AI as a Multiplier for Pricing with Emanuel Martonca

Mike Danford is a Growth Optimizer - CSO, UX Strategist and Product Management Consultant at Adverio.io In this podcast, Mike shares valuable insights on optimizing pricing strategies for businesses, emphasizing the importance of testing and adjusting prices regularly to stay competitive. He discusses the complexities of Amazon's Buy Box. He also provides practical advice for businesses with tight margins, highlighting how small pricing adjustments can lead to significant improvements in profitability, especially when using dynamic pricing strategies. Why you have to check out today's podcast: Gain actionable strategies for optimizing pricing in competitive markets with concrete examples of how small pricing changes can impact profits. Learn about the complexities of Amazon's Buy Box, including how pricing, seller ratings, and competition affect your visibility and sales potential. Discover how to leverage dynamic and intraday pricing strategies to stay competitive, including tips on when and how to make real-time price adjustments. "If you haven't tested pricing, do it today. Don't wait. There's no better time than right now." - Mike Danford Topics Covered: 01:36 - What paved his entry into pricing 02:21 - Explaining how in B2C dynamic pricing is critical to staying competitive across platforms like Amazon and Walmart, where frequent promotions and price changes impact rank and visibility 03:27 - Defining 'Omnichannel' 03:59 - How brands sell through these omni channels and how brick-and-mortar sales data can be integrated with online data to enhance omnichannel strategies 05:03 - 'Omnichannel pricing' and the challenges that comes with it 07:20 - A strategy used to avoid direct price comparison 07:45 - Strategies for effective omnichannel pricing to maximize sales 12:00 - Describing how price adjustments are often small, typically starting below 3% to gauge elasticity 13:52 - The three main buckets of categorizing pricing strategy 16:15 - Explaining Amazon's automated pricing tools and third-party repricing software that generally adjust prices dynamically 18:55 - How the Amazon buy box has been a competitive issue since the platform's early days 21:20 - Hourly changes being typically unnecessary unless there's exceptionally high product turnover 23:25 - How geolocation-based pricing isn't possible on major marketplaces 25:08 - Maintaining control over the buy box on Amazon 26:27 - Mike's best pricing advice Key Takeaways: "If you haven't tested pricing, do it today. Don't wait. There's no better time than right now. If you tested it a year ago and you haven't touched it, or you did it six months ago, do it again. The market is constantly changing. Be willing to make those small changes." - Mike Danford People/Resources Mentioned: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com Home Depot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home Walmart: https://www.walmart.com Best Buy: https://www.bestbuy.com Target: https://www.target.com Connect with Mike Danford: Linked: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danfordmike/ Website: https://www.adverio.io/ Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

18 Marras 202428min

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on September 12, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/mastering-the-good-better-best-strategy-a-guide-to-increasing-win-rates-and-revenue/ If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

