Brand Value for Big Sales: Insights from Satish Dharmarajan
Impact Pricing13 Mar 2023

Brand Value for Big Sales: Insights from Satish Dharmarajan

Satish Dharmarajan is the Director of Pricing and Business Intelligence at Orkin, He is an Advisory Board Member at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and has held analytics roles at Home Depot, Walgreens, and Whirlpool. Satish also acts in short films.

In this episode, Satish educates us on differentiating products/services from competitors of similar offerings as he stresses the importance of understanding the buyer’s journey along with the core problem that they want to solve.

Why you have to checkout today’s podcast:

  • Learn the importance of knowing what the buyer's journey is and what state they are in as they come in to buy a product
  • Find out how brands differentiate themselves from competitors when they all offer the same products/services
  • Understand how customer-perceived value helps brands sell well even with competitors

“If you know your customer, you can price it right. If you know what they're looking for, you can have them pay what you want them to pay for your product or service.”

– Satish Dharmarajan

Topics Covered:

01:50 – How Satish got into pricing

04:29 – Talking about getting to that ‘big place’ and the process that it involves in order to reach that

07:08 – The importance of knowing what the customer is specifically looking to solve

11:39 – Mark’s pigeon problem

12:40 – How brands differentiate themselves from competitors when they all offer the same products/services

17:54 – How customers choose where to buy between brands, and how pricing and packaging people should respond

20:59 – Appliance pricing at Home Depot; how customers care about price changes

23:34 – Looking at and analyzing competition; the importance of customer-perceived value

26:26 – Satish’s pricing advice

26:59 – Connect with Satish

Key Takeaways:

“That's basics of customer service, which is not too different if you were in the cellphone business, if you were in the internet business, or if you are doing anything else, selling anything else online. You would want to know what specifically that customer is looking to solve for.” – Satish Dharmarajan

“The way your products are arranged next to each other, could be used as a leverage for selling the same products at a different price point.” – Satish Dharmarajan

“As pricing professionals, you need to figure out what's the bare minimum, such that you can make sure that even the person who is coming in to replace a refrigerator is going to be willing to pay. But at the same time, it's not at a giveaway price where you're not making enough margins from the other consumers.” – Satish Dharmarajan

People / Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Satish Dharmarajan:

Connect with Mark Stiving:

Episoder(500)

The Future of SaaS Packaging with Dor Sasson

The Future of SaaS Packaging with Dor Sasson

Dor Sasson is the co-founder and CEO of Stigg, a company that helps clients grow with pricing through a software that enables them to control what can be priced and packaged separately, and make adjustments without having to do coding. He has also been a Senior Product Manager at New Relic, a technology company which develops cloud-based software to help website and application owners track the performance of their services. In this episode, Dor shares how his experience in New Relic led him to explore the field of SaaS packaging and how his company, Stigg, aims to provide solutions to packaging problems from the developers’ end.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Pickup ideas about the adjustments to be done when switching to usage-based pricing Discover how Stigg could help you on your packaging and pricing problems Learn the importance of asking the right questions in the success of businesses   “Talk to your customers, ask them about their willingness to pay. There are amazing frameworks out there for how to ask the right questions. It will unlock immense, deep understanding of how your customers think about your pricing and will really help you to nail down your own pricing strategy. – Dor Sasson   Topics Covered: 01:11 – How Dor got into pricing 03:59 – What is “entitlements”? 04:52 – Adjustments made by New Relic upon switching to usage-based pricing 08:09 – The work that Stigg actually does 15:48 – The difference between buyers and users 16:35 – Situations in the past where Stigg would’ve been a big help 20:51 – Dor’s vision and mission for his company, Stigg 23:49 – Pricing table topics: “Good, better, best” pricing is significantly more effective within a market segment 26:38 – Dor’s pricing advice   Key Takeaways: “The way we like to think about Stigg is, we want to build out an infrastructure that is so easy to implement and so easy to adopt from the application side that it makes it really fast and easy for product and growth teams to introduce new pricing plans, changes in existing pricing plans.” – Dor Sasson “The value that we unlock is for builders and growth leaders out there that are looking to use pricing as a vehicle for growth and help their companies continue to adapt to changing markets, continue to adapt to how they scale into new customer segments, and basically make sure that they give their buyers more options to use their software.” – Dor Sasson “Our North star by the end of the day is not only helping our customers be faster in the way they introduce changes and launch new pricing but also ultimately unlock growth by allowing more flexibility for their buyers to use and consume their products.” – Dor Sasson “There is no “one size fits all” in pricing. The first thing you got to do is understand in a very deep and thoughtful way, who are your customer segments, and good, better, best is actually a really good strategy to approach different customer segments and make sure that you build your pricing in a way that fits or is more aligned to the way each segment perceive value.” – Dor Sasson   People / Resources Mentioned: Stigg: https://www.stigg.io/ New Relic: https://newrelic.com/   Connect with Dor Sasson: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/datapm/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DorSasson Website: https://www.stigg.io/   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

