Is commoditization in your market affecting you?

Hi, Im Savidge4 and I do web stuff. I have literally a ton of competition in my area. Between 1 major college ( WVU ) and at least 6 community colleges or bigger in my immediate area that ALL have web programs I have something like 1000 "kids" attempting to gain work in my market. There are 12 "Big" designers in my immediate area and we are talking like 100,000 population total across a big area.

I can tell you that I am not the least expensive by any means and I am not the most expensive by any means. But I will venture to say that I do the most work in the area. I can say that in the last 10 months I have not lowered my prices a single dime, and see no reason at this time to even consider it.

If the circumstances presented themselves that I would have to think price lowering, I would more than likely shift the direction of my efforts before doing so.

Basically coming in low priced for something you are starting with is a good way in the door. Once you are established, and you feel that price may be effecting the amount of business you have.. I think I might look deeper than that. Value equates to Value. The value your clients place in your work, is the value you are worth. If your clients see equal or greater value in your work, that is when referrals happen.

I sold and bought cell phones, both on kijiji/ebay/craigslist and I also sold them B2C via telemarketing. It was a good experience.

In retrospect, there were certain advantages to selling commodities. B2B, if you could undercut the competition, the sale was very easy.

There were resellers that were used to buying used cell phones , so a lot of the sales were mostly transactional in nature.

I know someone who sold IP phones as well as routers and switches.

His sales strategy is a simple thing, he sends a flyer with prices via email and afterward its more of a customer service thing.It's a very low-skill, low-stress kind of sales job, but apparently it works well enough.