The 2008 Vision Imaging Partners National Meeting in Miami Florida began with the opening cocktail reception on Thursday May 15, 2008. The exhibit hall and meeting took place on Friday and concluded on Saturday at 3:00pm.

We had 37 exhibitors showcasing their products, educational speakers roundtable discussions, great door prizes and a Golf Tournament at Doral Country Club. This meeting overall was a great success with a total in combined attendance of 200+.

Those who attended the University all stated that they learned a lot and were happy that they participated.

A Special thank you goes out to the Vendors that helped sponsor our event: Del Medical, ECi, H.R. Simon & Company, Medlink Imaging, Pyromet Silver Refiners, RSTI, Simon DR, Techno-Aide, Ti-Ba Enterprises and United Marketing Group. Also, we want to thank the Round Table Discussion Facilitators : Tim Carrigan, Walter Carrigan, Glenn Richardson and Don Tucker.

The 2007 Awards were presented at the end of the meeting. The following awards were given:

Top Sales Producer 2007:
Bullit International
Wolverine X-ray
Diagnostic Imaging

Dealer Compliance Award 2007:
Wolverine X-ray
MBI X-Ray
Radiation Services of Indiana

Most Improved Dealer 2007:
Central Alabama X-Ray
Excel X-Ray
Radiographic Technologies, Inc

Most dealer supported Vendor Award 2007:
United Marketing Group (UMG)

Honor your Representative Award Winner 2007:
Jon Vermeulen, FINANCIALCORP Equipment Leasing-Financing

A new Award was presented this year the "H. Robert Simon Award of Excellence". This award was given to William Murray - Century Medical Systems for his dedicated service and support of Vision Imaging Partners.

There were a total of 42 Door Prizes given out from $1000 - $50 Cash, gift cards, ipods, DVD players, GPS’s, Digital Phot Frames and bars of silver Thank you to those vendors that donated the above.

RSNA 2008

In a Vision Imaging Partners exclusive, Techno-Aide will provide a delicious pizza lunch for the dealership staff that has the highest combined sales from July 1, 2008 through September 30, 2008. A surprise treat will be included!

Now is the time to get acquainted with Techno-Aide. 800-251-2629

Are you having trouble with spyware?

Classic X-Ray is a dynamic woman-owned business that started more than 20 years ago. Their philosophy is to provide professional, personal, quality service to meet customer’s needs in all aspects of radiology services. Classic X-Ray’s service personnel are highly trained to provide state-of-the-art, factory trained expertise to their customers.

In keeping with emerging technology, Classic X-Ray offers cutting edge CR Systems manufactured by today’s top name brands such as AGFA, Alara, iCRco, Konica, Fuji and Kodak. Their progressive DR Systems are manufactured by today’s top name brands such as Del Medical and Cannon. In addition, Classic X-Ray provides site planning for PACS software companies. They also sell and service equipment and systems required for PACS.

As part of their radiographic equipment and accessories sales and service, Classic X-Ray provides emergency and preventive maintenance services for most all brands of radiographic equipment as well as radiographic film processors, dry imagers, film loaders, laser cameras, etc. Classic X-Ray is a dealer for most major manufacturers of radiographic accessories including radiographic film filing materials, radiation protection equipment, radiographic department furniture and fixtures, cassettes, screens, grids, positioning aides, film markers, labels, I.D. cards, etc.

Classic X-Ray offers most all major brands of radiographic film processor chemistry, both pre-mixed and boxed; providing both major brand radiographic film and private label film. Classic X-Ray also offers a full line of radiographic view boxes both motorized and stationary with full service support and an exceptional preventive maintenance program.

Classic X-Ray is a company you can count on if you are looking for personalized service by a team of seasoned consultants and service engineers with decades of experience within their fields.

"With JPI, quality is still affordable"

JPI has been manufacturing high quality imaging components, accessories, and equipment for over 28 years. We continue to grow and expand our product line. Our line includes: processors, portables, cassettes/screens, aprons, and various x-ray accessories. All of our products are designed with service-ability and ease of use in mind.

