O calçado e a cartilha do luxo

Há muitos anos que aqui no blogue celebrei um ditado que considero fundamental para as PMEs:

Volume is vanity.

Profit is sanity.

Ontem recordei-o por causa de quem o esquece, ou desconhece.

Hoje, recordo-o por causa de quem o aplica. No WSJ do passado dia 12 de Novembro li  "Shoe Brands' Secret to Success: Going Slow."

O artigo refere como marcas como Hoka, On, Ugg e Birkenstock estão a alcançar o sucesso seguindo uma página da cartilha do luxo – dar prioridade ao crescimento controlado e deliberado em vez da expansão rápida. Estas marcas limitam a distribuição a determinados retalhistas que trabalham como parceiros, vendendo principalmente em lojas próprias e seleccionando canais de alta qualidade para manter o prestígio da marca [Moi ici: Recordo de Maio passado "criarem uma marca sem pressas, à la Purdue]. 

"Birkenstock is another example: The brand typically ships retailers about 75% of what they would like to order, according to a research note from Evercore.

At a September industry conference, Birkenstock Americas President David Kahan said the scarcity model drives consumers' "urgency to buy.""

Ao limitar a disponibilidade e ao concentrarem-se na qualidade do produto, estas marcas alcançam margens brutas elevadas (por exemplo, margens de 60%, próximas de marcas de luxo como a LVMH) e criam uma forte procura. A escassez ajuda a manter a imagem e a atractividade da marca.

O artigo refere que marcas como a Under Armour sofreram ao tentar despachar stock de forma demasiado agressiva para os canais de desconto, o que prejudicou a imagem da marca. Em contraste, a Hoka, a On e a Birkenstock evitam inundar o mercado ou fazer descontos, preservando assim uma imagem premium.

"Retail is littered with examples in which brands' desire for rapid growth backfired. Under Armour was the subject of an accounting probe a few years back, after it was accused of trying to inflate quarterly sales numbers by urging retailers to take products early and redirecting goods to off-price chains like T.J. Maxx in the final days of a quarter. The company settled those claims without admitting or denying wrongdoing. Whether or not those claims were true, Under Armour's overexposure to discount sellers cheapened the brand's image, which it is still trying to recover."

O artigo sugere que estas empresas privilegiam o valor da marca a longo prazo em detrimento do crescimento das vendas a curto prazo, aprendendo com outras marcas que cresceram demasiado rápido e acabaram a diluir o apelo da sua marca.

Unreasonable hospitality - parte IV

Há dias encontrei esta citação no livro "Unreasonable hospitality: the remarkable power of giving people more than they expect" de Will Guidara.

No capítulo 18, "Improvisational Hospitality" o autor descreve como nasceu e se desenvolveu o programa Legends. Um programa dedicado a criar experiências que ficam na memória dos clientes. 

"I hear this a lot: "Well, of course you could afford to pull those tricks at an expensive restaurant."

And I always think: Are you sure you can afford not to?

It's true-these gifts cost money, in labor if nothing else. But I'm my dad's son, and I reviewed the Dreamweaver line item in the P&L every month with an eagle eye. There was never any question: given the word-of-mouth marketing this bought us with our guests and the excitement this kind of gift-giving created among the team, the program was worth every penny.

[Moi ici: Segue-se agora o trecho que merece reflexão. É disto que falo quando penso na doença anglo-saxónica, quando menciono os Muggles, quando penso em "optimismo não documentado"] Anyway, as a leader, you can't rely solely on your spreadsheets. You have to trust your gut-and what you feel when you're in the room with people, giving and receiving these gifts. Is there a traditional return on investment with a program like this? No. Am I confident that each dollar I spent here did as much or more than the ones I spent on traditional marketing? Absolutely."

Um convite para:

• Confiar na importância de criar experiências memoráveis para os clientes.
• Pensar para além das folhas de cálculo para não perder a visão geral. Uma dependência excessiva da análise pode levar a decisões que reduzam os custos em detrimento da satisfação dos clientes ou da motivação dos trabalhadores, o que pode prejudicar o negócio a longo prazo.
• Pensar em evitar decisões tomadas unicamente com base em projecções financeiras, sob pena dos líderes tornarem-se avessos ao risco, evitando abordagens inovadoras que podem produzir ganhos a longo prazo. As PME, em particular, precisam de se manter flexíveis e abertas a estratégias criativas que as possam ajudar a competir e a crescer.