15 Marras 202412min

Mark Boundy is a business builder, sales leader, author, coach, consultant, teacher…and Chief Clarity Officer…he has grown businesses in a variety of industries using a relentless focus on customer-perceived value. In this episode, Mark discusses the importance of aligning every employee's actions with customer value, emphasizing that every touchpoint with a customer either creates or destroys value. He shares stories from his experience, including a manufacturing operator and a receptionist, to illustrate how seemingly small ideas can have significant impacts on customer satisfaction and business outcomes. Boundy underscores that value creation is about helping customers achieve desired outcomes, and this focus can drive growth, profitability, and employee fulfillment across all levels of an organization. Why you have to check out today's podcast: Discover real-life stories about how employees at every level, from operators to receptionists, can innovate to drive customer satisfaction and business results, making it relatable and motivating. Gain actionable strategies to ensure every team member understands how their role impacts customer value, helping you foster a culture focused on positive customer experiences. Learn how traditional metrics can sometimes hinder value creation, providing tips on aligning KPIs with customer-centric goals to achieve greater long-term success. "Customer value comes from two things, one, your differentiation, and two, the outcome that customer achieves because of your differentiation." - Mark Boundy Topics Covered: 01:25 - Sharing the experience that gave rise to using the word 'antipreneurial' in his book 04:08 - The importance of flexibility within processes, contrasting rigid corporate guidelines with adaptable checklists 07:41 - Stressing the importance of a value-oriented organization not just sales around delivering customer outcomes 09:14 - Highlighting the importance of aligning sales and implementation teams to ensure realistic promises are made to customers 12:39 - What it requires to create a value-driven organization 16:09 - Emphasizing the need to prioritize customer-focused KPIs over purely efficiency-driven ones with real-life illustrations 20:12 - How focusing on customer satisfaction and adding value leads to substantial growth, high profitability, and employee satisfaction 21:35 - Stressing a point that employees feel more fulfilled and engaged when they understand how their work directly impacts customers' lives 22:51 - Defining value and illustrating how value was created by understanding customer outcomes deeply 26:51 - Mark sharing how anyone in the company, even janitors and receptionists can add value Key Takeaways: "If the most important process in your company is your customer's buying journey, and your KPI has nothing to do with that buying journey, that's a yellow light." - Mark Boundy "If maximizing that KPI inhibits the customer journey, I call that a masking KPI. You're measuring something that makes you worse by making yourself good at stopping the customer from complaining. You get bad at turning customers into joyous partners." - Mark Boundy People/Resources Mentioned: The Infinity Effect How Elite Growth Companies Abolish Antipreneurial Patterns and Create More Profitable, Happy, Lifetime Customers by Mark Boundy: https://www.amazon.com/Infinity-Effect-Summary-Antipreneurial-Profitable-ebook/dp/B0D1NNLWRH Lucent technologies: https://lucenttek.com/index.html Cisco: https://www.cisco.com/#tabs-35d568e0ff-item-194f491212-tab Miller Heiman Group: https://www.kornferry.com/about-us/our-story/miller-heiman-group Zappos: https://www.zappos.com Barefoot Wines: https://www.barefootwine.com Connect with Mark Boundy: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markboundy/ Website: www.boundyconsulting.com Email: mark@boundyconsulting.com Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

11 Marras 202430min

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on September 5, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/uncover-hidden-profits-with-our-opportunity-signals-worksheet/ If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

8 Marras 20242min

Steven Forth is Ibbaka's Co-Founder, CEO, and Partner. Ibbaka is a strategic pricing advisory firm. He was CEO of LeveragePoint Innovations Inc., a SaaS business. In this episode, Steven emphasizes the importance of shaping willingness to pay by understanding and communicating real value to customers. He also highlights the role of AI and context-driven pricing in adapting to customer needs dynamically, stressing that consistent delivery and documentation of promised value are crucial for long-term retention. Why you have to check out today's podcast: Explore the nuances of pricing strategies, distinguishing between perceived, real, and proven value and how each impacts customer retention and willingness to pay. Learn why documenting value delivered to customers can significantly reduce churn, with actionable steps to demonstrate value in B2B sales. Gain insights on Context-Driven Pricing, offering a fresh approach to optimize pricing in real time. "You need to make sure that the value you promise in sales is the value that you deliver and that you can document that value. Because if you don't do that, you're going to struggle with renewals." - Steven Forth Topics Covered: 02:09 - Why Steven believes that value-based pricing and willingness to pay are distinct, with value coming first shaping willingness to pay 06:19 - How techniques from behavioral economics, like anchoring, actually impact value perception rather than solely increasing willingness to pay 07:12 - Acknowledging Mark's example of using "good-better-best" as a framing strategy but argues that it's more than just a "trick" 10:40 - Introducing his concept of generative pricing, which leverages generative AI to dynamically adjust product configurations and prices based on each buyer's context 12:35 - Steven emphasizes the need for a clear value model rather than solely relying on AI-driven willingness-to-pay estimates 14:49 - Highlights how value is not only unique to each customer but also varies over time for the same customer 17:05 - Underscoring that willingness to pay is actively shaped by how a company communicates and delivers value 18:34 - Emphasizes the need for a value model in pricing, contrasting it with software approaches like revenue management that estimate willingness to pay without actively shaping it 20:37 - Explaining why B2B pricing cannot rely on traditional price elasticity curves 21:36 - Steven's best pricing advice Key Takeaways: "Willingness to pay is an outcome that you shape. It's not something that is given to you by something outside of your product and how you sell it, and that you play a huge role in defining the context." - Steven Forth "We want people to pay a fair amount of money. If I can trick someone into paying more than something's valuable, greater than its actual value, and value in this case means the economic return they're going to get, I don't think I've done myself a service in the long term." - Steven Forth People/Resources Mentioned: Pros: https://pros.com Pricefx: https://www.pricefx.com Zilliant: https://zilliant.com Vendavo: https://www.vendavo.com Tom Nagle: https://impactpricing.com/podcast/604-insights-into-value-based-pricing-strategies-for-b2b-with-tom-nagle/ Barret Thompson: https://impactpricing.com/?s=barrett+thompson B.F. Skinner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner Connect with Steven Forth: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenforth/ Email: steven@ibbaka.com Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

