Will you change your price? explain.?

Question

As an industrial salesperson, you are in the office of a prospect to provide a verbal price on a project. You and your sales manager have determined that a specific price is the right price for your organization and you believe you will win the contract. However, as the prospect walks out of his office you see a copy of your competitor's proposal on his desk with a substantially lower price. You will need to give him your price now, as he walks back into the room.

Answer 1

If you have a fair price, stay with it.  Normally, the price given in a bid or proposal is near the end of the document.  To have a document left on the desk, in plain view, and the person leaving the office for a minute, is very suspicious.  It may have been done deliberately to get you to lower your price.  Maybe your competitor left something out and that price isn't realistic.  It wouldn't be the first time that happened.  But there are a lot of possibilities.  Bidding too low on something can put a company out of business faster than losing a bid.  A friend of mine once told me that you only want to win about 1/2 of your bids.  If you win more, your prices are too low.  If you win less, your prices are too high.  That might not apply in your situation.  Still, I have heard of 2 companies recently that went bankrupt as the result of bids being too low.  Stick with your price.  The "substantial" difference is what bothers me.

BTW, if you miss a bid you can get on with business.  Place other bids and bring in customers  If you bid too low, you're stuck.  You have to service that customer and that ties up your resources.  You can't go after other business with your resources tied up.  This is why a bid that is too low is worse than just losing a bid.

Answer 2

It sounds like you may have been played.....do you think your contact may have left that proposal on the desk for you to see? In many instances price is down on the list, with yourself, your company, your product, and SERVICE being more important than price. Don't prostitute yourself or your company, and give the best presentation you can give.