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…

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Ease 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…

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Fire 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…

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Top 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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