Why It's Worth Paying for Pricing Consultants with Dick Sobel

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on November 30, 2022, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/thoughts-on-black-friday-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/

6 Jan 20233min

This is the 10 of Hearts from the Selling Value card deck. You and your buyer have to work together if you truly want to know how much value is there. Face it, you know a lot about your product, but you don't really know the buyer's situation. You don't know how much revenue they make. You don't know how much money they're losing because they're solving, or haven't solved a specific problem. You don't know how bad that problem is. In order for you to figure out how much value they're going to get, you need a lot of information from that buyer. On the other hand, the buyer has no idea how much value they're going to get either because they've probably never bought something like your product before. They've not worked with many different customers and seen the different applications and the different problems, and they probably haven't thought through all of the sub-problems that you can solve. And so, if together we work trying to figure out what is the true value of our product, then we feel better because we now understand we're helping them make a really good decision. They feel better because they're trying to decide, is this a place where I want to spend my resources or should I spend them someplace else? Or maybe the person you're talking to has to create a business case to be able to sell it higher in the organization. In all of these cases, it makes so much sense for both of us to understand the value of solving their problems, and that only happens when we work together. We hope you enjoyed this example of pricing table topics. If you want to get better at speaking, especially about pricing and value, grab a deck of our cards, pull a random card, read the saying, and then talk for one to two minutes about what that card says. 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/

4 Jan 20232min

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

2 Jan 202325min

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on November 23, 2022, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/pricing-skills-for-subscriptions/ 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 Dec 20223min

This is the 10 of Spades from the Selling Value card deck. Yes, we never want to mention competitors until our buyers bring them up because our buyers are on a trust journey, or at least we want to assume that they are. A trust journey is where they've come to you to ask you for help figuring out, is this really a place I should be spending my resource? Is this worth the inherent value that I'm going to get when I solve the problems that I have? And what's really important when our buyers are on this trust journey is they're not saying, how are you different from your competition? They're saying, how is it that you helped solve my problem? What we want to talk to them about during this trust journey phase is, hey, what problem are you trying to solve? What's the value of solving that problem? In essence, we're helping them build a business case for why they want to make a decision like this. And we never mention competition because it's possible they don't know that our competitors exist. It's possible that in the act of helping them build that business case, they learn to trust us so much they just want to buy from us. They're not price-sensitive at that point in time. So, the rule really needs to be, we only talk about inherent value or the value of solving the problem until a buyer tells us they're looking at competitive alternatives. We hope you enjoyed this example of Pricing Table Topics. If you want to get better at speaking, especially about pricing and value, 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. 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 Dec 20222min

Steven Forth is a Partner in Ibbaka, a strategic pricing advisory firm. He was CEO of LeveragePoint Innovations Inc., a SaaS business designed to help companies create and capture value. Steven is what I consider one of the great pricing thinkers in our industry. In this episode, Steven shares Ibbaka's approach on raising prices, especially during inflation, as he discusses what's expected to happen in the pricing world next year, given all the events that's been around this 2022. Why you have to check out today's podcast: Find out why you should first segment your customers and treat them differently before you raise your prices; Learn how to approach a price increase, especially during inflation; and Discover what's possible to happen in the pricing world in 2023, especially with concerns of inflation and recession around "Learn how to build value models, and connect them to prices." – Steven Forth Topics Covered: 01:18 – Steven's perspective on whether people should be thinking about raising prices now, along with questions to ask before you do so 04:59 – What Mark teaches his clients vs. Ibbaka's approach in raising prices 09:31 – Discussion around an inaccurate representation of inflation, especially in SaaS 12:40 – "Pricing is a game that plays out over time, and you always want to make sure you're thinking three to five moves ahead. If you don't, you're going to hurt yourself." 16:16 – Taking a look at (1) the people you sell to, (2) how recession affects prices, and (3) the finance industry 20:53 – What's happening right now? What is going to be different in 2023? 26:43 – Steven's pricing advice Key Takeaways: "There may be opportunities to raise prices, but it needs to be surgical, not broad brush. And before one raises prices, one has to ask a series of questions, beginning with what is inflation doing to my customers? And is inflation making my offer more valuable to my customers? Because if it is, then you have a great reason to raise prices. But if my customers are getting in trouble and are becoming more cost conscious because of inflation, then broad brush price increases can backfire." – Steven Forth "I think the first thing you do before you raise prices is segment your customers and treat them differently." – Steven Forth "Pricing is a game that plays out over time, and you always want to make sure you're thinking three to five moves ahead. And if you don't, you're going to hurt yourself." – Steven Forth "When we hear the word inflation, we're thinking mostly about the CPI. The CPI is not what is most relevant to business. And you have to look at how inflation is impacting your customers and even your customers' customers in order to make the right pricing." – Steven Forth "If you don't have a data model that you can apply A.I. to, you are going to lose." – Steven Forth People / Resources Mentioned: Ibbaka: https://www.ibbaka.com/ 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: mailto:mark@impactpricing.com

26 Dec 202229min

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on November 16, 2022, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/an-e-commerce-price-segmentation/ 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 Dec 20222min

This one is the Jack of Diamonds from the Selling Value card deck. It's true, you need to sell like you don't have competitors. Every once in a while, you find yourself in a situation where people aren't looking at your competitive alternative, and you don't want to bring it up to them. You may recall at this point in time that they're making a 'will I' decision, remember the 'will I' versus 'which one', and when people are making the 'will I' decision, 'Am I going to buy something in this product category?', they're not price sensitive. And so, it just makes sense for us to not talk about our competition because if they say yes to us and never consider a competitive alternative, they're not going to negotiate as hard on price. They're simply looking at what's the inherent value of solving the problem, not what's the value of your product relative to a competitor's product. So, it just makes all the sense in the world to not even mention a competitor until the buyer has already brought them up. We hope you enjoy this example of Pricing Table Topics. If you want to get better at speaking, especially about pricing and value, grab a deck of our cards, pull a random card and read the saying, talk for one to two minutes about what that card says. And 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/

21 Dec 20221min