Recordo este postal sobre a Viarco - "Nós fazemos as contas ao contrário"

Parte III, Parte II e Parte I.

"Strategic pricers do not ask ..."

"Most companies still make pricing decisions in reaction to change rather than in anticipation of it. 

...

So how do marketing and financial managers at exceptional companies achieve sustainable exceptional profitability? It is not the result of slashing overhead more ruthlessly than their competitors. In fact, Deloitte's data indicates that exceptional performers tend to spend a bit more than competitors (as a percent of sales) on R&D and SG&A. Their exceptional profitability and, eventually, exceptional stock valuations are built on higher margins per sale that fund initiatives to grow future revenues.

Unfortunately, many companies fail to understand that making sales profitably should be the first priority, not an afterthought, to a growth strategy.

...

The difference between successful and unsuccessful pricers lies in how they approach the process. To achieve superior, sustainable profitability, pricing must become an integral part of strategy. Strategic pricers do not ask, "What price is needed to cover our costs and earn a profit?" Rather, they ask, "What costs can we afford to incur, given the prices achievable in the market, and still earn a profit?" Strategic pricers do not ask, "What price is this customer willing to pay?" but "What is our product worth to this customer and how can we better communicate that value, thus justifying the price?" When value doesn't justify price to some customers, strategic pricers do not surreptitiously discount. Instead, they consider how they can segment the market with different products or distribution channels to serve the more price-sensitive customers without undermining the perceived value to other customers. And strategic pricers never ask, "What prices do we need to meet our sales or market share objectives?" Instead, they ask,

"What level of sales or market share can we most profitably achieve?""

Trechos retirados de "The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing" de Thomas T. Nagle, Georg Müller and Evert Gruyaert" 

Subsídio para um ministro (parte II)

Parte I.

Primeiro, "Governo quer aumentar produção nacional de azeite".

Aqui no blogue sou criticado porque as pessoas não distinguem o Carlos-consultor do Carlos-cidadão. O Carlos-consultor tem uma missão com o seu trabalho, o Carlos-cidadão tem expectativas e desejos para a sua comunidade.

E o ministro da agricultura?

"Entre os anos 2000 e 2023 a produção de azeite mais do que quintuplicou em Portugal. As exportações aumentaram mais de 12 vezes e foi ultrapassada a fasquia dos mil milhões de euros em 2023. Mas, segundo o ministro da Agricultura e Pescas, José Manuel Fernandes, "um dos objetivos [deste Governo] é aumentar a produção e diversificar os mercados, que ficam muito dependentes de Espanha e do Brasil"

O ministro esteve ontem em Valpaços, na Feira Nacional de Olivicultura e no Congresso Nacional do Azeite, organizados pelo Centro de Estudos e Promoção do Azeite do Alentejo e pela autarquia local, e defendeu que o apoio "deverá ser maior" em sítios onde a produção é menor."

Posso pensar no ministro da agricultura que trabalha para os consumidores e posso trabalhar no ministro da agricultura que trabalha para os agricultores. Será que uns e outros têm interesses totalmente convergentes?

E quando digo que o ministro da agricultura trabalha para os agricultores não estarei a ser simplista? Que agricultores? Os que espalham bosta? Ou os gafanhotos prontos a voar para outras paragens quando for preciso?

O cultivo da oliveira existe há milhares de anos na Ibéria e agora vem o ministro e diz:

"Claro que "há desafios que é necessário vencer" como as "alterações climáticas e a seca". Dai que no programa do Governo conste um "plano de armazenamento e abastecimento eficiente da água""

Isto é tão absurdo... como se a oliveira fosse uma árvore dos celtas do norte da Europa. 

Será que o ministro estava a falar para os "so-called agricultores" da produção intensiva? Onde anda a agricultura de joalharia de Jaime e de Cristas?

Os colectores de impostos nos principados alemães, aprendi com Reinert, perceberam que as cidades geravam mais impostos que as zonas rurais... aprenderam na prática aquilo a que hoje se chama a lei dos rendimentos decrescentes. Num processo produtivo, à medida que se aumenta a quantidade de um factor de produção enquanto os outros factores são mantidos constantes, haverá um ponto a partir do qual os aumentos adicionais desse factor resultarão em incrementos progressivamente menores na produção total.

