This is usually the month that most companies raise their service prices, at least at inflationary levels. This year presents a much more problematic decision than usual. The 2009 economy has raised pricing pressure to very high levels. In fact most companies are being pressured to reduce service prices. This is reflected in TSIA’s report of their fall 2009 survey titled Maintenance Pricing Practices by Michael Israel. I thought the report was very well done and valuable for most of you. The report is available to members of  the Technology Service Industry Association at www.tsia.com. Michael is reachable at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   The report details the significant pricing pressure being felt by most service organizations, and also reflects that they are mostly not caving in or reducing prices.

That said, the decision is still very pressing. Do you raise prices now, keep them the same, or entertain reductions. I will gladly share my recommendations right here, right now. Do not reduce prices! The most you should do is expect to negotiate a little more, which was also reflected in Michael’s report. This is why you get paid the big bucks, to hold prices and margins.

With that out of the way, the next decision is tougher; raise prices or hold them constant? I had this same conversation with my good friend Ken Woonton in the fall of 2009. Ken is the best services pricer that I know and we were presenting together at Aberdeen’s Chief Service Officer Summit. We were presenting on pricing and I knew the question would come up, so Ken and I discussed it ahead of time to share our thoughts. He suggested selectively raising some prices and holding on others. Specifically he said raise the prices that are not too noticeable but that can make you the most money, such as proprietary parts. He suggested holding the prices constant that were highly visible and sensitive and likely to get strong negative reactions. Ken also suggested raising prices throughout the year instead of in January, when most people expect them. Raising prices at off months makes them harder to notice. By the way, you don’t do a press release when you raise prices. Do it in the quietest way that you can. In most cases, that simply means that new quotes go out at new rates.

Job postings are almost here. Our Internet wizards have released the jobs boards to me for testing this week. This is a good sign. They usually don't give me anything unless they are pretty sure I can't break it. It will probably take another month to get them tested, formatted, colors adjusted, etc. Then we can actually start using them. Of course, what will really make them interesting is getting some companies to actually post openings. So, if you have any openings or know of any for service marketers, service sellers, managers/directors of those functions, or service executives, let us know. We will not be charging for posting resumes, but we will charge employers for posting jobs. Not a lot, but we need some sources of income to pay for our costs. For the first 90 days we will post company jobs for no fee , just to get things started. After that, there will be a small fee. If you want to post your resume, get started on writing it as we will accept any resumes that meet our categories as soon as you send them to me. Of course, they won't be seen yet, but you can send them now if you want to be part of the testing. Let the games begin!

Well, I hate to see summer go just as much as the next person, but it is about time to get ready for fall and the end of this year. I can’t say that I will be sorry to end this year, either. It’s been a rocky ride. So, what should we be doing? Well, it depends on your fiscal year and exactly what is going on, but I do have some suggestions for you to consider. For most of us, there are tasks to finish either for this fall kickoff or for next year’s implementation. I started to see a pick up in activity in July as some people realized that they could not take vacation and get everything done by September. Our services marketing consulting projects are up quite a bit, which is usual for us this time of year. So bear down and get cracking to get those things done.

By Al Hahn

Last time, I ranted about the lousy choices hiring managers were making when choosing service marketers. For a change of pace, I thought we should share some good news. While I know that a lot of services sales and marketers are looking for work, people are getting hired. Not always the ones that I think ought to be hired, but the fact is that there are jobs out there. Just within the past two months I know at least two people who have found jobs. Where, you may ask? Well the best areas to prospect are medical equipment companies, followed by life sciences, followed by very specialized niche players. That’s not to say that no one gets hired outside of these industries, just that they are the most likely places to look. What other advice can I provide? Well, research the area you want to prospect and go directly to specific companies websites. I am not the biggest fan of Monster.com, as it has so many competitors for you, but I have heard good things about the Ladder for higher paying jobs.

Al Hahn

Before I start, let me say that I know many very competent service marketers. They are, unfortunately, the exceptions. Please understand that I am not dissing you. This is not about them, but about all the others. I hate to admit it, but services marketing is frequently pretty bad. There is a litany of reasons why. The first issue is if there is any service marketing at all. Most companies wait until services revenues are about $50million until they get a marketer. Until then, the service operations people make up the services as they go. This may not be awful, but to be fair, these people are not trained in marketing, so you get what you pay for. Another possibility is that product marketing decides what service to offer. This can be worse, because they know more about marketing, but think services are just there to help sell the product. This is a dangerous combination. In my opinion, this is a worse solution than letting the ops people do their own thing.

Al Hahn

People are asking me what they should do in this economy. Do we cut prices? How do we get business? What should we focus on? Right now, you want to put a lot of emphasis on your selling and negotiating. You don't really need more sellers or selling, you need better selling. It's a qualitative issue. Customers will push back on you now like they never have before. This is particularly troublesome if you have not built strong relationships and if you have not sold the value of your services. Granted it's a little late to do those things, but it is always better late than never. By the way, rookies will say that you have to handle objections better, but I say bah to that. If you do what you should be doing, you won't be getting those objections. Most objections come from a lack of trust (relationship issues) or lack of understanding of value.