Did You Say “Free”?

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. A business is giving products away. When a surprised customer asks how the company can make money distributing free products, the answer is familiar: “We make it up in volume.”

With more and more companies adopting Free as a preferred pricing strategy, some executives aren’t laughing at this old joke so much as they’re taking it to heart. … [ Read more ]

How Profitable are Your Customers … Really?

No company can afford a flawed understanding of customer profitability, least of all in a recession when the margin for error (as well as profit) is whisper-thin. The flip side is that improvements in this area can be a very effective way of bolstering the bottom line — and companies can often make those improvements with only a modest initial investment.