4 Marras 202423min

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on August 29, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/better-stories-better-pricing/ If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

1 Marras 20242min

George Boretos has over 25 years of professional experience in leadership positions in the enterprise software market, a deep understanding of AI technologies, and a successful journey as an entrepreneur launching three startups and raising $9mn in Seed & Series A funding, working with Fortune 500 and other customers worldwide. His most recent endeavor, FutureUP, brings in this experience to help enterprises make data-driven decisions to optimize pricing, improve profitability, and accelerate growth. In this episode, George shares about using AI for price optimization, particularly in SaaS and manufacturing industries. He explains how his company, FutureUP, helps businesses analyze customer and macroeconomic data to determine optimal pricing strategies, focusing on standardized products. He also discusses AI's role in predicting pricing for new markets and the importance of taking the first step to review and adjust prices regularly. Why you have to check out today's podcast: Learn how AI is revolutionizing pricing strategies, particularly in SaaS and manufacturing sectors. Gain a deeper understanding of the key differences between pricing in B2B and B2C markets, including negotiation tactics, price variance, and strategic vs. deal-based pricing. Discover practical advice on how to approach pricing in your business, including why regular pricing reviews and value-based pricing can make a big impact. "Just start doing something. Even if this something is, okay, reexamine your prices. Not once per two years or per year, examine them every quarter of a year, at least. Not just your cost plus your margin, do something a bit more sophisticated. Ask your customers, for instance, or your partners to establish some other benchmarks and interesting price points." - George Boretos Topics Covered: 01:32 - How he got started in pricing and how he initially got into AI before pricing 03:39 - The differences between AI when he started versus today's advanced tools 05:57 - Describing his AI model and how it integrates various parameters at multiple levels 08:06 - Clarifying the common perception of AI being synonymous with neural networks as a misconception 11:04 - Explaining that for his particular model, the formulas are pre-existing and universal 12:31 - Agreeing that AI today can incorporate both internal company data and external factors 14:07 - What his company FutureUP is built out for 17:42 - How extrapolating data from one country to another can be challenging if the data sample is small 19:10 - Explaining how his company, FutureUP's model can handle both B2B and B2C markets 20:15 - Key differences between B2B and B2C pricing strategies 22:47 - How price variance is more common in B2B though in B2C there can still be significant price differences between list and actual price 23:35 - What company size does FutureUP typically targets 24:32 - George's best pricing advice 26:18 - Two main reasons companies don't often prioritize or experiment with pricing 27:55 - Why change management is crucial in pricing decisions Key Takeaways: "I do believe, and I do agree that the negotiation part and the discounting part is more complex and more interesting and more important for the B2B environment. The list prices are almost irrelevant." - George Boretos People/Resources Mentioned: FutureUP: https://www.futureup.io Connect with George Boretos: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeboretos/overlay/contact-info/ Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

28 Loka 202429min

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on August 22, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/evils-of-behavioral-economics/ If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

25 Loka 20242min