Disrupting Pricing with AI: Insights from Steven Forth

Todd Snelgrove is the Senior Director; Value Advisory at SAP. He is a value advisor who helps companies get paid for the value they create. In this episode, Todd discusses the fundamental importance of value quantification in pricing and emphasizes the need for a structured process to carry it out effectively.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Discover the importance of prioritizing value over solely relying on the behavioral economics of pricing when it comes to pricing strategies Find out the effectiveness of quantifying value over simply offering discounts Learn about what constitutes a value conversation   "Have a structured process to quantify customer value. It’s not as hard as people think. Even if you're not perfect at it, it's better than nothing." - Todd Snelgrove   Topics Covered: 01:05 - How Todd got into pricing 02:19 - Quantifying value in B2C  04:13 - The subconscious way of quantifying value 05:38 - Why behavioral economics matter less in B2B 08:05 - The decoy effect in pricing and how some tricks used in B2C doesn't work in B2B 12:16 - Evolving power dynamics in procurement and how salespeople should navigate dealings with procurement in different scenarios 17:31 - Performance guarantee over discount 20:26 - What transpires in a value conversation 22:20 - The telling versus the asking in a value conversation 25:20 - Tod's one piece of best pricing advice 26:18 - Why not many companies quantify value 27:08 - Todd’s book: Value First Then Price 29:09 - Tying cost and benefits to a value conversation   Key Takeaways: "When you talk about value, talk about real dollars. It's okay to list benefits and all these other things. But when you say value, show how that's going to be more profitable." - Todd Snelgrove "I spend a lot of my time getting procurement to realize that 10% value per year is better than a 10% price cut." - Todd Snelgrove "Price becomes an issue but only after you've discussed value." - Todd Snelgrove   Resources/People Mentioned: Value First then Price by Todd Snelgrove: https://expertsinvalue.com/books AstraZeneca: https://www.astrazeneca.com/   Connect with Todd Snelgrove: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddsnelgrove/ Email: todd@expertsinvalue.com   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

22 Jan 202432min

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on December 14, 2023, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/growth-comes-from-value/ 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/

19 Jan 20245min

This one is the 10 of Hearts from the Impact Pricing card deck. Besides the alliteration of that meme, the two concepts are crucial. Pricing is possibly the most powerful marketing mix variable you have access to. You must have seen the reports that say, hey, if you could increase price by 1%, that likely increases your profitability by 10% for most companies or an average company. Well, the only reason somebody is ever going to buy something from you is because they perceive that there's more value to them than it costs them in your price. And so, that means we need to be focused on what's the value to the customer. We need to know, how are they perceiving that value? What is the value that they're willing to exchange or they're thinking about as they exchange their hard earned money to buy your product? When we think about these two concepts, then pricing and value, they go really hand in hand, very closely related. I know many companies ignore pricing, that you set it and forget it, and they need to think about that more. But even more companies are clueless about value. How is it that your customers perceive value? You really should be spending more time, more energy, thinking about both of those concepts, pricing and value. And they go really, really well together. We hope you enjoyed this example of Pricing Table Topics. What you just heard was done without a script, obviously. 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/

17 Jan 20242min

Maciej Wilczyński is a pricing expert and Partner at Valueships, a consultancy boutique specializing in software, cloud, subscription, and digital businesses. He is also a lecturer and faculty at the Wroclaw University of Economics, where he has finished his PhD title in strategic management, writing a thesis about software-as-a-service companies and their pricing capabilities. He gained consulting experience at McKinsey & Company, where he led the EMEA part of Agile Insights solutions focused on digital marketing and customer insights. In this episode, Maciej discusses the potential positive impact on your SaaS pricing when considering the removal of grandfathering for customers.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Discover significant insights to expanding your business and boosting your income with SaaS pricing strategies Understand the ins and outs of SaaS pricing and gain insights into how companies can effectively gauge the value of their offerings, empowering them to make confident decisions in pricing Unlock valuable insights about grandfathering customers and potentially double your income   "Value-based pricing has an ability to at least double your current business." - Maciej Wilczynski   Topics Covered: 01:33 - Just wasn't cut out for a metal band fame 02:22 - How he got into pricing 04:19 - What Valueships is all about 05:31 - B2B SaaS pricing and what makes it interesting 08:12 - Buying growth with pricing 10:31 - Four major reasons companies don't raise prices 14:20 - Important thoughts on companies grandfathering customers [effect on short-term and long-term] 19:18 - No such thing as lifetime pricing  22:29 - Why pricing is hard and where should you get the motivation to increase price 24:57 - What you should bear in mind when increasing prices: listen to the majority and not to the few complaining minority 29:03 - Connecting your price increase to a customer-centric narrative 30:51 - Maciej's best pricing advice   Key Takeaways: "You should forget the word forever or lifetime in pricing." - Maciej Wilczyński "Where should companies look for the courage and energy to do it [pricing] is purely from value exercise." - Maciej Wilczyński "To really understand the value, run as many case studies as you can, quantified case studies, try calculating the ROI of your service initially internally as an exercise, as a workshop in exercise, and then move and try to do it with your customers to see the power of the product." - Maciej Wilczyński "Pricing starts from value, but if you're afraid of raising prices, simply look at your churn rates. If they're below four or 3%, you're good to go." - Maciej Wilczyński   People/Resources Mentioned: Patrick Campbell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickccampbell Zappos: https://www.zappos.com Stephan Liozu: https://impactpricing.com/podcast/classic-value-based-pricing-how-to-get-started-and-how-to-succeed-with-stephan-liozu/ Appsumo: https://appsumo.com Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/ph-en/ Utpal M. Dholakia: https://hbr.org/2021/06/if-youre-going-to-raise-prices-tell-customers-why   Connect with Maciej Wilczyński: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilczynskim/   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

