This latest episode of the Pricing Evolution Podcast takes a different format from usual. It’s an interview with Doug Mullett, the founder and owner of Forthright LED.
Doug sells LED lighting to larger commercial buildings like warehouses and factories. His typical customer is lighting an indoor space larger than a football field.
He’s not a trained pricer, he’s an entrepreneur running his own business, but I was struck by how he talked about pricing in his posts on LinkedIn. And after we’d talked, he agreed to come on and talk about his business and how he prices and sells his products.
There are several key lessons I’d highlight from Doug’s business which would apply to other businesses:
He’s clear on what types of customers are willing to let him compete on value rather than price, and he simply does not deal with customers who are only interested in price. (He doesn’t answer RFPs.)
He recognizes that customers want to hear about the savings he can deliver and the price for his products first, so rather than a long proposal with the price on the last page, he starts with the money saved and the price it will cost, and then provides the background.
He focuses on the key value he can deliver customers: Saving energy if they are converting from incandescent to LED, and providing greater brightness if they are upgrading old LEDs. He focuses on those customer-centric value measures rather than other metrics that people have more trouble understanding.
I always think it’s interesting to get a look into a type of business I haven’t thought about before, and I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
And if you need to light a large commercial space, give Doug a call.
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