companies and stay relevant with the times. Cheaper surely isn’t better.
Very Well Steve! Some times getting cheaper affects your long time benefits. I totally agree with your in this.
Word Templates´s last blog ..Gift Certificate Template
I have learned some lessons going behind cheaper things. The last was going for a cheap VPS and the endless downtime. Sometimes its good to spend money on quality products./ services and it will always payback in the long run.
Cheolsu´s last blog ..Facebook Restricted list