Thanks to the Vision Dealers, whose feedback & suggestions we greatly value, JPI has designed the "Advance Step" Podiatry System. You can now purchase your podiatry x-ray directly from JPI America instead of from expensive podiatry supply houses.

Vision Dealers will also benefit from JPI’s outstanding customer service, technical support, and timely delivery. Our account managers work closely with the individual dealers, while our well-trained technical staff support all products over the phone, and our personable customer service team make sure all orders are shipped in a timely and accurate manner.

We look forward to working closely with each and every Vision Dealer. As a company, we do not view our dealers just as customers, but as partners. Please review our product specifications along with our very competitive prices, and if you have any questions, feel free to contact your JPI sales representative.

Very Truly Yours,

The JPI America Team

Pyromet has merged with The Silver Recycling Company. As a result we are now a publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture (TS-V), under the symbol TSR. Vision Members will now have the opportunity to invest in our future success. This also will allow us access to more capital to expand our service, and in the future expedite the time it takes us to settle your material. If you have any questions, please feel free to call Lon Rudnitsky (866) PYROMET (797-6638) .

If you didn’t know, BrandVia is a full-service promotional marketing agency that provides a wide array of promotional merchandise, consumer premiums, sales incentives, and other marketing solutions that companies require to promote their image, achieve marketing objectives, and build strong brand awareness. We offer marketing solutions custom designed to enhance the power of your image or brand. BrandVia has partnered with a broad range of organizations; including Fortune 1000 companies to develop customized promotional strategies and solutions that deliver measurable results. From branded merchandise, web stores, product launches, tradeshow booth drivers, global sourcing, program collateral, fulfillment and distribution, packaging, design and creative services, we offer a full range of marketing solutions designed to enhance the power of your image and brand.

Jennifer Euler: 408.955.1733
Jennifer@brandvia.com

As part of the recently negotiated multiyear pact with Medlink Imaging, Vision members now have their own cassettes/screens. Members can now promote their affiliation with Vision Imaging partners and differentiate themselves from other competitors by requesting this new offering exclusively for Vision members through Medlink Imaging.

The Vision Private Labeled cassette is the same high quality aluminum cassettes sold by Medlink to the general dealer channel with one key difference: BETTER PRICING. Please ask for them by name when placing an order with Medlink and look for the separate communication from Medlink with stock codes and available sizes.

As Paul Helschein would say "a win… win… win… for all.

Please contact your Medlink representative for more information at 800-456-7800

AFP Imaging Corporation is now featuring ViewAll™ Vet, a new, proprietary software for its Digi-VetTek® CADR and Digi-Vet® Equine DR digital radiography systems. ViewAll™ Vet streamlines digital

radiography by enabling users to acquire and view veterinary digital imaging data all in one step. ViewAll™ Vet enables multiple users within the practice to access Digit-VetTek CADR or Digi-Vet Equine DR images, as well as referring veterinary practices or remote telemedicine services.

ViewAll™ Vet has an easy-to-learn, veterinary specific interface that includes a comprehensive breed list for dogs, cats and horses. ViewAll™ Vet utilizes the DICOM 3.0 standard for image formatting. The integrated patient image database allows the veterinarian or technician to easily access existing patient files or create new files. Among its other features, ViewAll™ Vet’s STAT Patient feature means fast and easy emergency image capture.

ViewAll™ Vet comes with free support, networking and upgrades during the warranty lifetime of the product. ViewAll™ Vet is the latest advancement from AFP Imaging, which has been providing superior diagnostic imaging systems to the veterinary, medical and dental community for nearly 30 years.