Será que o Centro de Estudos e Promoção do Azeite do Alentejo e a autarquia de Valpaços têm como missão promover a produção intensiva de azeite? 

Há dias, no meu último almoço com o parceiro das conversas oxigenadoras, ele pegou em algo que eu disse e disparou:

- Crescer um negócio é bom?

Eu, dei resposta de consultor:

- Depende! Se for crescimento canceroso é mau, se não for canceroso é bom.

Um ministro da agricultura ao visitar uma Feira Nacional de Olivicultura e um Congresso Nacional do Azeite poderia trabalhar a mente dos agentes do sector para subirem na escala de valor, a via sustentável. Poderia dizer que os agricultores têm de deixar de vender azeite, uma commodity, e começar a vender azeite com uma marca, uma tradição, um local... sim joalharia.

Já agora, reparem nisto "Apesar do aumento vertiginoso do preço do azeite consumo caiu 11% em 2023 - CEPAAL".

""É interessante que, apesar deste aumento vertiginoso dos preços, que aumentaram mais de 100% a quebra no consumo português no ano todo de 2023, entre dezembro de 2022 e dezembro de 2023, foi apenas 11%", afirmou Gonçalo Morais Tristão, que falava em Valpaços, à margem da 7.ª edição do Congresso Nacional do Azeite."

Agora, recordem o Evangelho do Valor de 2011 e pensem no lucro que os agricultores poderão ter obtido. Ainda bem!!! Vejam a simulação no exemplo da parte I.

Agora, fiquem desapontados com o que se segue, dito pela mesma pessoa:

"Agora, acrescentou, se a campanha deste ano e nos próximos for boa "é natural que os preços desçam".

"Não me pergunte exatamente para que valor, mas é natural que desçam", realçou, mas, acrescentou, não para valores como os verificados há uns anos em que o quilo do azeite era vendido a cerca de dois euros.

"E isso é bom para todos, para o produtor e para o consumidor, porque o consumidor também tem que valorizar o produto excelente que fazemos em Portugal", salientou."

"porque o consumidor também tem que valorizar o produto excelente que fazemos em Portugal"!!! Come on, em que mundo vive este senhor? É por causa de afirmações como as deste senhor que aviso para ter cuidado com catequistas no poder.

O consumidor quando tem de escolher entre commodities, escolhe o preço mais baixo. E se a produção for boa em Espanha, a partir de certa altura haverá pressão para escoar inventário... e os preços descerão o que terão de descer, lei da oferta e da procura, concorrência perfeita.

O que um congresso deste tipo poderia tentar era desafiar os produtores para fugirem da commoditização, apostarem na concorrência imperfeita. Pegarem no dinheiro ganho em 2024 e trabalharem naquela parte que a Mariana não conhece, trabalharem os custos do futuro, criarem uma marca sem pressas, à la Purdue.

Atenção, uma marca requer autenticidade. Não me tentem vender marca de azeite da grande distribuição como MARCA, mesmo com vídeos de publicidade bem feitos, mas que transpiram a falta de autenticidade. A Fiat não conseguiu vender carros de luxo.

Era bom que o ministro descobrisse o Evangelho do Valor, mas há poucos pregadores.

Subsídio para um ministro (parte I)

Como se calcula o lucro?

Lucro = Vendas - Custos

Lucro = Vendas - Custos variáveis - Custos fixos

É possível aumentar o lucro reduzindo os custos fixos e variáveis, mas já sabemos o quão reduzido é o impacte, basta recordar o Evangelho do Valor. No entanto, a maior parte dos conselhos vão neste sentido.

Vamos ver as vendas.

Vendas = Número de clientes x Valor médio de cada transacção x Número médio de transacções por cliente e por ano.

Como se pode aumentar as vendas?

Aumentando o número de clientes ou aumentando o valor médio de cada transacção. A maior parte das empresas foca-se na primeira hipótese: Aumentar o número de clientes. Vejamos o que isso implica tendo em conta números retirados do livro "Price: The fastest way to change profits" de Mark Wickersham.

