Price leakage
Wire rod moved on Monday. Your rate did not.
Wire plants leak margin two ways: rates quoted from a price list that predates the last rod revision, and small discounts nobody approved. One live price book by product, slab and delivery basis, with approvals for anything below it, stops both.
In short
Wire plants leak margin two ways: rates quoted from a price list that predates the last rod revision, and small discounts nobody approved. One live price book by product, slab and delivery basis, with approvals for anything below it, stops both.
The cost
What the gap takes every month.
₹1.50 to ₹3
Per kg given away without a decision
Spread across coils, this is invisible in any single order and large across a quarter.
Weekly
How often the base should be revised
Most plants revise monthly and quote from a sheet older than that.
One ordinary week
How it actually happens.
Rod cost moves on Monday. The owner updates the rate in his head and tells two of the four officers. The other two quote from last month's sheet all week.
By Saturday five orders are booked at the old base, and the conversion loss will surface only when the month closes, if anybody looks.
With one price book, the revision reaches every quotation the moment it is published, and any officer quoting below it needs an approval that is recorded against the order.
The fix
Three steps, in this order.
01
Publish one approved price book
Rates by product, customer class, region, quantity slab and delivery basis, in one place everyone quotes from.
02
Make below-book rates an approval, not a habit
A quotation under the book cannot be issued until a named approver says yes, with the reason recorded.
03
Review deviations monthly
The pattern of approvals shows which products are mispriced and which customers always push.
Straight answers
What owners ask us here.
Our rates change weekly. Can a price book keep up?
That is exactly what it is for. One publish updates every user, which is faster and safer than four people reading four sheets.
We must be flexible with old customers.
Flexibility stays. The change is that a below-book rate is approved by a named person and visible afterwards, instead of discovered at month end.
How do we price ex-works versus delivered?
Delivery basis is part of the book, with freight handled per region, so the two are never confused in a quotation.
Questions people ask
Straight answers, no sales talk.
System of Marketing & Sales
Put enquiry to dispatch on one governed line.
Tell us how your plant sells today. We'll show you where the line breaks and what it takes to close it.