AFP Imaging offers a wide variety of analog and digital radiology systems for veterinary whole-body, veterinary and human dental applications, as well as CBCT technology for human dental, medical film processors, ENT applications (NewTom). AFP’s 30 years of experience in research, product development, manufacturing and distribution of medical, dental and veterinary imaging solutions distinguishes us from the rest. AFP Imaging Corporation, a publicly traded company, is the parent company of, DENT-X dental products, EVA product lines and owner of QR srl.

Total Imaging Solutions | Veterinary | Dental | Medical | NewTom Cone Beam

AFP Imaging
800-592-6666
www.afpimaging.com

Could you use an order for $5000? How about $10,000 or even $20,000? Let’s face it, nobody is going to retire by selling a $20 set of markers, but a set of markers is still a necessary product. Your customer needs it; we supply it; you sell it.

Techno-Aide now offers you an entirely new opportunity that could give you 1,000% higher revenue than a $20 set of markers.

We realize that most of your current sales focus is on capital equipment which includes a suite of products for diagnostic imaging and PACS. However, the sometimes forgotten complement to this equipment is ergonomic furniture. There are two facts you should be aware of regarding ergonomic furniture: your customer IS going to purchase it and, in most cases, it won’t be from you.

Our research has shown that most ergonomic furniture products purchased, for example, for use in the PACS suite, were sold through a "business furniture distributor" or directly from a furniture manufacturer. However, YOU DO NOT NEED TO LET THIS HAPPEN!

No PACS system should be quoted without making an allowance for the reading room. This is your ideal opportunity for additional revenue. Even if furniture is not part of your primary quote, always include it as an addendum or optional feature. If you don’t, you’re just leaving good money on the table for someone else’s pocket.

We also realize that you may not have time to learn all the ins-and-outs of ergonomic furniture. That’s where Techno-Aide can help. Just give us a call or drop us an email (davidm@techno-aide.com). We’ll put together a specialized quote for you and put it right into your hands. NOW that’s money off the table and into YOUR POCKET!

David McCall
7117 Centennial Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37209
p: 615-350-7030
f: 615-350-7879

Are you puzzled by all the different features and prices of PACS? IMCO Technologies is here to help you solve the mystery.

Compare:

IMCO-PACS Pieces of the Puzzle
1) Includes up to 6 modality connections
2) Standard multi-monitor capabilities
3) Provides 12 months of software support
4) Competitively priced

To help your summer sizzle, IMCO Technologies has a promotion just for you. Call Dee and ask for your $500 coupon towards each IMCO-PACS or

Happy Selling
IMCO Technologies Pewaukee, WI

Your customers are busy — and securing their time to talk to them about going digital is a challenge. Most doctors view the process of going digital as difficult and time-consuming. Assure them the partnership between you and SimonDR will ensure a smooth transition to digital.

First:
Use the free Cost Calculator to determine ROI at www.simondr.com.

Then Ask:
Do the images demonstrated to you meet your expectations?

If something goes wrong, will a service technician be on-site when needed?

Can you upgrade your existing equipment? This option, where possible, may save you around $20,000.

Is the software easy to use?

Who do you call for help and how much does the support cost?

What is the response time and what are support hours?

SimonDR has high-quality images.

SimonDR sells only through local service companies so support will be there when needed.

SimonDR can upgrade many existing x-ray machines.

SimonDR sells X-Ray equipment by Quantum Medical and Del Medical, the two most respected names in x-ray equipment.

597 Winthrop Street
Taunton, MA 02780

For over 20 years Huestis Medical has been providing quality imaging products at affordable prices. Therefore, we are pleased to announce we have expanded this same commitment to quality to our new parts division- Best Medical Parts.

In December 2007 Imaging Parts Inc. was purchased and became Best Medical Parts. We have a wide variety of parts for all major OEM supported units including, but not limited to: GE, Philips, Toshiba, and Shimadzu.

Go ahead and give us a call. We look forward to being your BEST source for parts.

Best Medical Parts- 866-603-1883
Huestis Medical- 800-333-6070

As we end our fiscal year at Del Medical, we want to thank each of the Vision Imaging Partners for your business! We are excited about our growing relationship and look forward to a prosperous year for this entire group!

