Keeping It Simple
The fastest, simplest ways to grow your business - no jargon, no fluff. Practical strategies that actually work for SME owners in the USA, New Zealand, and worldwide.
When did you last raise your prices on purpose, not because a supplier forced your hand, but because you decided your business was worth more? For most SME owners the honest answer is "I can't remember," and that silence is quietly capping growth more than almost anything else in the business. McKinsey's research across the Global 1200 found that a 1 percent price increase, with demand held constant, lifts operating profit by an average of 11 percent, far more than an equivalent 1 percent increase in volume delivers. Growth doesn't always mean finding another customer. Sometimes it means charging what the business already deserves from the customers it has. Kevin D'Ambros-Smith has watched this play out across nine companies of his own and two hundred-plus client businesses: the fastest-growing ones are rarely the cheapest.
The Discount Instinct Nobody Questions
The named enemy is the owner's own fear. Most SME owners assume a price increase will trigger an exodus of customers, so they absorb rising costs quietly, hold prices flat for years, and compete on value instead of price while quietly bleeding margin. In reality, a well-handled price increase loses far fewer customers than owners expect, and the ones most likely to leave over a modest increase were rarely the most profitable ones to keep.
The Price Review, Done Properly
A three-step approach that avoids both extremes, freezing prices out of fear, or raising them blindly across the board.
- 1. Segment First — identify your most price-sensitive customers versus your most loyal, highest-margin ones, and treat them differently rather than applying one blanket increase.
- 2. Grandfather, Don't Blanket — protect long-standing, high-value relationships with notice and a phased increase, while applying new pricing immediately to new customers.
- 3. Lead With Value, Not Apology — communicate the increase alongside what's improved, service, speed, quality, rather than quietly slipping it onto an invoice with no explanation.
"I have grown my business 5x since working with Kevin. Everything Kevin told me to do was the complete opposite of what I had been doing. Working with Kevin has truly been a complete game changer."
— Richard, Chem Suppliers
Why Owners Know This and Still Don't Do It
Most owners know their prices are behind where they should be. They don't act because the conversation feels confrontational, and because they're too close to their own pricing to see it objectively. An outside perspective, one that has priced global brands and is not emotionally attached to a number set two or three years ago, usually finds ten or fifteen percent of headroom that was sitting there unclaimed the whole time, simply because nobody within the business was willing to ask for it.
Quick Wins
- Pull your price list and note the last date each line item actually changed.
- Identify your bottom 20 percent of customers by margin, and your top 20 percent by loyalty, these get different treatment.
- Draft the one sentence you'll use to explain a price increase in terms of value delivered, not cost pressure.
Key Takeaways
- A 1 percent price increase lifts operating profit by an average of 11 percent, far more than an equivalent volume increase.
- Fear of losing customers usually overstates the real risk of a well-handled increase.
- Segment before you raise prices, not every customer deserves the same treatment.
- Lead the conversation with value delivered, not an apology for the cost.
If your prices haven't moved in years, that's not loyalty to your customers. It's a growth lever sitting unused.
Kevin D’Ambros-Smith
Kevin is the founder of Simple-Growth and a business growth coach with experience at DDB, Ogilvy, and Saatchi & Saatchi. He has co-founded 9 companies, coached 200+ business owners one-on-one, and holds a 9.5/10 NPS. Every article on this blog reflects real-world experience - no theory, no fluff.
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