10 Okt 202229min

Blogcast #75: Why You Should NOT Give Salespeople Discount Authority

Blogcast #75: Why You Should NOT Give Salespeople Discount Authority

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on August 31, 2022, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/why-you-should-not-give-salespeople-discount-authority/ 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/

7 Okt 20223min

Memecast #78: King of Clubs: Executives Show Interest in Value

Memecast #78: King of Clubs: Executives Show Interest in Value

This one is the King of Clubs from the Selling Value card deck. What we really want is for our salespeople to be able to communicate the value of our products to our customers. It turns out that's so much easier to do when our marketing department has figured out and created the materials and the support to help salespeople go do that. But then marketing has to understand how is it that our customers value our products. And this is so much easier to do, if our product people create products that truly have value to our customers so they understand the value that our customers get from our products. It turns out very few people truly understand how much value we get, and if we want our entire company to truly think about value, to be able to communicate value, create value, capture value, the best and easiest way to do that is for the executive team to show interest about value. And what that truly means is that executives should be asking questions, how is it that customers are going to value this new feature, this new product? How much will they value it? How is it different from our competitors and how much do they value that differentiation? What problems are we solving? What problems are we solving our competitors aren't solving? Executives showing interest in value can help drive value to be a mindset inside the entire company. We hope you enjoyed this memecast. This is also an example of how Pricing Table Topics works. Grab a deck of our cards, pull out a random card, read the saying, and then talk for one to two minutes about what that card says. This will improve your understanding and more importantly, your ability to communicate important concepts about value. If you have any questions or feedback, please email me mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact.   Connect with Mark Stiving:  Email: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

5 Okt 20222min

The Structure of SaaS Pricing and Designing SaaS Pricing Models with Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt

The Structure of SaaS Pricing and Designing SaaS Pricing Models with Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt

Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt is the partner of willingnesstopay.com where they help companies create pricing models that radically accelerates growth and unlocks the value of their underlying technology. He has founded and sold two different companies, and he has a master's degree from Harvard. He also has an upcoming book called “The Pricing Roadmap” which will be published this December. In this episode, Ulrik enumerates four (4) things that he thinks are the most important in SaaS pricing. He also shares his methods on product segmentation and explains why the traditional “good, better, and best” product tier is lacking some important details.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Learn about designing your models as well as the structure of SaaS pricing Find out how different ‘tiered packaging’ is to Mark’s idea of good, better, best Understand what prescriptive solution is and why you should not do it   “Usually, people underestimate the pricing power they have in the market. So, I see, even if you had to do it blind, the chances that you could make more money by raising prices, even poorly, is better than what you're doing.” – Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt   Topics Covered: 01:47 – How Ulrik got into pricing 05:43 – The top four things that really matter in SaaS pricing 08:22 – There are no perfect outcomes; only workable and functional outcomes 09:27 – How Ulrik does product segmentation 12:09 – What is prescriptive solution and why you should avoid it 15:19 – Ulrik’s attempt on product packaging with conjoint analysis 18:04 – What Ulrik likes about being a pricing consultant 19:45 – Ulrik’s thoughts on the three tiers of products (Good, Better, Best) 21:24 – How Ulrik actually defines the tiered packaging model 22:08 – The specifics of “Tiered Packaging”; how it's different from good, better, best 28:30 – Ulrik’s pricing advice 29:59 – Connect with Ulrik   Key Takeaways: “If you have segments that are so different that they need different pricing models and product models, that's the first thing you need to figure out.” – Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt “There are two different high level tool boxes to do price discrimination; pricing matrix and packaging. Packaging runs on functionality, and pricing metrics on some volume or usage.” – Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt “There's not a perfect outcome. There is a workable outcome, functional outcome to run through. And then you might want to go back and change something if there is a better outcome to be had.” – Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt   People / Resources Mentioned: The Pricing Roadmap: https://www.willingnesstopay.com/saas-pricing-book   Connect with Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulriklehrskovschmidt/ Website: https://www.willingnesstopay.com/ Email: ulrik@behaviouralstrategy.com   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mailto:mark@impactpricing.com

3 Okt 202231min

Blogcast #74: Qdoba Knows their Buyer’s Decision Journey

Blogcast #74: Qdoba Knows their Buyer’s Decision Journey

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on August 24, 2022, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/qdoba-knows-their-buyers-decision-journey/ 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/