No ano 0 a situação era esta:

O que acontece quando as vendas crescem 10%?

O lucro cresceu 149%.

O que acontece quando o preço cresce 10% (assumindo que não se perdem clientes)?

O lucro cresceu 257,6%.

A velha lição que aprendi com Marn e Rosiello.

E se o preço aumentar 10% e se se perderem 10% dos clientes ainda assim o lucro cresce mais de 82%.

E se o preço aumentar 100% e se se perderem só 11% dos clientes o lucro cresce mais de 2100%.

Amanhã vamos para a parte II desta série.

Momento, preço, valor, modelo de negócio e futuro

O que se segue é-me doloroso. Amanhã escreverei sobre emigração qualificada, marketing gerador de cinismo e sucesso de uns inocentes como sinal de fracasso da comunidade.

"With the economy at a turning point, companies should be thinking more critically about growth—concentrating on growing better rather than simply getting bigger. [Moi ici: Como bebi por volta de 2007 em "Manage for profit, not for market share" e depois demorei a refinar com Marn e Rosiello para seguir a máxima "Volume is Vanity, Profit is Sanity" desde 2006]

...

As inflation and costs have risen, it has become harder for most businesses to grow.

Yet that is exactly what makes this the right moment to think critically about growth. 

...

“If you want to find growth in a world where costs are rising, the key is to understand what customers really value today and what they will value in the future.” [Moi ici: Que tempo, que espaço, que paz de espírito é guardada para esta reflexão profunda e de longo prazo? Então com empresas familiares é muitas vezes doloroso ... A única pessoa que pode dedicar tempo a isto está a conduzir um empilhador para arrumar paletes, ou está a substituir um operário especializado que está de baixa... e quem pensa no futuro da empresa? Quem encara de frente o monstro da erosão competitiva?]

...

Understanding how to identify and unlock better growth is the key to sustainable success in business.

...

If value is key, we need to ask what value really means.

...

you can’t even begin to form your growth strategy until you stand in the customer’s shoes and understand how people make trade-offs between price and something much more subtle which is perceived value.” [Moi ici: Claro que isto implica escolher, conhecer quem são os clientes-alvo. Claro que isto implica pôr o output nos bastidores e dar primazia aos outcomes ou inputs e isso é areia demais para muita camioneta]

Some companies tend to confuse value with price, although they are very different concepts. The problem is that price is easy to state, but value is harder to calculate. 

...

“Firms need to understand that pricing should be a strategy, not a tactic,”  [Moi ici: Citação poderosa. Muitas vezes, demasiadas vezes usamos o preço como táctica, como resposta ao próximo desafio imediato e não como estratégia. Ainda recentemente vi este trecho como exemplo do preço como estratégia]

...

“You need to think about what information you are trying to convey with price, because price not only captures value for the consumer, it can also create value for the firm.” [Moi ici: "also create value for the firm" nem comento. Não posso comentar... demasiados casos de destruição de valor, de desperdício de recursos, de irresponsabilidade infantil]

...

Many things influence value—including brand, quality and not just what is offered to the customer, but how it is offered and when. [Moi ici: Também relacionado com o o tema da primazia dos outcomes sobre os inputs, porque o foco deixa de ser o produto acabado e passa a ser a situação do cliente-alvo, o seu contexto, os seus objectivos]

...

Growth for growth’s sake is a recipe for staff burnout and overall corporate exhaustion: sustainable growth should be about creating opportunities for everyone.

Knowing how to explain value to your customers and understanding how your customer data can tell you exactly what value people are prepared to pay for and what to forego is the essence of a balanced strategy for sustainable growth

...

The trade-offs that underlie growth strategy go to the heart of a company, shaping the kind of business it wants to be. “Better growth is about finding a growth model that treats volumes and margins in a way that keeps stakeholder interests in balance and reduces the pressure in the business,” 

...

“What we find with companies that adopt a pure volume mindset and market-share mindset is that they often fail to see the real implications for growth,” adds Dr. von der Gathen. “It is what we call getting ‘too hungry to eat.’ Sales are growing, but the company doesn’t have enough inherent revenue stability or profitability, and eventually their business model runs out of juice.” [Moi ici: Que sina!!!]

