The Small Business Trends newsletter I received this morning had little interesting tidbit regarding pricing by Andy Birol that sounded like similar advice you get when learning to play poker.
If you've ever played poker, you would quickly learn that the level of enthusiasm (or lack thereof) can be a big "tell" as to where your bet is in terms your opponent's willingness to gamble with you.
Having invested in an expensive Texas Hold'em education myself, I think the analogy is pretty good up to a point. If there's no negotiation process with your customers, you are probably far from a fair number for both parties. Yes, it is part art, part knowing your customer, and part knowing your market. And a bit like poker advice to a novice gambler, you should definitely get to know the game and the players before starting to play.
But this is business. And unlike poker, where the zero sum gain is what everyone is playing for, that's not the case in this day and age of the pressures from social media & transparency on businesses.
If you want to stay in business for a long time, the best advice I know is that you have make sure there is a win for both sides in all negotiations. No one whether the customer or the provider should feel they're not getting a fair exchange. You not only risk losing the relationship, you risk a bad deal being exposed to the public that could potentially affect your future business relationships.
So play as fair as you can, and you'll do just fine.
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