This month, I had the pleasure of presenting again at Aspire's IGNITE! Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Travis Wills, Senior Director of Client Success at Aspire was kind enough to allow me to present and was there with me to introduce and answer questions. Travis has worked with me since the beginning of my personal Aspire journey, so I appreciate him very much.

This year, I wanted to present something both personal and important to me; Pricing Methodology. You'll see from the presentation deck below if you're able to download it, that I spoke both generally about pricing, and then specifically about the Multiple Overhead Recovery method of pricing and how to utilize it to its fullest in Aspire. Here are a few of the key takeaways from those that could not attend:

1. Although they are related, Price is not Cost, and Pricing is not Estimating.
2. There are many methods of Pricing. Aspire only utilizes one - the Multiple Overhead Recovery Method - don't try to force a different method into the system.
3. The Overhead Recovery, if used correctly, is a far superior way of Pricing than other methods.
4. Forcing a Gross Margin (common in our industry), leaves a lot of critical components out of the Pricing equation.
5. Don't overcomplicate and have too many markups. I often say that Estimating and Pricing is a game of averages, use the average as the input, and your results will come out where you need them to.
6. Your Price is your Price. Compromising on Price compromises your budgeted profit goals.

As I stated in my presentation (and often in my work), I credit a lot of what I teach on this topic to Frank Ross, industry consultant, and his book, Pricing for the Green industry. I highly recommend anyone interested in this topic get their hands on the most recent edition of this book.

Learn more about Meinert Consulting Group here.