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IDEX, a global applied solutions provider, had a mixed Q3 2024. Revenue rose 0.6% to $798 million while earnings before interest and taxes fell 6.1 % to $168 million over the same period last year. A review of IDEX’s 30 October 2024 earnings call and associated financial reports provided insight regarding the importance of pricing on performance. IDEX is a diverse and complex business. It has three reporting units, Fluid & Metering…
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In deliverable based pricing, prices are tied to deliverables, not effort. In order for that to work in favor of the service provider, that provider has to know, plan, and execute what it takes to achieve the defined deliverable with the client. (Laggard service providers may be afraid of deliverable based pricing precisely because of their project management skill-set deficit – but it is something they can learn.)
Read MoreNot all products however enjoy the ‘soap & detergent’ kind of stability. Phones in 1990s were used for calling and today calling is one of the many functions of a phone. Cars back then were mechanical marvels and now they’re practically computers on wheels. In case of software and applications, the product life-cycle graph is even thinner and very well summed up in a comment by Reid Hoffman (Linkedin Cofounder): “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”
Read MoreTherefore, it is important to design a sales incentive structure that puts heavy emphasis on company profit, if that is indeed what your company seeks. Your company probably does. Shifting a company from a revenue or volume sales mindset to a profit mindset can take a good deal of time and effort, but it is an important shift, and one that shows real results.
Read MoreNew Washing Machine Marketplace Innovations and Warranties Driving Value Proposition Differentiation
Recent purchases have lasted less time than that in most cases. I wondered aloud whether using tools like Six Sigma for efficiency over and over have reached an inflection point where they destroy quality. Once you have perfected a product and focus on taking out costs, there is an opportunity cost. That opportunity cost usually results in a loss of quality.
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