As a reminder, the Introductory Special for the VetVision DRds with Simon DR and the CPI generator ends on July 25, 2008. All systems shipping prior to this date will also get the additional incentive given at the National Sales Meeting, as shown below.

·Aggressive Pricing - $49,000 dealer net

·Any Table Top – No additional charge

·Free Shipping – Lower 48 States

·$1,000 dealer rebate - No limit

·$500 "Next System" Certificate - To be used on other than the first 50 VetVision units

·National Sales Meeting Incentive - $1,000

"With JPI, quality is still affordable"

We realize that it is difficult for independent dealers to compete against podiatry supply houses for podiatry x-ray sales, that’s why we have developed this new high-quality fully functional and extremely competitive system for thousands of dollars less.

JPI Advance-Step Podiatry System

Includes:

· Orthoposer platform.

· 90kV / 15mA x-ray.

· Weight-balanced x-ray positioning arm
o 90 degrees vertical to horizontal
o 8" front to back

· Vertical cassette holder for 10x12 and 8x10 cassettes.

· Half-cassette exposure blocker for 10x12 cassettes.

Call Your JPI Sales Representative Today:

1-888-JPI-2001

Visit us on the Web at: www.JPIAMERICA.com

FOR THE VET MARKET

STYLISH PROTECTION AT AN ECONOMY PRICE

· Three Apron Styles to Choose From
· Aprons Available With Sewn on Thyroid
· Complete the Matching Set with a Pet Positioner
· Order a Hand Shield or Vinyl Lead Glove
· Matching Thyroid Shield
· Different Lining Colors
· Matching Slit Mitt
· Attractive Fabric Choices- including our Safari Line: Grey Snake, Ostrich Burgundy, Ostrich Beige, Cheetah, Metallic Tiger, Zebra, White Snake, Panther and Brown Snake
· Wide Array of Binding Colors
· Regular Lead, Lightweight, & Non Leaded

We also offer the following products for the Vet Market:

· Film Bins · Lead Markers and Signs
· Racks and Hangers · Illuminators
· Filling Systems · Developing Tanks
· Wedges and Sand Bags · Lead Glasses
· Safelights and Brite Lights

RCI/Pulse Medical will continue to offer your name and number embroidered on the bottom of any aprons ordered through the end of the year. The response to this offer after the last meeting was tremendous so we will be happy to continue to keep your name and number in front of your customers. When ordering aprons of any style just let us know that you want the Vision special which means free embroidery on the bottom outside of the apron

For Ordering Information Contact Us at:
800-342-5973 OR info@rcipulsemedical.com

In order to help our customers be more competitive in today’smarketplace, we have lowered our list prices on our most popular x-ray tubes. This includes all radiographic tubes in the 4 inch anode category, including direct replacements for popular Picker, GE, Eureka, Varian, Comet and Machlett
models.

If you have not already received a copy of Dunlee’supdated price list booklet and would like one, please contactHeather Funk at 1-800-238-3780 or heather.funk@philips.com.

We hope these reduced list prices for radiographic tubes will allow you to be successful in competing for business within our industry. Please contact us if we can answer any questions for you.

Off-Site Disaster Recovery Now Available from UMG Medical Imaging

UMG has received several requests from Vision Imaging Partners for a high quality image Disaster Recovery program to can offer their customers. We are happy to announce that we now have a solution!

*Easy no fee set up
*Redundant and secure
*Fee based on number of studies, not images
*Established disaster recovery provider

As the Dealer, you receive a one time payment up front based on the net present value of the agreement. For more
information on this program please contact UMG at 800-261-9808.

