Why Indian MSMEs Lose Pricing Power Before the Sales Meeting Even Begins: Suyash Singhal on the Business Value of Product Finish

For many Indian MSMEs, pricing pressure is treated as a sales problem. Suyash Singhal believes it often begins much earlier—on the surface of the product itself.

Before a buyer studies a quotation, compares specifications or negotiates terms, the product has already created an impression. A weak, inconsistent or ordinary finish can make a capable product look cheaper than it really is.

For Singhal, Director of Surface Paints Pvt. Ltd. and positioned as The MSME Finish Advocate, this is one of the most overlooked commercial realities in Indian manufacturing.

From the Shop Floor to Finish Economics

Suyash Singhal’s perspective comes from a business journey that moved sharply from comfort to rebuilding.

After a family-business division, his father had to start again without the old identity, product or team. Singhal returned from college and worked across sales, production, dispatch, accounts and even deliveries.

That experience shaped a practical view of industrial coatings: customers are not really buying paint alone. They are buying finish, consistency, coverage, fewer complaints and better market acceptance.

Today, Lucknow-based Surface Paints Pvt. Ltd. serves industrial users with powder coatings, wood coatings, industrial coatings and surfacers. The company’s stated approach focuses on custom development, technical responsiveness, quality control and commercially viable formulations designed around real production conditions.

As Suyash Singhal puts it:

“Your customer does not see your coating cost. They see your product finish.”

Why Product Finish Affects Pricing Power

For an MSME owner, a coating can easily be treated as one more input cost. Singhal argues that this thinking is too narrow.

A finished product communicates quality before the buyer understands anything about the process behind it.

A metal cabinet, fabricated component, handicraft item or industrial product may be structurally sound, but visible inconsistency, poor texture, uneven shade or an inexpensive-looking finish can influence how the buyer values the entire product.

In that sense, product finish is not merely decoration. It contributes to product perception.

And product perception influences how confidently a manufacturer can defend pricing.

This matters even more for MSMEs competing with larger national or global brands. Bigger companies often benefit from stronger brand recall, standardisation and presentation. Smaller manufacturers may not have the same advantage.

Their physical product therefore carries more of the burden of proving quality.

According to Singhal, better finish can help reduce that perception gap.

The Price-per-Kilogram Trap

One of the strongest themes in Singhal’s approach is the need to stop evaluating industrial coatings only by price per kilogram.

A cheaper coating may look attractive during procurement, but the commercial result depends on what happens after application.

Coverage, rejection, rework, batch consistency, line performance, complaint handling and response time can all influence the actual economics of a finished component.

A lower purchase price can therefore become expensive if it results in application loss, inconsistent output or additional rework.

Surface Paints’ approach is framed around what can be described as finished-component economics: selecting and developing coatings around the customer’s substrate, process, application reality and desired outcome rather than treating every requirement as a standard material purchase.

This is also where Singhal sees an important space between large multinational suppliers and local unorganised vendors.

Large players may offer strong systems, standardisation and technical credibility but can sometimes be less flexible for specialised MSME requirements. Local suppliers may compete through speed, price and relationships, but consistency, documentation and quality systems can become concerns.

The positioning Suyash is building sits between those extremes: MSME agility combined with process discipline, technical responsiveness and relationship-led accountability.

A Better Finish Is a Business Decision

Suyash Singhal’s larger mission is to help Indian manufacturers improve the look, life and market value of what they make.

That does not mean every MSME needs the most expensive coating or should blindly copy specifications created for a multinational company.

His view is more practical: the right coating should match the substrate, process, end-use requirement and customer promise.

The objective is not necessarily to spend more on paint.

It is to reduce avoidable commercial loss while improving the credibility of the finished product.

For Indian MSMEs trying to move up the value chain, that distinction matters. Pricing power is rarely created through negotiation alone. It is built through accumulated signals that make a buyer trust the product – consistency, finish, reliability, service and perceived quality.

Singhal’s argument is simple: if Indian MSMEs want their products to be valued like those of stronger brands, the product must begin communicating that value before anyone reaches the sales table.