Accounting For Dummies®, 4th Edition

16.2. Set Sales Prices Right

NOTE

In real estate, the three most important profit factors are location, location, and location. In the business of selling products and services, the three most important factors are margin, margin, and margin. Of course a business manager should control expenses — that goes without saying. But the secret to making profit is making sales and earning an adequate margin on them. (Remember, margin equals sales price less all variable costs of the sale.) Chapter 9 explains that internal P&L reports to managers should clearly separate variable and fixed costs so the manager can focus on margin.

In the example in the previous section, your sales prices earn 25 percent margin on sales. In other words, $100 of sales revenue generates $25 margin (after deducting the cost of product sold and variable costs of making the sale). Therefore, $16 million in sales revenue generates $4 million margin. The $4 million margin covers your $2.5 million in fixed costs and provides $1.5 million of profit (before interest and income tax).

An alternative scenario illustrates the importance of setting sales prices high enough to earn an adequate margin. Instead of the sales prices in the previous example, suppose you had set sales prices 5 percent lower. Therefore, your margin would be $5 lower per $100 of sales. Instead of 25 percent margin on sales, you would earn only ...