Price Optimization in SaaS with Nikhil Kotcharlakota

Nikhil Kotcharlakota is a civil engineer by profession. He worked for Electrolux for eight years where he was head of pricing for almost two years. Currently, he is a co-founder of PriceOps, a company that aims to provide an all-in-one pricing solution for SaaS companies.

In this episode, Nikhil talks about how his experience at Electrolux changed the way he looked at pricing. He also discusses about his company, PriceOps, and how they aim to provide a complete, optimized pricing solution to SaaS companies using different pricing models.

Why you have to check out today's podcast:

• Learn how usage data can be utilized to optimize billing and pricing
• Discover the possibility of SaaS companies effectively using outcome-based pricing models
• Learn the difference between per-user model and per active user model and when to use them

"Having the focus on price and getting value out of what you're offering is a very important thing."

– Nikhil Kotcharlakota

Topics Covered:

01:30 – How Nikhil got into pricing

03:01 – The work that Nikhil's company, PriceOps does

05:59 – How PriceOps plans to utilize usage data for billing and pricing

07:05 – PriceOps' biggest challenge: using outcome-based pricing model for SaaS companies

11:19 – The other pricing models that PriceOps is eyeing besides usage-based and outcome-based

12:24 – How PriceOps aims to recommend whether to use per-user model or per active user model

15:12 – What Nikhil learned as he shifted from traditional pricing to subscription-based pricing

18:38 – Why Nikhil loves pricing operations

20:17 – Without execution, pricing strategy does not matter

20:50 – Nikhil's pricing advice

22:02 – The revenue point at which businesses should hire a pricing person

23:54 – Connect with Nikhil Kotcharlakota

Key Takeaways:

"The best part about pricing is it's always at the center of the strategy or you'll get to work with a lot of teams; product management, sales, accounting, finance, I mean, literally every team in the company." – Nikhil Kotcharlakota

"Companies have realized the consumer is king. So, they're trying to build an experience for the consumer so they continue to buy the same product over and over again." – Nikhil Kotcharlakota

"If the operations are not set up properly or if there are no processes for the pricing team, a strategy might be there, but they may not be able to execute on the strategy, which will then result in loss in price or price leakage." – Nikhil Kotcharlakota

People / Resources Mentioned:

• PriceOps: https://www.linkedin.com/company/priceops/
• Win, Keep, Grow: How to Price and Package to Accelerate Your Subscription Business: https://www.amazon.com/Win-Keep-Grow-Accelerate-Subscription/dp/1631954784

Connect with Nikhil Kotcharlakota:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkotcharlakota/
• Email: nikhil@priceops.net

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: mailto:mark@impactpricing.com