So, specific details make it easier for customers to believe and remember our USPs.

But then there is always the price-discussion. When customers want to push the price down, they want to avoid talking about specifics. They want to make general statements, such as: “You guys are always more expensive than everybody else.” But on a general level, if we lower the price it cuts into our margin, which is a terrible thing. So: Don’t discuss price on a general level.

A price is built up from specific details, such as every step we take to ensure quality. It’s from the specifics that our costs appear, and value is created for the customer.
If a customer needs a lower price, we can help them by making trade-offs (a longer lead-time, for example, or something else that reduces our costs). But to find good trade-offs, we have to stay on a very specific level – the conditions in this RFQ.
When we tie all price-reductions to trade-offs, we can lower the price without losing money, which is a great thing.

When customers challenge our price, they often refer to our competitors. And sometimes, a competitor offers a lower price because they have made trade-offs that we could also make. So: Find out what you are competing against. Some examples:

If the customer claims that NCAB’s competitors sell the same products for 20% less, you can say “They’ll all go bankrupt if they keep doing that”, but that may not win the debate. Instead, you can get into the specifics by asking questions such as:

• “Interesting! Let’s go through the technical specifications and see if they are the same.”
  And from there you can go on asking if they allow X-outs, what other quality requirements they have, and what materials have been quoted (Tg, soldermask, etc).
  Or you can say:
• “Interesting! How are they meeting your needs in this RFQ?”
  And from there you can ask about specifics like the delivery time, if tooling costs are included, what record the other firm has on delivering on time, handling claims, etc.
  Or you can say:
• “Interesting! What demands are put on their factories in terms of environment, health, and safety?”
  And then you can watch them get uncomfortable when they can’t answer questions like what kind of audits the others conduct, how chemicals are stored and handled in production, how they manage wastewater and air emission, if they report on conflict minerals according to RMI, and if they follow local regulations on overtime work, minimum wages, insurance payments, and how gaps are handled…

But in a nice way, of course.