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!