Creating better growth opportunities

Better growth, therefore, is about building business models with long-term, sustainable revenues and the headroom for innovation. It is about going beyond the math of market share and sales volumes, and finding a growth model designed to nurture the business as a real value-provider."

Entretidos e amparados pelas esmolas dos apoios comunitários, as dores de parto necessárias para a ascensão a um novo nível do jogo não passam de picos de urtigas mansas. 

Trechos retirados de "How businesses can unlock better growth" 

"isn’t a license to not worry about costs"

Uma, mais uma, excelente reflexão de Roger Martin, que por sua vez nos põe a pensar. Desta vez é "Cost-Effective Differentiation - Why it Really Matters for your Strategy" da qual sublinho a parte final:

"Real differentiators have the margin room to be aggressive with pricing when needed and, in addition, have the earnings from their high margins to invest in the next differentiation. And low-cost players can grab share by pricing below the level that any other player is game to match. Consequently, ineffective high-value players have difficulty growing. Customers who happen to really value their particular offering remain loyal customers at the price they need to charge. But as with all companies, ineffective high-value players face a downward-sloping demand curve in which higher prices mean lower demand.

Simply, the ability to grow any business is hampered by needing to charge a high enough price to earn a return on costs. If those costs are higher than they need to be, but you add value to a set of customers, you will have a decent business. But it won’t be a great business.

Seeking to be a differentiator isn’t a license to not worry about costs. It is all one singular value equation. The determinant of your competitiveness is the margin between the value you create and the costs you incur. And in that metric: a buck is a buck is a buck."

Recordo trading up versus trading down.

Há quantos anos não mexe nos seus Custos Gerais de Fabrico?

Imagem retirada do Caderno de Economia do semanário Expresso publicado hoje.

Como vai o cálculo dos custos de fabrico na sua empresa? Tem a certeza que os Overhead Costs estão actualizados? Receio que demasiadas empresas se foquem nos custos das matérias-primas e componentes e nos custos de mão-de-obra, esquecendo-se de actualizar os Custos Gerais de Fabrico. 

Há quantos anos não mexe nos seus Custos Gerais de Fabrico?

"Losing Customers on Purpose"

"Though your goal is to maximize the price increase without losing your customer, sometimes price increases can help you introduce unprofitable customers to your competitors without the conflict of firing them.

...

I've found that customers who are easy to work with and highly profitable make my business life a joy. These accounts are the best fit. On the other hand, customers who are overly demanding, fail to live up to their commitments, consume my resources, and pay low prices, so that the profitability of their account is negligible, suck my energy. It's not fun to work with these customers. Far too often, though, we hang on to these soul-sucking accounts because they are large and we are afraid to lose them; or we are concerned about negatively impacting our retention numbers; or we know that we'll have to prospect to find a replacement for the revenue.

A few years back I was working with a pain-in-the-rear account like this. It was a big, nationally known brand. Exactly the type of logo you want in your account portfolio. It also generated a lot of revenue. When we first signed the account our entire company celebrated. The only problem was that the customer was killing us.

Because it was such a big company, the stakeholders were used to being the 800-pound gorillas, especially when working with small companies like mine. When they said dance, we danced even when what they were asking us to do was far outside of the scope of our contract. That's how it is when you are afraid of the gorilla. We did their bidding for a year, often working overtime and shortchanging other accounts in order to meet their demands. I hated working with them, my team hated working with them, and when I took a rational look at the cost of serving them, we were not making that much money. Certainly not enough for the hassle.

As we got closer to contract renewal time, the people on my team implored me to fire them. 

...

So, instead of cutting them loose as my team wanted, I met with my contact and presented the contract renewal. I walked her through the value we had delivered and backed that up with numbers and stories. She agreed that we had done a terrific job and thanked me.

I then presented a new contract for the following year that included a 100 percent price increase. Double what they paid us the year before. She stared at the number for a long silence, whistled, and asked matter-of-factly, "How can you possibly justify an increase like this?"

"You are hard to work with," I responded, just as matter-of-factly. "The people on your team are extremely demanding, want instant turn around on tasks, and often ask us to do things that are beyond the scope of our agreement.