What a fantastic time we had at the National meeting in Miami, thanks for allowing us to participate. It’s always great to see all of our Vision partners in person and meet new ones. We are pleased at the flurry of activity we’ve seen since the show, thank you for your support. We were also surprised to hear that some of you weren’t aware that our core business has now transitioned to CR cassette repair/sales, Imaging Plates, Grids, Grid encasements, ect. If there is ever a question as to our capabilities, please don’t hesitate to call. And yes, we are still supporting those analog users as well. New Vision member pricing guides and product line cards were distributed at the show. If you did not receive your copy or need additional ones, please let us know and we’ll forward a supply.

With summer upon us, the sun block and UV lotions are everywhere. We thought it may be worth mentioning the importance of proper handling of the cassettes. It’s actually pretty simple, wear gloves or wash your hands first! When shooting, the Technicians often forget that these lotions can adversely affect the cassette, screen, and potentially the image. We are doing a number of thorough cleanings and rescreening cassettes as a result of this. Good for us, but costly for your hospital or clinic so a gentle reminder may be appreciated.

Have a great summer and make Rochester Cassette your one stop X-ray shop!

Since 9/11/2001 the President and Congress provided tax cuts (incentives) to help stimulate the economy. Before these incentives, the one-time write off for equipment purchases was around $25,000, however over the past few years the amount was increased to $125,000. This year, in order to help a sagging economy, this amount was raised to $250,000, however, with a new President and Congress coming into office in 2009, there is a strong possibility that the temporary tax cuts may not be renewed, and the one-time tax benefit for equipment purchases may return to the original level of $25,000.

In order to help with sales this year, the salespeople should be sure to bring up the higher, $250,000 tax benefit this year. It may be useful to also inform their
customers that they would receive the best tax advantage by completing their
equipment purchases this year (remember, the customer would need to take possession of the equipment before the end of the year).

There are 3 ways businesses receive a tax write offs when purchasing equipment (please note only one can be used:

1) Buying- Businesses can receive the
one-time credit of $250,000 no matter how pay for the equipment (whether they use their cash, get a loan or use a $1.00 buyout from a leasing company.

2) Depreciation- Several businesses choose to write off an equipment purchase with depreciation. All equipment has a
predetermined depreciable life, although there are different depreciation methods that may benefit the business.

3) Leasing- Many businesses choose leasing as a more creative option to write off their equipment. Leasing is simply a closed end rental (meaning that a time period has been agreed to). At the end of the lease term the business may elect to buy the equipment for the "fair market value" that will be negotiated by the parties involved. Many leasing companies use a 10% buyout because most privately owned businesses want to know how much they will pay for the equipment at the end of the term. The reason this can be done is because the government doesn’t research the value of all the equipment being leased and the 10% buyout has because a standard amount (please note that a $1.00 buyout will never qualify as a lease because the $1.00 is a bargain and is not even being close to what the actual value of the equipment might be at the end of the lease term.

The main advantage of leasing is that the monthly lease payment is considered an expense in order to operate a business. The shorter the lease term, the better the tax advantage compared to the depreciable life of the equipment. In most cases, the finance charges are slightly higher with a lease, compared to a bank loan, however when the tax benefit of a lease is added to the equation, an equipment lease can match and in many cases be lower than a bank loan.

Another advantage leasing provides is another line of credit. Many, established business have a line of credit with their bank, however this credit line may be limited. It may be advantageous to the business to preserve this credit line for emergencies and unexpected unforeseen circumstances, and leasing can help. This philosophy really comes into play in the case of a new, start-up business where the working capital is limited (one of the main reasons business don’t success is because of lack of working capital).

The last advantage of leasing is the simplicity, especially with FINANCIALCORP. For most applications under $200,000 FINANCIALCORP will only need a fraction of what a bank requires, and funding usually happens faster and will be sent directly to the Vision dealer.

This information has been provided simply to help understand what businesses consider when making an equipment purchase, and some of these principles may help in closing a sale. Most of the time Vision dealers and their sales representatives will provide a monthly payment breakdown to be included with the total equipment cost, and then they contact Jon Vermeulen at FINANCIALCORP to assist with their customer about which payment option would be the best for them to help them with the customer’s equipment purchase.

