Thursday, July 12, 2007

Reality Check

My manager says I'm not looking at things the right way, so I thought I would pose this question to my loyal readers (the four of you ARE still out there, right?) ;-)

What premium are you willing to pay for a product in order to buy it from a company you like or a person you like?

Let's say you could get product X for $1,000 from Company A, which is a very reputable company but you don't have a personal relationship with anyone working there.

Let's also say that you could get product X for between $1,100 to $1,500 from Companies B, C, D or E, but they're companies you've never heard of.

Or, you could get product X for $1,600 from a charming sales person who works for one of the old bulwark companies that's been around forever, hence I'll call it Company F.

There is no difference in the product, save the company name printed on it.

Which product would you buy? Even if you LOVED the sales person and were a die-hard fan of Company F?

3 comments:

Ron said...

I detect that you are asking a "leading" question...I have a feeling if we all say Company F you will be disappointed.... ;-)
Put the leading question aside, if there is no difference in the product, and there are no issues of needing the company to stand behind the product and offer any special "service" after the sale, then i would go with the cheapest price...assuming i wasn't having sex with the salesperson from company F (is that what the "F" stands for?), if i was, then i would go with company F!

tims_mom said...

AS long as the company with the cheapest price, was reliable, I would go with them. If the company had bad business issues in the past, I would have to shop around, and maybe pay a little more, or try to haggle with them.

Nancy-palp

Lauren said...

Ron, get your mind out of the gutter! LOL Really, is everything about sex with you these days?????

I might add that the $600 difference is PER YEAR for 20 years! There are no issues with "Company A" -- in fact, they're rated exactly the same as "Company F"... which was my point to my manager.

While I don't want to go around advertising that there's cheaper coverage available, if a customer has the competitive offer right in front of them, I can't in good conscience push them to do business with me. Maybe that DOES make me a bad salesperson... but i think it makes me a better person-person! LOL