15 Jan 202433min

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on December 7, 2023, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/dont-do-what-sirius-xm-did/ 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/

12 Jan 20243min

This one is the 10 of Spades from the Impact Pricing card deck. When we think about what a buyer's decision process is, think about the two decisions they have to make, 'will I' and 'which one'. And it's really important for us to understand which of those decisions were pricing for. The 'will I' decision simply asks, the buyers asking the question, should I buy something in this product category? That's a budgetary decision. They're really saying, is this problem valuable enough for me to spend money to go solve? When we're thinking about pricing and someone's only making that 'will I' decision, we need to be thinking about, what's the value of solving the problem?  The other decision the buyer might be making is the 'which one' decision. 'Which one' is, okay, I've decided I want to solve this problem. Now, am I going to buy your product or a competitor's product? How am I going to go solve this problem? They're deciding which one. And here, the pricing decision you have to make is what's the price of your product relative to the price of the competitive products. Relative to the price of the alternatives. And of course you must take into account the value of your advantages compared to your competitors.  So, as you're thinking about your pricing decisions, think really hard what's the decision our buyers are making. Are they deciding 'will I'? Will I buy something in this product category? Or are they deciding 'which one'? Which product will I buy? We hope you enjoyed this example of Pricing Table Topics. What you just heard was done without a script. 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/

10 Jan 20242min

Jeet Mukherjee is the Chief Strategy Officer at Holden Advisors. He is responsible for designing and executing the strategic vision for the company. His role includes developing intellectual property, new product offerings, and key partnerships for scalable growth and innovation across the business. In this episode, Jeet delves into the nuanced strategies behind pricing power, featuring real-world examples, including iPhone and Intel's successful utilization of pricing power.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Discover the transformative power of value-based pricing gaining a profound understanding of its essence and significance Find out why many fail in selling from a value-based perspective and how you can break free from the conventional approaches that limit your pricing potential Uncover the nuances of driving pricing power, recognizing the pivotal role of context and the imperative need for precise segmentation   "As pricers, we need to have more confidence in our calculation of differential value in what we do to come up with our prices. And we should not be afraid to test and experiment, and change, and see, and track the difference in volumes we get and make adjustments. It's okay." - Jeet Mukherjee   Topics Covered: 01:33 - Blessed to have worked with two pricing gurus and all praises to Tom Nagle 02:36 - Defining value-based pricing 03:30 - Describing his journey into pricing and what made him love it 06:38 - Why most don't sell from a value-based perspective 08:48 - Pricing as a much bigger topic many struggle with 11:59 - Understanding pricing power 19:38 - What you can use to drive pricing power, having the right context to understand who's got proper pricing power, and the need for precise segmentation 23:20 - Intel doing a great job in a push-pull marketing and building more brand equity 26:16 - Zappos nailing it in customer service 27:47 - Discussing price sensitivity in relation to pricing power [iPhone versus Samsung] 30:13 - Jeet's best pricing advice   Key Takeaways: "I think we're changing the aperture and we're going through this process of pricing power to define it and understand it, because we're looking at it from more of a continuum." - Jeet Mukherjee "Pricing has to be looked at as dynamic value drivers over time." - Jeet Mukherjee "...you have to have that context to understand better who's got the pricing power by being more precise on the segmentation, as well as being very precise on the region that you're going to have a little bit of an anomaly." - Jeet Mukherjee   People/Resources Mentioned: Tom Nagle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-tom-nagle-2bb2288/ Reed Holden: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reed-holden-913ab69/ Ingram Micro: https://www.ingrammicro.com/ HP: https://www.hp.com/ph-en/home.html Dell: https://www.dell.com/en-us Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/ Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/homepage.html Zappos: https://www.zappos.com Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/   Connect with Jeet Mukherjee: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeet-mukherjee-58462a1/ Email: jeetmukherjee@holdenadvisors.com   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

8 Jan 202432min

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on November 30, 2023, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/classic-the-art-of-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/

5 Jan 20243min