If you have any questions regarding this article, would like to request a payment calculator (an Excel spreadsheet), or if you have a current customer that you think would benefit from discussing leasing, please contact Jon Vermeulen at FINANCIALCORP. He can be reached at 800-770-8550 or at financialcorpleasing@gmail.com.

STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION
Improve your Financials and Customer Satisfaction Through Strategy
Implementation. (2nd of a 4 part series)

Create your Mission and Strategy to support your vision and create positive financial and customer benefits

Could you improve your organizations’ understanding of the strategy and direction of your business? Would you like to improve profits and reduce costs while delighting your customers? Would you like to improve employee morale and retention and involve your employees in achieving financial and customer objectives? We have the solution.

The first article in this series described how to create and live your strategy map and balanced scorecard. Next, there are usually four stimulating aspects of a strategy map that your leadership teams need to ponder and agree upon. These aspects are financials, customers, processes and people/automation. In this second article, we will discuss imperative questions to ask both yourself and your leadership teams about your financials and customer value proposition.

Typically, most business units have a very good understanding and tracking of their financial perspective. The question to be answered by your leadership teams is "If we succeed, how will we look to our shareholders?" Usually, there are two basic strategies within the financial perspective. First, how can we grow our business? Here we ask our teams (1) how can we develop new sources of revenue from new markets, new products or new customers; and (2) how can we increase customer value with existing customers to expand the relationship with our firm? Second, how can we improve productivity within our firm? Here you should brainstorm how to (1) improve cost structure and lower direct costs of products and services; (2) reduce indirect costs and share common resources with multiple units; and (3) improve asset utilization. In other words, how can you most effectively reduce the working and fixed capital needed to support a level of business by implementing greater utilization and more careful acquisition, or by disposing of parts of the current and fixed asset base?

During my last ten years of leading business units through strategic planning sessions, the most stimulating disagreement among leadership teams has been determining the client’s customer value proposition. While it is necessary to implement all three customer value strategies, success is determined by your firm’s ability to excel at one of those strategies. It has been shown trying to excel at all three customer value strategies results in failure of all three. WOW! Yes failure! Therefore, your leadership teams must decide (1) which customer value proposition strategy is most important for your firm, and (2) how your products and services map support this customer value proposition.

First is "Operational Excellence". The important product and service attributes to this strategy are price, quality, time and functionality/selection. Your processes and investments must support these attributes. The key to this value proposition is quality in selected categories with unbeatable prices. The brand displayed to the customer is "the smart shopper", which places less importance on the relationship. Examples of companies using this value proposition today are Wal-Mart and McDonalds.

Second is "Customer Intimacy". The important attribute here is building a relationship with the customer consistent with the brand image of "the trusted Brand." In this model, personal service must be tailored to produce results and build long-term relationships with the customer. Hence, the two most important attributes in this customer proposition are service and relationships. Determining how to invest and build strong processes around these two attributes is essential. For example, Lowe’s Lumber is notorious with its customers for building relationships through outstanding service.

Third is "Product Leadership". This proposition offers unique products and services that "push the envelope" resulting in a brand of "best innovative product in the marketplace". The target is to bring an excellent selection of new products with greater functionality to the marketplace in less time.

Most firms are excellent at creating goals for financial perspectives, but customer value propositions are typically debated topics for leadership teams. You must perform well on all attributes of customer value propositions, while focusing investment and improvement initiatives on attributes important to both you and the customer’s value propositions. Even though it is sometimes difficult, successful market leaders routinely decline purchasing and investing in items not mapped to their strategy.

Have you determined the customer proposition value statement for your firm? Do all of your leadership teams agree on your customer value proposition? In answering these questions, you may be surprised to find your leadership teams have different views and opinions on the value your firm offers to its customers. A common vision and customer value proposition among leadership teams is essential to your firm’s success.

