Worksheet: Start a competitor price file

Most businesses check a competitor's list price when a deal is at stake, then forget it. This sheet sets up one file, updated monthly, that sits beside your own prices at every review. It builds the Competent step of the check:

Competitor prices are scanned on a schedule, and their price structures are broadly understood.

Where the prices come from. Take competitor prices from customers, tenders and published lists. Never take them from a competitor, and never join an industry survey of future prices. Competition law bans concerted practices, and swapping price information can be one with no agreement at all (ACCC guidance). If a competitor offers you its prices or plans, decline and write down that you did.

Step 1. The file

Competitor	Our product and their equivalent	Published list price	Known discounts or rebates	Structure (tiers, volume breaks, fees)	Source (customer, tender, published list)	Date	Logged by
e.g. Competitor A	Our 90mm range; their standard range	$1,450/t	Trade 10%, 2% prompt payment	Two volume breaks, freight extra	Published list	3 March	Pricing analyst

Step 2. Their structures in a line each

Competitor	How they price (list less discount, net price, contract)	Who gets their best price	What they charge extra for	What we do not know yet

Step 3. The monthly update

Month	Products checked	Updated by	Changes seen	Reviewed at (meeting)

Step 4. At every price review

Product	Our price	Competitor A	Competitor B	Gap	What we decided

A business under 50 people: keep one page of competitor prices, structures and known discounts, updated monthly, and read it beside your own prices. The same sources apply: customers, tenders and published lists only.

Done when: competitor prices are logged every month from allowed sources, and each price review has the file on the table.

Adapted from our own pricing self-assessment (PSP, 2004).