Don't Fall Into Dumb Buyer Syndrome "DBS"

Dumb Buyer Syndrome or "DBS", as I coined with my employees, is a problem I have encountered many times in my many years as a business owner selling to other business owners. You can recognize them easily, they believe they are the expert negotiator who feels success is only achieved when the price is reduced. Any savvy business owner worth his or her salt knows that selecting the right vendor is less expensive and more important than selecting a vendor solely on the price.

If you were to conduct a Total Cost Analysis (the cost of using the product and/or service over it's projected life span or length of your ownership) you will find in most cases the cheapest buy will probably be the most expensive. For example;

Car A is priced at $12,000 and Car B is priced at $18,000. Car A depreciates quicker and in 4 years it's resale value is $6,000 and Car B in 4 years is valued at $12,000. The expenses required to maintain Car A over the 4 years is $2,000 and Car B is $600. Therefore after 4 years Car A cost you $14,000 less trade in at $6,000 = $8,000 and Car B after 4 years cost you $5,400 after trade in at $12,000.

What this simple example demonstrates is that Car B is the better valued car. It is cheaper over the life of ownership and you will probably enjoy a better quality and safer ride than Car A.

So when a potential customer wants to negotiate on price and not negotiate on value, in other words compare apples to apples, I call these buyers my DBS clients. In other words, I mark the price up higher than what I sell to other customers to let them feel powerful when they skillfully get my price down to what is usually higher than my smarter customers.

Don't be a Dumb Buyer!