In the next newsletter, I will discuss how to develop processes and your people and automation strategies that must map to your financial and customer value proposition attributes. You will then be able to display your business strategy on a single sheet of paper which will easily communicate and show your alignment to all. ACHC and Q4MedSource will be conducting a one-day workshop at upcoming trade shows on this topic to improve both your skills and your business in these areas.

Richard Wetherell, Vice President of Design of Q4MedSource, is an educator and specialist in strategic planning, balanced scorecards, and improving quality, market share and customer satisfaction. He works with businesses to develop, deploy and align strategic plans to achieve financial and customer results. Q4MedSource has offices in Cary, North Carolina; Houston Texas; and Orlando, Florida. Please call Denise Lippy (713)204-7062 for more information.

Even the most sales savvy among us have been there: fighting back the nerves that materialize whenever we are faced with telling a customer about a price increase.

Talking about a price increase never makes for an easy conversation. When discussing a price increase in a business to business environment it’s important to bear in mind that our customer has probably had to have the same discussion with their own customers. A company exists only as long as it earns a profit and a company can only earn a profit long-term if it delivers a quality product or service that is priced right. This means the key to any price increase conversations is to emphasize that such an increase will ensure product quality.
As you begin to prepare your strategy for communicating a price increase, ask yourself the following questions:

5. Will the customer raise an issue with the price increase? Be prepared to show documentation of how your costs have increased and how the same increases your company is facing are being dealt with by other companies. (One example is the increasing cost of oil, which has forced any company that uses petroleum in the manufacturing or transportation of goods to most likely increase prices.) When having this discussion, be sure to show empathy for the customer, but remain firm in what you’re saying. If the customer senses any hesitation on your part they will likely try to exploit it in the form of a price concession from you.

6. Why does the customer buy from you anyway? Knowing the real reason(s) the customer buys from you will allow you to reinforce these points when talking about the price increase. You should also have ready at least two key needs of the customer that your product or service satisfies. Be sure all of your strategic information about the customer is up to date before a price increase is announced.

7. How much business is at risk from the customer? We can sometimes get carried away thinking that if we raise prices we’ll lose the customer, even though this is rarely the case. Think through what steps the customer would have to take to move to another vendor. Many times the work involved in moving is not worth the effort, and thus the business is less at risk than thought.

1. Give the customer lead-time. Provide the customer with enough notice of the lead-time to allow them to make adjustments in their information systems and to exercise at least one more order at the existing price.

2. Do not show favorites. Pricing integrity is always essential, but especially so during a price change. Do not treat particular customers more favorably in pricing during an increase. Different pricing levels are fine as long as they can be logically defended so that a customer who is not receiving the price break can understand and accept the price change.

3. Invoicing integrity. Do not allow your customer to find out about a price increase from your invoice. Any changes in pricing must come from the account executive or a person of high position in the company. Information regarding a price change should only appear on an invoice after every person involved at the customer has been personally notified. (Sufficient time should occur in the price increase timeline to allow at least one invoice to contain a note of the pending increase in price.)

4. Customer service blunders. Make sure each customer service representative and anyone else who comes in contact with the customer is fully aware of when the price increase is going to be communicated. One of the most significant possibilities for customer difficulty during a price increase is the potentially confusing information they hear from different departments. Everyone in customer service needs to be fully briefed on the price increase, the reasoning behind it, and the logistics for implementation. They should also be provided with a FAQ guide to ensure that when customers do ask them about elements of the pricing increase they are able to share accurate information.

5. Believe in the price increase. In order to be paid what we’re worth, we must charge what we’re worth. Although this is not something that can be explicitly communicated to the customer, this general sense is what sets apart the best practice companies and high-performing sales professionals.

6. Open-phone/open-door policy. Any time a price increase is taken, it is important for all senior executives to be willing to take a phone call from a customer or to make phone calls on key customers. For successful consultative selling, nothing sends a stronger signal to a sales organization than seeing their senior executives on the front-line when dealing with a price increase.