You Get What You Pay For

One of our staff members was rummaging around in the back of a closet here in the office the other day looking for some Christmas decorations.  She came across a framed quote that someone stuffed into a box years ago.  I don’t remember ever having seen it before, so I don’t really know where it came from nor to whom the quote should be attributed.  But, given that our sales consultants get into the price vs. value discussion with prospective clients fairly often, the message is one of simple truth.  It says:

It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little.  When you pay too much, you lose a little money…that is all.  When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.  The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot…it cannot be done.  If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.

Brilliant!  The next time you are tempted to take a chance on the “low price leader”, you might want to remember these words of wisdom.