Selling the Price Increase

14The Price Increase Risk Profile

When you are tasked with approaching customers with negotiable price increases, you'll likely find yourself in one of three situations:

• You are given a list of customers and told to go sell price increases to that list. You will not have the flexibility to exclude customers with a high risk profile. In this situation, a risk profile framework will help you craft more effective messaging and flex your approach based on each customer's unique situation.
• You are required to make the case to your leadership team for why an account that you deem a high risk of defecting to a competitor should be excluded or that the increase should be deferred to some future date when you have developed a better relationship or resolved service or quality issues.
• You are handed a price increase target of so many dollars or net percent increase across your account base. You will have the discretion to choose the customers you approach with the price increase as long as you achieve your goal.

Throughout my career, the third scenario was where I found myself most often. In my national and enterprise account management roles, this was always the case as price increases were a key component of achieving my overall business expansion and growth goals.

To bend win probability in your favor with important, strategic accounts, you need to be thoughtful in your approach. Awareness of each account's risk profile will improve the probability that you achieve your objective. ...