I help you get higher prices for your products/services regardless of what your competitors or the economy are doing.  In the process I help you attract those buyers who are willing to pay a premium to get what you offer.

Most sellers don’t realize the magnitude of the dollars buyers are willing to spend for what they want.  Here are a few examples of the price premiums that buyers have demonstrated a willingness to pay:

• Image – large ticket items, 7.5 times or more the lowest price alternative
• Image – small ticket items, 12 to 14 times the lowest price alternative
• Innovation – early adopters pay 3 to 4 times what the mass market does and 12 to 13 times the late adopters
• Time savings – consumers, 3 to 4 times or more their hourly rate of compensation
• Time savings – businesses, up to 50% of the potential profit

If you’re pricing in line with the industry, you’re leaving huge sums of money on the table.  The primary reason why most companies, in every industry and profession, are severely under compensated for the value they provide is that they don’t know how to quantify their value.

Without the ability to quantify value, it’s virtually impossible to communicate that value effectively either in your marketing messages or sales scripts.  These are the reasons why sellers default to industry pricing, why buyers view their offerings as commodities and why so many companies are woefully under compensated for the value they provide.

Good news!  You can raise prices AND attract more customers.  In the Testimonials below you’ll see how companies, in completely different industries, raised their prices and enjoyed revenue growth in excess of the price increase.  That means that the price increases helped them attract more customers instead of driving them away.

To discover how the Pricing for Profit system can help you enjoy both higher prices and a larger customer base, give Dale a call at 314-707-3771.

Experience

For over 20 years I’ve been helping companies break the bonds of industry pricing so that they have the profits and cash needed to:

Innovate – For it’s through innovation that we improve the human condition

Reward – Quality and service-conscious employees and vendors

Support – Our local communities and agencies that serve the less fortunate

Interestingly, the field of pricing extends well beyond the realms of quantifying value and establishing a price. The way you staff your sales force, compensate them, structure your organizations and make policy decision can enhance or diminish the effectiveness of your pricing strategy. When I work with clients on pricing we consider all of these factors and many more.

It’s been an interesting journey for me. I began my career with a national CPA firm, Main LaFrentz (now part of KPMG) where I got my CPA certificate. After a three-year stint doing auditing and tax work, I spent 17 years in Chief Financial Officer positions in a variety of industry including construction, mortgage banking, distribution and residential home building.

One of the joys of my CFO experiences was my ability to work on the development side of the business.

My work wasn’t just about tracking results,

it was about CREATING them.

During these years, I learned a great deal about buyer psychology, sales, marketing and pricing – education that will continue as long as I live.

In 1989 I struck out on my own creating Furtwengler & Associates, a firm dedicated to helping its clients increase profits without adding resources. My initial entry into most clients was as their part-time CFO.

Very quickly I realized that virtually none of these businesses had financial information systems that allowed them to know what was making money and what wasn’t. I found it fascinating that often the greatest investment in marketing dollars and production capacity were often in their least profitable lines.

That, of course, led to the inevitable question “Can we raise prices?” In the vast majority of cases we could. In fact, I was so successful in helping clients increase prices that one of my consultant friends began to introduce me as “the leading cause of inflation.” A fun, but wholly-inaccurate moniker.

On a personal note, my wife and I celebrated our 37th anniversary. We love the outdoors – camping, hiking, canoeing. We’ve also had the good fortune to scuba dive in some gorgeous locales including the Caribbean, French Polynesia and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We’ve heard that the Red Sea has great diving as well – stay tuned!

Enough about me, I’d like to learn about you! I’d love to hear your story, your dreams and the obstacles you face in getting the pricing you need to make those dreams come true. Give me a call at 314-707-3771 and we’ll make them a reality so quickly, you’ll have to pinch yourself to believe it’s true.

Testimonials

“I told my advisory board that I wanted to raise prices. They told me that I was in a dying industry and raising prices would only accelerate my company’s demise. I raised my prices 5% and revenues grew by 8%. Dale’s message is right on target.” Ron Ameln, President,St. Louis Small Business Monthly.

“After hearing Dale speak and reading his book, Pricing for Profit, I began to price our services for new contracts based on value, not on our competition. I was pleasantly surprised to find that our revenues grew even faster than the price increase. Having the confidence to say ‘No’ to people who want lower prices makes running my business a lot more fun.
Jay King, CEO, Simploy, Inc. – the best PEO in the Midwest

“Pricing For Profit” is my favorite business book for 2010. Now is the time for the discussion on how value drives price and not the other way around. Low prices and deep discounts don’t build successful businesses and Dale does a great job in taking you through the process of understanding and defining your value as well as how to make sure you are getting the price for it that you deserve. This book is especially important now that we’re out of the recession and businesses of all kinds need to rid themselves of recession thinking. Incredible job! – Jeffrey Summers, President RestaurantWorx.

I had only gotten to page 40 (into Pricing for Profit) when I presented my package to a prospective client. I discovered that I was 25% higher than my competitors. I recalled Dale’s message about selling value and resisted the temptation to lower my price. Instead I explained how my package was different than the competitors’ offerings and why it was in the buyer’s best interest to go with my package. I not only got the business, I got a referral. These concepts really do work. – John Concannon, The Charles Crane Agency

I am responsible for the training of several hundred sales associates and have found this book extremely useful. With the change in the economy we have found that our customers insist on us bringing more value to their operations, however, price is becoming more of an issue. By using information contained in Pricing for Profit we are able to garner more business than our competitors. Thanks go to Dale for helping us all be more profitable. - Neil Kreeck

We highly recommend Dale Furtwengler at Furtwengler & Associates P.C. Dale was more than helpful from our initial conversations, and all the way through the process. At our first meeting he provided the ideas and directions that we needed to get a sound pricing structure in place. We followed his recommendations and have had excellent results.

By understanding the value of our services to our clients, we have been able to raise our price and provide even better service. Dale has made a positive difference in how we do business, and the real winners are our clients. John Hartwig, Sales Consultant/Trainer