
Referrals, Price Gouging, Nitrile Gloves, Clorox Wipes, & N95 Masks
Happy Thursday!
WHAT – A – DAY. We have a monthly Sales and Marketing meeting that goes all day. It was a tiring meeting when we used to do it in person, but now that it is all video it’s even more exhausting. Over 8 hours on video with several other leaders discussing our product lines, and our sales and marketing efforts. I love the meeting, but after 3 hours sleep the night before it was tough. But it is so great to take the time to work ON the business and not just IN it. I encourage you to find the areas of your business that need you to step out/away/back and give it some thought and consideration. If you don’t have some sort of plan, any move is the right move.
Price Gouging – We launched Clorox wipes yesterday and today I received 5-6 emails accusing us of price gouging. Ouch! That’s a first. I tried to explain in yesterday’s email but here goes again … These wipes are “normally” $5-8 per canister in stores. Normally. Like when they have them and the world is not buying every one they can find and picking the shelves clean. Things are not “normal” right now. We are not a Clorox “partner”, and even if we were we would not be getting any inventory, or would be getting very little. The only option we have to buy and sell these wipes is when some enterprising entrepreneur calls us up and says “I own 20,000 of these. I want X dollars. Do you want them?”. I either say yes, and have them available for you at a higher price, or I say no, and don’t. Just because the price is high does not mean we are price gouging. It means that our cost is sky high which is driving up the price. Let me be clear, we are going to make money on every item we sell or we are not going to sell it (donations aside). So we bought some at a high cost, marked them up a reasonable percentage (that is LESS than our standard margin on technology items), and offered them. Just because that price is higher than usual doesn’t mean that we are price gouging. Please hear me! I am absolutely here to serve you.
All that being said, due to the volume of sales today I was able to increase our order quantity significantly and get the cost down, and in turn, get the price down. We want to make money doing business (else why would we do it), but we are going to try to save you money at the same time! In general, if our cost goes down, the price follows. If you have ANY questions, please reach out to me!
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