是时候了：向您的客户提高价格|生产加工

Dan Sharkey says that, given the confluence of inflation, supply chain pain and high raw material costs, this is the best time over the span of his 27-year career for machine shops to ask customers for a price increase.

Sharkey是Brooks Wilkins Sharkey和PLLC Turco的律师和成员（bwst-law.com). He concentrates his practice on business contracts and litigation with a special emphasis on supply chain issues, and has tried more than 60 cases in U.S. district, bankruptcy, military and state courts. Sharkey addressed this topic at thePrecision Machined Products Association我去年年底参加了（PMPA）年度会议。

他认识到，向客户提高价格，尤其是与您有长期关系的人的价格上涨 - 从来都不是一件容易的事。但是，鉴于当前的经济状况，重要的是要考虑到保持不良客户的效果将继续对您公司的底线保持。正如Sharkey所指出的那样，钥匙正在以正确的方式向您的客户提高价格上涨的想法。

The first step he suggests is reviewing your applicable contracts and then meeting with your managerial team to list customers in order of profitability, ease with which to work and so on. This enables you to determine which customers (the worst being at the bottom of the list) will be the first you approach asking for a price increase, starting at the bottom and eventually working your way upward.

Sharkey says it’s important to next consider how you present your request to your customers. For example, it’s vital to provide a firm deadline for the implementation of the price increase and enforce it (i.e., include “or else” wording). Your customers have probably already received similar requests. Without providing a deadline — a firm date that you will cease delivering product without the price increase going into effect — their purchasing representatives, as likely instructed, could ignore your request or send it to the bottom of the pile of others in an effort to buy time.

但是，在给客户的第一封信中，不要坚持如果客户不立即同意价格上涨，您将停止产品交付。沙基说，那是不可能捍卫的立场。概述您请求的原因，然后给客户一个截止日期，该期限可在合同，关系和客户转移业务的能力方面进行辩护。

但是他们会如何反应？这两个极端是您失去业务（根据Sharkey的经验，这仅在10％的时间内发生），否则您的客户立即同意价格上涨（这是非典型的）。在这里，他描述了更有可能的客户回复：

有些人可能会在抗议下向您付款。This means, the customer will pay the original amount as well as an additional cost — which brings the total to the price increase you requested. But, being that the customer is issuing that purchase order under protest, it reserves the right to object to the additional cost at a later date. The question is how will the customer recoup the additional cost.
Some might want to issue debit notes to recoup the price increase.This your customer is permitted to do. However, if it would constitute a breach of your contract, you can counter this action by communicating that it is your right to then suspend product shipment unless the full purchase price is paid. In many cases, there’s no answer to that because your customer needs your product and can’t pivot quickly enough to another supplier.
有些人可能想谈判。Customers might be willing to agree on a price increase for some work for certain contracts, but would like some degree of reimbursement for other product previously purchased. In this case, the supplier normally has significant leverage, Sharkey notes. It’s up to you how much you might want to give back to your customer, if anything at all, perhaps depending on how big and valuable the customer is to your business. Good will is important, but hard to quantify.
有些人可能会选择起诉。尽管这是一个可能性,在现实中,一些铜stomers want to go through the process of suing another given the necessary work of gathering documentation, engaging attorneys and so on. Plus, with the COVID-19 backlog in the courts, it can take several years to get to trial. Not many will want to wait that long for recovery.

这样的谈判比这里可以描述的更多，但我希望您能听取Sharkey的建议。而且，如果这是您最近进行的努力，给我发邮件让我知道您的经历。