The Price of Influence: Why People Don't Buy Your Ideas with Claire Wang

Claire Wang is a pricing strategist, speaker, and author of The Price of Influence. With a background spanning insurance, consulting, and commercial strategy, she helps organizations shape willingness to pay by understanding how people perceive value.

In this episode, she shares why pricing professionals need to think beyond numbers, how empathy shapes influence, and why your next great pricing skill may have nothing to do with pricing at all.

Why You Have to Check Out This Episode:

• Learn why great ideas often fail—not because they're wrong, but because people don't see their value.
• Discover how pricing principles can help you gain buy-in, influence stakeholders, and communicate more effectively.
• See why empathy and perspective-taking may be the most underrated skills in pricing leadership.

"Your idea is like the product, and the person you need a yes from is your customer."

– Claire Wang

Topics Covered:

02:10 – Why Claire Wrote The Price of Influence. Learn why Claire believes pricing professionals need to become better at communicating ideas—not just analyzing data.

05:00 – Your Idea Is a Product. Discover how pricing frameworks can help you persuade stakeholders and gain buy-in across your organization.

08:20 – How Buyers Build Willingness to Pay. Why willingness to pay isn't created at the moment of purchase—it grows through every customer interaction.

10:15 – The Real Meaning of Value. Claire explains why understanding another person's problems is the foundation of communicating value effectively.

13:00 – Shaping Willingness to Pay Starts Earlier Than You Think
See why pricing should influence product design, sales conversations, and marketing—not just the final price.

16:40 – Why Pricing Teams Need More Perspective, Not More Certainty. Learn how collaborating with sales, marketing, and product teams leads to better pricing decisions.

19:15 – Do You Want to Be Right or Effective? Mark and Claire discuss why letting go of ego is essential for influencing others and getting ideas adopted.

21:00 – Using AI as a Thinking Partner. Hear how Claire uses AI to challenge her thinking, uncover blind spots, and improve decision-making.

24:00 – The One Pricing Skill Everyone Should Develop. Claire shares the advice she believes can have the biggest impact on every pricing professional's career.

Key Takeaways:

"When you truly understand your audience, you understand their needs, you understand their hesitation, then getting a yes is almost inevitable." - Claire Wang

"A good product design process should always be having pricing people involved early on." - Claire Wang

"I would intentionally ask AI to be my sparring partner, challenge me, point out my blind spots." - Claire Wang

Connect with Claire Wang:

• Website: https://www.claire-wang.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-wang/

Connect with Mark Stiving:

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