"Because we are a small business, these requests and demands tax our resources, making it difficult to serve our other customers. I don't see this changing, so the only way we can meet these expectations is to add dedicated resources focused on your account. We can't do that without this price increase.'

She looked down again at the new agreement and said, "You're right. We are a difficult company to work with." Then she signed the contract."

"The Value Of Selling Value"

"Your company needs you to sell more at higher prices. Your family needs you to work less while bringing home bigger paychecks. Your community needs you to work less so you can participate more. And, you want more time and money for your hobbies. Imagine, if you could win more deals, faster, at higher prices, then all these things could happen.

It's possible! It's possible because you likely have a HUGE gap in your selling toolkit. Ninety-nine percent of businesspeople I speak with don't really understand value. This problem is almost universal. Yet salespeople, more than anybody else, benefit by deeply understanding buyer perceived value.

...

Every purchase happens exactly the same way. The buyer looks at the price of a product and compares it to the value they expect to receive. If the prospect doesn't purchase, it's for one of two reasons: the price was too high, or they didn't perceive enough value. You can probably lower your price enough to get them to purchase, but that's not why you're in business, or in sales. The key is helping the buyer perceive more value."

Este tema é importante para se chegar ao quadrante de ouro:

E quem está no negócio tem de trabalhar para o fazer. E vejo pouco, muito pouco trabalho sistemático para o fazer. De entre as poucas empresas que trabalham sistematicamente para aumentar preços a maioria aposta em torneios de braço-de-ferro. 

Claro que não é disso que estamos aqui a falar.

Agora imaginem esta predisposição para não trabalhar para o aumento de preços, conjugada com inflação elevada, falta de mão de obra, e voracidade fiscal.

Ao escrever "esta predisposição para não trabalhar para o aumento de preços" recordei a noite em que morreram as ilusões de Cavaco. 

A forma como se está num negócio depende do pensamento dos donos do capital. Há empresas que são geridas como o aproveitamento de uma oportunidade limitada no tempo. Há empresas que são geridas como um terreno agrícola, pretende-se passá-las a descendentes sem prejudicar as hipóteses desses descendentes. Há empresas que sobrevivem, um ponzi mais ou menos longo à espera de rebentar.

Quem gere uma empresa como um terreno agrícola, num país pequeno e aberto como Portugal, só tem um caminho, trabalhar para ser uma joalharia. Pode não ser o maior, pode não ser o mais rentável no curto-prazo, pode ... 

Trechos retirados de "Selling Value: How to Win More Deals at Higher Prices" de Mark Stiving. 

Exportações no 1º semestre de 2022

Exportações no 1º semestre de 2022 e comparação homóloga com 2019 e 2021.

Em relação a 2021, em cerca de 99 categorias só 3 evidenciam variação homóloga negativa.

Em relação a 2019 o mesmo desempenho positivo. O sector exportador já está acima do pré-pandemia.

Da próxima vez que ouvirem as queixas das cerâmicas ou das têxteis, lembrem-se destes números de crescimento das exportações. O mais provável é estarem a vender e a perder dinheiro. Não se esqueçam dos que pedem subsídios ao governo, impostos nossos, para subsidiar as suas exportações, porque não conseguem subir os preços. Cada vez mais o país do Chapeleiro Louco.

BTW, exportações a crescerem mais depressa para fora da UE do que intra UE.

"but you aren’t selling value"

"Pricing experts like me evangelize the importance of value-based pricing. It's the most profitable pricing strategy out there. Yet, when asked the question, "What is value?" even pricing experts don't agree. Face it. Value is an ambiguous word, but ambiguous doesn't mean unimportant.

Value is possibly the single most important, yet misunderstood, concept in business. To make a purchase, your buyers must believe they will receive significantly more value than they pay. Your entire business is based on trading value for money, but what is value?

It's not surprising that most companies can't clearly explain how much value their customers get from their products. Even most salespeople, who are the closest to the customers, can't explain how buyers perceive value when making purchase decisions.

...

Experts buy features. Everyone else buys benefits. Very few people are experts. 

Forrester tells us, “Sixty-two percent of vendor salespeople are knowledgeable about their company and its products, but only 22% understand the buyers’ business issues, and where they can help.” This means you probably know your products, but you aren’t selling value."

Trechos retirados de "Selling Value: How to Win More Deals at Higher Prices" de Mark Stiving.

