The price list went up three times. Most of the book is still on the first one.

Grandfathering feels like loyalty. Sustained across a few price rises, it becomes the largest and least examined discount most businesses give.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The price list went up three times. Most of the book is still on the first one.

A business raises its published prices in three consecutive years. New customers pay the new number. Existing customers stay where they are, because nobody wants to open that conversation with the accounts that have been there longest. Three years later, the price list and the book of business have very little to do with each other, and the gap between them is nowhere in the management accounts, because revenue is still growing on volume. This is one of the few pricing problems that gets worse the better the rest of…

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