Archive for October 2007
Extending the Power of the Price Waterfall to Customer Value
Price waterfalls, by definition, deal with price. While price and value should be intimately related, we know this is not always true. By explicitly bringing value into the price waterfall, we can not only set prices and discounts more effectively, we can improve price communication and perception. We do this with a construct we call…
Read MoreEase Up on Sales Button For New Ventures
New ventures would be wise to go slowly with the initial sales effort and carefully manage the “sales learning curve (SLC),” according to two Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty members. Charles Holloway, professor emeritus, and Mark Leslie, lecturer, in a published article in the Harvard Business Review, warn that ramping up sales too quickly…
Read MoreFire Sale or Hold Inventory? Hovnanian Enterprises, Lennar, KB Homes
When demand for a product decreases dramatically and the company overshoots production requirements, what should executives do? Hold prices and be patient or hold a fire sale and take what they can? That is precisely the question facing homebuilders. For the most part, these executives are choosing discounts, including Hovnanian Enterprises which reportedly held a…
Read MoreLetter to the Editor: ‘Dancing Together: xBox, PS3, and Wii’
I wanted to comment on a couple things from, ‘Dancing Together: xBox, PS3, and Wii‘. Fist of all I’d like to respond to when you said, “In other words, Sony isn’t interested in offering multiple version of the PS3 but is willing to increase its costs by adding a larger hard drive while not increasing…
Read MoreTop 6 – October 2007
For good mushrooms, take a walk in the woods Mark Leslie, a former entrepreneur who founded and was CEO of Veritas Software, suggest management go through the Sales Learning Curve and involve all aspects of the firm during this stage. In going up Sales Learning Curve, close the gap between what an entrepreneur think salespeople…
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