A surpresa ...

Organização interna superior à média permitindo entrega na data combinada. 

Produto com qualidade de acabamento.

Produto com design superior. 

Aumento da procura por causa da alteração de contexto que vivemos.    

Aumento das vendas em mais de um terço face ao período homólogo.

A surpresa ...

Preço médio cerca de 30% abaixo da média do sector.

Uma das minhas preocupações reside na importância de subir na escala de valor. No entanto, o cenário descrito acima é anterior a esse desígnio.

Não, não pode ser uma repetição do que já se faz

Depois de ler Erik Reinert e os seus "The Visionary Realism of German Economics: From the Thirty Years' War to the Cold War" e "How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor" percebi a armadilha da competitividade sem produtividade:

Quando lanço o desafio de criar o objectivo de "aumentar o preço médio" ... raramente é bem recebido.

Aumentar o preço médio não pode ser o resultado de um braço de ferro com os clientes:

Quando olho para o que algumas empresas se propõem fazer para aumentar o preço médio o que vejo é uma repetição das actividades já incluídas num ou mais processos existentes.

Não, não pode ser uma repetição do que já se faz. E penso em Segmentar como deve ser e Configurar como deve ser.

"Value Conversations "

"Value Conversations are, well, valuable. This is the best way I've seen to estimate how much value someone receives from a solution. The point of value-based pricing is to charge what a buyer is willing to pay, and the more value they receive, the more they're willing to pay. It has always been hard for a salesperson to estimate a buyer's value from a solution. Here's what's funny. It's often tough for a buyer to know how much value they will receive from a solution. Value Conversations helps you and the buyer understand the R part of ROI.

Great salespeople master this technique. They clearly understand many problems and desired results typical in the industry they serve. They know what's important to their buyers and how they make money. But even though they have all this knowledge in their head, they shouldn't spew it out. Instead, they must guide the buyer while the buyer provides the answers."

Trecho retirado de "Selling Value: How to Win More Deals at Higher Prices" de Mark Stiving

"The payoff for price increases is massive"

"Sales professionals are ill prepared to talk with customers about price increases because they don't get trained and there are almost no resources to help them develop the skills to do so. 

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One of the reasons that I hated price increases and believed that I was betraying my customers is that I didn't understand basic business fundamentals. I didn't understand that price increase campaigns are far more effective at generating profit and free cash flow than increasing topline revenue through sales volume increases or acquiring new customers. Nothing else in the business-to-business sales arsenal protects the health of your company like price increases. They protect the enterprise during inflationary periods, produce capital for investment in growth, help improve quality and service delivery, boost stock prices, and protect jobs.

The payoff for price increases is massive. They can drop through as much as 400 percent more profit as increases in sales volume. For example, a l percent increase in sales volume, will produce 3.3 percent in profit. However, a 1 percent increase in price, when sales volume remains stable, delivers an 11.1 percent increase in operating profit. [Moi ici: Recordar Marn e Rosiello]

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The bottom line is that increasing prices is the single greatest profit improvement opportunity and strategy for B2B enterprises. That is, of course, if you retain your customers along the way."

Trechos retirados de "Selling the price increase the ultimate B2B field guide for raising prices without losing customers" de Jeb Blount. 

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"Why Companies Raise Their Prices: Because They Can"

"In 2021, US companies logged their most profitable year since the 1950s, as many took advantage of economies of scale and other more efficient production processes. Yet, firms increasingly held on to the savings they gained from these reduced costs, rather than passing them on to customers in the form of lower prices.

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markups—the difference between prices charged at checkout and the marginal costs incurred by a company in order to make a product—climbed about 25 percent between 2006 and 2019

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The researchers came to a startling conclusion: Consumers were 30 percent less price sensitive—meaning less likely to abandon favorite brands and seek cheaper equivalent products—in 2019 than they were in 2006.

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Meanwhile, company costs have declined over time as firms have squeezed more productivity out of increasingly efficient operations. Since 2006, marginal costs have dropped by 2.1 percent annually on average, the authors estimate. In the latter part of the study period, from 2017 to 2019, firm costs were about 25 percentage points lower versus 2006.

Rising markups come from either price increases or marginal cost reductions."

