Ms. Marketing: Should I Lower Prices?

Dear Ms. Marketing: The dental laboratory down the street from me has lowered their prices.  Should I lower mine?
 
Never, Never, Never! Stand firm and defend your product. Our pricing is an agreement between you and your customer that you will deliver a quality product for a pre-determined price.  Lowering your price implies that you have lowered your quality. Consider adding a better quality product, such as a new-and-improved crown or an additional feature, but never lower the price.
 
Click here to see an example of how we market a product we call an Express Crown during the holidays. One of our employees put this Christmas story together to market our crown. We sent this around to local dentist with a Sprite and some candy canes. For our out-of-town accounts, we simply send candy canes.
 
To stand apart from other laboratories, you have to reinvent yourself and think out side of the box.

Author Information

Dena Lanier

<p>Lanier is president and owner of The Lab 2000, a dental laboratory serving a national market out of Columbus, Ga.&nbsp;She started her career in the dental field in 1980 with dentures and partials.&nbsp; Since opening her laboratory is 1995, she has grown The Lab 2000 into one of the largest female-owned laboratories in the country. The Lab 2000 maintains it membership with the National Dental Laboratory Association, along with Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, Eastern Conference and the Southeastern Conference of Dental Laboratories. She is the 2009 president of the Georgia Dental Laboratory Association and serves as an NADL laboratory representative.</p>