Are you suffering from calculator-itis?
Calculator-itis is a common symptom among salespeople. Most of us suffer from this more than we know.
In our early days, most of us worked hard to earn customers. Many times these new customers were won on price. So we get ourselves locked into a certain margin or mark-up for most customers. That’s calculator-itis.
Over time our value to our customers grows. They come to rely on our knowledge and service. Our relationship can grow well beyond the original “price” basis when we first earned the customer. But calculator-itis is charging the same margin/mark-up even though our value has grown substantially.
The cure for calculator-itis is a semi-annual review of your current value to your customers and the margins you are receiving. Timely review of your value to customers and making well-deserved margin increases will cure not only calculator-itis, but your bottom line.
I hear some people talk about “firing” customers. Most times (other than the case of unacceptable payment practices) I recommend not firing customers. Just fire up your profits. You can make pain-in-the-neck customers worth keeping around by curing calculator-itis. Don’t fire pain-in-the-neck customers—just charge them more. If, eventually, they “fire” themselves you won’t mind, but until they do, you will be making the kind of profits you deserve.
