Price driven marketing has largely taken control of the mainstream marketplace. The strategy totally ignores customer satisfaction and has come dangerously close to destroying capitalism in North America and I suspect, in Western Europe. I believe it is a flawed strategy for the economy overall, however it has opened tremendous opportunities for quality Master salespeople.

Price driven marketing is the by-product necessitated by the supply side, production driven economic model that took hold under Reaganomics in the early 1980’s. Essentially, manufacturing business executives at that time were no longer satisfied with slow, steady, sustainable growth. The game changed. The executives decided to force growth.

Historically, in the supply and demand cycle of capitalism, customer demand for a product always determined production levels, i.e. supply. Businesses provided new product innovation which helped create demand Then businesses responded by satisfying that demand with quality products. This process kept factories running and inventories at reasonable levels to meet customer needs and keep prices and profit margins stable.

Once factories began overproduction, the only way to artificially spur demand was to discount retail prices. Powerful producers began to squeeze their raw material suppliers in order to cut cost. Next came cutting overall quality to allow lower prices as inventories built up. Then they began to put pressure on their own workers to work at higher productivity for less money. Finally, most of these companies moved production offshore and cut customer support services.

The customer has been conditioned to believe that “cheap” is the ultimate reward for the consumer. Nothing could be farther from the truth for most marketplace buyers. For the wealthy, the top 2-5%, quality and durability are the top reasons for buying anything. They don’t shop the big discount, China stuff stores, for the bottom 5%, cheap is all they can afford and no price is cheap enough.

There is plenty of evidence today that suggests that the vast number of consumers are fed up with the lack of customer service at all areas of retail and service supplier business, especially in the face of rising prices. Some examples include automated phone systems in business, offshore call centers for customer support, under-trained salespeople in most major retailers, self-serve check-outs in supermarkets.

Companies say they want your business but do very little to earn it. Talk about an entitlement attitude. We can’t expect businesses to change, however individual salespeople and those providing services have a tremendous opportunity to run over the competition by providing masterful service to their customers. The majority of customers are clamouring for it. Provide it and they will will reward you with repeat and referral business. Your bank account will thank you for your efforts. Learn and choose to sell at serve at mastery and reap your rewards.