"Which Companies Can Raise Prices Without Angering Customers?"

"In all, we examined 846 large publicly traded corporations last year through the lens of 34 separate indicators in five categories: customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility and financial strength.
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To build our ranking, companies are compared in each of the five areas, as well as their overall effectiveness, through standardized scores with a typical range of 0 to 100 and a mean of 50.

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In our latest research, prompted by concerns over inflation, we explored the correlation between net profit margin-the percentage of profit a company produces from its total revenue-and customer satisfaction for 2021.

Of the 24 industries we looked at, 11 showed no meaningful statistical relationship between the two. Others, however, stood out. In six industries-household and personal products, autos, telecommunications, consumer services, banks and pharmaceuticals-there was a significant positive correlation between profit margin and customer satisfaction.

This means the two variables move in the same direction.

When one goes up, the other goes up; when one goes down, the other goes down. And it implies that, in general, firms in these industries have a fair bit of leeway to raise prices without making their customers disgruntled.

"We call this pricing power,'

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At the other end of the spectrum are companies in industries with a negative correlation between profit margin and customer satisfaction. Across these sectors, when net profit margin goes up, customer satisfaction goes down-and vice versa.
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What's more, any company with low customer satisfaction may well have trouble raising prices-regardless of the industry it's in. "It's a delicate calibration,""

What price point?

"We started to test the new Olay product at premium price points of $12.99 to $18.99 and got very different results,” he says. “At $12.99, there was a positive response and a reasonably good rate of purchase intent. But most who signaled a desire to buy at $12.99 were mass shoppers. Very few department store shoppers were interested at that price point. Basically, we were trading people up from within the channel. At $15.99, purchase intent dropped dramatically. At $18.99, it went back up again—way up. So, $12.99 was really good, $15.99 not so good, $18.99 great.”

The team learned that at $18.99, consumers were crossing over from prestige department and specialty stores to buy Olay in discount, drug, and grocery stores. That price point sent exactly the right message. For the department store shopper, the product was a great value but still credibly expensive. For the mass shopper, the premium price signified that the product must be considerably better than anything else on the shelf. In contrast, $15.99 was in no-man’s land—for a mass shopper, expensive without signaling differentiation, and for a prestige shopper, not expensive enough. These differences were quite fine; had the team not focused so carefully on building and applying robust tests for multiple price points, the findings might never have emerged."

Trechos retirados de "A New Way to Think" de Roger L. Martin.

Patience Wins

"A rule in negotiations is Patience Wins! Offer small, incremental discounts. Make the purchasing agent work for whatever they get.

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Here’s another hint. Executives should not negotiate prices. Executives are smart, driven, strategic people. When an executive gets involved in a negotiation, you can guarantee the deal will close. It will close quickly, probably today. They have the authority to make whatever concession is necessary to win the deal. However, most executives are not patient. Remember the rule. Patience Wins! Yes, executives will close the deal quickly, but they will do so at a lower price than if they were not involved."

Trechos retirados de "Selling Value: How to Win More Deals at Higher Prices" de Mark Stiving.

O tema do pricing

O tema do pricing está sempre em cima da minha mesa. Por isso, alguns sublinhados de "How To Identify And Adopt Your Ideal Pricing Strategy":

"1. Avoid Commoditizing Your Product Or Service

The key to a smart pricing strategy is to avoid commoditizing your product or service.

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2. Define Your Target Customers' Needs [Moi ici: Um clássico!]

Entrepreneurs are notorious for leaving money on the table. Pricing always follows the Pareto Principle, with an ever-smaller percentage of customers willing to spend an ever-increasing amount of money with your company. Start with finding the 20% of your existing customers that will spend more money with you. Then, define their needs and offer a premium option.

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4. Don't Lower Your Value

Know your own worth and don't be afraid to charge accordingly. Do not lower your value just because a lead says you should.

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5. Go After Quality Versus Quantity

Know your customer and don’t be scared to go after quality versus quantity.

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12. Make Their Investments Worthwhile

Whatever your ultimate pricing structure is, make sure you position your products, services and company overall to not be in a race to the bottom. No matter how commoditized your offering might seem or actually be, you can wrap a value-added set of features, services and approaches around them to make paying a premium worthwhile."