Combating extremely aggressive pricing from competition

Kevin Mitchell Leonor

In my experience back at Comcast and Cox Communications, we had an all out blitz involving every department trying to beat Google Fiber who was putting up some aggressive pricing to enter the market like $500 signing bonuses and $30 off current market prices. We were able to match them dollar for dollar to retain customers.

now, i am seeing the B2B equivalent where competition is giving 12-24 months free. And it couldn't have come at a better time for this company because during Covid, everyone is trying to lower cost.

Despite great customer health, we are losing some customers. The ones that have been adverse to any of the marketing from competition were customers that were knee deep in a custom project or are deep in an ROI adoption campaign. 

How has everyone combatted such a concerted effort to snipe business

Jeff Wayman

This is a tough one, and tends not to work out for anyone, other than maybe a consumer in the short term.

Google Fiber is a great example. Price, ultimately did not win them the market, and at least for now, it failed.

There's nuance of course, because a business can be over-pricing when competitors are lacking, but then need to realign when there is more competition. But, in the case of giving something away, that sounds like someone instigating a price war of sorts. You can only lower prices so much, as there is a point you would go out of business.

One has to wonder the long-term value of free as well. A great way to look at it is you can hire two developers. One works for free and the other charges a competitive market rate. Which work would you be more suspicious as to the true value? That's not to say free can't offer value, but most of us are trained to know that free always comes at some cost, even though it is hidden.

What's the direction given by senior leadership in your org?

- Jeff

Yanira "Janita" Sesniak

@Kevin Mitchell Leonor this is tough for not only CS but also Sales and Marketing teams. Have you had the chance to enroll your peers in working through this yet? Sales doesn't want to lose those customers (or worry about clawbacks) and Marketing invests way too much to see these customers go. 

Some things within our control as CS Leaders are time to value and proactive communication. What is your definition of adoption and how fast are your customers achieving both that product adoption and business outcomes? Customers are more likely to stay on if you are meeting their needs and addressing their pain points head on. 

Kevin Mitchell Leonor

We are in a weird spot because the ones who convinced our customers to buy with RC are now with the competitor. So some of the relationships we built are working against us.