30 Sep 20223min

Memecast #77: King of Hearts: Value-based Pricing is Impossible

Memecast #77: King of Hearts: Value-based Pricing is Impossible

This one is the King of Hearts from the Selling Value card deck. It's true, value-based pricing is impossible because value-based pricing simply means charge what your customers are willing to pay. And yet you don't know how much your customers are willing to pay. You can't read their mind. You don't know the answer and you never will know the answer. But instead of assuming we're ever going to get perfect, let's assume we can get better. We can adopt this as a mindset. If we're thinking always about how much is our market, our customer, willing to pay. All of a sudden, we change our thinking from cost-plus, we have to cover our cost type thinking, to, could I get more from this customer? Could I get more from this marketplace? And as we start thinking that way, we also start thinking, can I create products that deliver a little bit more value? Can I communicate my value better to my customers? Can I help my customers, or my buyers, understand that there's way more value there than they originally thought, and therefore they would be willing to pay us more money? Once we start to understand and think about how is it that our customers value our products, then we have the ability to price and capture more of that value, meaning more profit to us. We hope you enjoyed this memecast. This is also an example of how Pricing Table Topics works. Grab a deck of our cards, pull out a random card, read the saying, and then talk for one to two minutes about what that card says. This will improve your understanding and more importantly, your ability to communicate important concepts about value. If you have any questions or feedback, please email me mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact.   Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

28 Sep 20222min

Finding Value in the First Call: Asking the Right Questions with Bryan Whittington

Finding Value in the First Call: Asking the Right Questions with Bryan Whittington

Bryan Whittington is the founder of ebs/growth, a firm that helps companies create a more effective sales team. Also, he is the host of the Talent Sales & Scale podcast, and was a sales trainer for over ten years. In this episode, Bryan discusses how he handles exploratory or discovery calls. He explains how he talks with his clients and potential clients in order to find the root cause of their problems, and shares some of his techniques to get these clients to propose the possible solutions to their problems themselves.   Why you have to checkout today’s podcast: Learn how an expert like Bryan Whittington handles discovery calls Acquire new techniques in scrutinizing your clients’ problems Discover smart ways to find a solution to your clients’ problems   “Pricing is a belief. You either believe that your price is not worth what you're asking, or you're able to convey that your price is worth it to your prospect, your buyer. But price is absolutely a belief. You choose which belief you want.” – Bryan Whittington   Topics Covered: 01:15 – How Bryan got into pricing 02:08 – Selling value vs. selling a commodity 05:08 – What to avoid when having a discovery call 07:02 – How to handle a discovery call, step 1 09:23 – Why it is better to setup that next meeting 13:30 – How to handle a discovery call, step 2 14:19 – Why you shouldn’t allow your clients to rate their problem a 7/10 15:01 – How to handle a discovery call, step 3 17:59 – Finding out the root cause of the clients’ problems 22:54 – When and how to name the price of your solution based on the magnitude of the problem 24:46 – Pricing table topics: “Salespeople use every tool available to close a deal. When given authority to discount, they will use it more often than necessary” 28:20 – Bryan’s pricing advice   Key Takeaways: “Sales is how you identify what their challenges are, whether or not you can solve the problem of those challenges, and then understand the value of you fixing those problems for that organization will be, and you can charge an appropriate value for it.” – Bryan Whittington “That conversation should take anywhere between 5 to 8 minutes. And if it's longer than that, you've already started your initial first sales call, and I wouldn't suggest you do that.” – Bryan Whittington “Often, the problem that the person brings you is never really the problem. We have to identify the real root cause to know whether or not your solution will work. If your solution won't work for that root cause, then make an introduction to somebody where it will.” – Bryan Whittington   People / Resources Mentioned: ebs/growth: https://ebsgrowth.com/ Talent, Sales & Scale Podcast: https://ebsgrowth.com/podcast/   Connect with Bryan Whittington: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brywhittington/ Email: bryan@ebsgrowth.com   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

26 Sep 202230min

Blogcast #73: Training Salespeople

Blogcast #73: Training Salespeople

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on August 17, 2022, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/training-salespeople/ 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/

23 Sep 20224min

Populært innen Business og økonomi

stopp-verden
dine-penger-pengeradet
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
e24-podden
rss-borsmorgen-okonominyhetene
utbytte
pengepodden-2
livet-pa-veien-med-jan-erik-larssen
pengesnakk
finansredaksjonen
tid-er-penger-en-podcast-med-peter-warren
rss-sunn-okonomi
morgenkaffen-med-finansavisen
rss-rettssikkerhet-bak-fasaden-pa-rettsstaten-norge-en-podcast-av-sonia-loinsworth
lederpodden
stormkast-med-valebrokk-stordalen
rss-investering-gjort-enkelt
okonomiamatorene
rss-fa-makro
rss-andelige-tanker-med-camillo