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12.08.2026
Notes from the Field #2: If You're Always Competing on Price, Price May Not Be the Problem
One thing I've noticed over the years is that when a business keeps losing work on price, the conversation tends to focus on the price. Are we too expensive? Should we discount? Could we offer a cheaper option? What are our competitors charging?
All perfectly reasonable questions. But they assume price is the problem.
I'm not convinced it always is.
If a prospective customer can't see a meaningful difference between you and three other businesses, price becomes one of the few obvious ways left to choose. From their perspective, that makes perfect sense. Why pay £10,000 for something that appears broadly equivalent to something available for £7,500?
That's not necessarily a pricing problem. It may be a positioning problem.
I'd be asking whether the customer understands why you're different, whether that difference matters to them and whether the experience of dealing with your business actually supports the premium you're asking them to pay. I'd also want to know whether your sales team can articulate that difference without falling back on words such as "quality", "service" and "experience", because your competitors are probably saying exactly the same things.
This is where dropping the price can become dangerous. It may win the occasional piece of work, but it can also reduce margin without addressing the reason customers questioned the price in the first place.
Sometimes your price really is too high. But if you're always competing on price, I'd look somewhere else before changing it.
The question isn't simply, "What should we charge?"
It's whether you've given the customer enough reason to understand why you're worth it.
I help businesses, founders and senior professionals become clearer, better positioned and easier to choose.
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