How do you raise prices?
In 2020, one of our companies saw some of their materials double in price inside 30 days. It was an absolute shock to the system, and the team was scrambling to manage volume, forecasting, cash, and more. The team felt piled on. Everything about life seemed harder. There was talk of toilet paper shortages, and some food prices skyrocketed. Government mandates were coming every other day, and often conflicted with one another on how to operate a business. The team was simply trying to survive. Oh, and also trying to stay healthy and manage family life. If you recall the pandemic year, the word "unprecedented" was used at unprecedented volume.
Inevitably, someone asked the question: what are we going to do about prices given these changes? The immediate reaction was: do not move prices. The argument, understandable based on individual day-to-day experience, was that we didn’t want to be yet another brand “piling on,” and that we wanted to treat customers exceptionally well. Better than everyone else.
But three major realities hit in short succession.
Our costs continued going up regardless, so we were eating our own margin and ability to withstand further shocks to the system (which inevitably showed up in a crazy market).
Our competitors raised their prices, which caused people to second guess our quotes and for some of our partners to elect to work with those competitors more often (because they were willing to increase prices too).
We were maintaining extra stress on an already stressed system.
So we reconvened, acknowledged we were the holdouts, and raised prices to offset all the changes. And no one blinked. Customers still showed up. The whole system worked better. The fear had lived entirely inside the business, not in the market. And we took the one market stressor we could control off the table.
Price changes, especially universal increases, introduce fear, mostly of the unknown. But we often underappreciate how much making concessions to keep price unchanged may be impacting both the business and a customer’s experience. Not everything is a Costco hot dog. Prices remaining constant forever is not, by default, a point of pride.
Confidence to raise prices comes from three things: legitimacy, evidence, and predictability.
Legitimacy means the move is anchored in real economics (your inputs have gone up, demand has increased, your outcomes are reliably better).
Evidence means you can show the value – what customers get, what you’re protecting (quality, speed, guarantees), and where the next-best alternative sits.
Predictability means you act with cadence (where possible) and clarity (always) so customers experience the change as stewardship rather than surprise.
When those conditions hold, the question shifts from “Can we raise?” to “What’s the right move, and how do we respect our customers in making it?” You can choose a path that preserves trust, recruit simple guardrails, and communicate the new total alongside the promise you’re keeping. That’s what this section covers.
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