Impact Pricing

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on January 26, 2022, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/a-perspective-on-rfps/ 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/

9 Mars 20223min

Jon Lucas started as an Accounting Manager before working as the Strategic Pricing & Business Development Manager of Cornerstone Building Brands Inc. Jon loves hiking, and he is loving it even better since he moved out of Ohio. In this episode, Jon engages in a discussion with Mark Stiving about making price changes in relation to the importance of value and volatility of costs in the market nowadays.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Discover the importance of differentiating your business with the general market when thinking about value and making price changes; Learn how you can manage cost volatility and even add value when deciding on your products’ prices; and Find out why a safe and sound relationship with the sales team is a must when you’re doing pricing   “To experienced pricing managers, structure your department, borrow what everybody else in the organization is doing and have an org chart. Put some procedures around it. It kind of sounds like common sense, but I honestly don't see that happening in pricing in a lot of organizations.” – Jon Lucas   Topics Covered: 01:21 – How Jon got into pricing; Was it about value or cost plus at first? 03:00 – Jon discusses what Cornerstone does; Thinking about value and differentiating oneself in the market 07:19 – How Jon adds value as he manages cost volatility when making prices 11:29 – Rapid cost fluctuations in the industry as an excuse to change prices frequently 12:35 – Jon talks about Cornerstone’s sales cycle 15:35 – How SAS-based programs help Jon and the company in terms of pricing 16:43 – Does Cornerstone change prices weekly? 19:04 – Jon shares what it’s like working with salespeople 21:03 – Jon’s piece of pricing advice for today’s listeners 22:38 – Having more things to do beyond the role in pricing; the resistance to take on pricing projects   Key Takeaways: “When costs move, we know we need to make some kind of pricing move, and it doesn't have to be the same as the cost index. Costs could go up 5%. That doesn't mean we're necessarily going to go up by 5%, because that's where we get the value.” – Jon Lucas “You can kind of use the cost fluctuation as the starting point, then we look at where the value is, and that's where we set our prices.” – Jon Lucas “If you think your competitors are only getting up: if we're making a price decisions every week and they're making price decisions once every six weeks, we've got a much better chance of capturing more margin.” – Jon Lucas “You can put some safeguards around your cost volatility to some degree with the way that you write your contracts. You can kind of do some hedging there. But you're predicting things out in the future, and it's not always going to be perfect. You just got to do the best you can.” – Jon Lucas “You could have the best pricing in the world that you want to charge, but if you can't get it to your customers in a way that works for them, then you're nowhere.” – Jon Lucas   People / Resources Mentioned: Cornerstone Building Brands Inc.: https://www.cornerstonebuildingbrands.com/ Zilliant: https://www.zilliant.com/   Connect with Jon Lucas: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-lucas-84557840/ Email: jonwilliamlucas@gmail.com   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

7 Mars 202225min

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on January 19, 2022, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/dont-confuse-your-buyers/ 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/

4 Mars 20223min

I'm going to try to do a little math with you on this podcast, and imagine we have a company that normally makes a hundred million dollars in revenue. They've got costs of $90 million all in. So, they're making $10 million in profit. And that's not unrepresentative, that seems pretty reasonable for a lot of companies. But what happens if we could increase or improve our pricing by 1%? So instead of a hundred million, what if we got 101 million in revenue? Our costs don't really change so instead of 10 million in profit, now we're making 11 million in profit. That 1 million in improved pricing went straight to the bottom line. And in the example I just gave you then, a 1% improvement in pricing can lead to a 10% increase in profitability. This is huge. We should be looking for small places where we can increase pricing because every dollar, when we improve our pricing, goes straight to profitability. We hope you enjoyed this memecast. 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/

2 Mars 20221min

Anne Warren is the Senior Director of Global Pricing at Shure – an appliances, electrical, and electronics manufacturing company that produces best-in-class audio products with high-quality performance, reliability, and value. Anne started out as an accountant and an auditor. She's been leading pricing teams for about 20 years now. In this episode, Anne shares the power behind pricing people working with sales, finance, and marketing departments in order to better market a product in a competitive market.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Discover why pricing people serve as the connector between the finance, marketing, and sales departments of a company; Understand why rapport with those internally involved in the business is essential in marketing a product; and Know how you can establish an effective rapport with other teams aside from yours through tips from an expert   “Establishing the rapport, especially with the sales and leadership team, treating your sales leaders as business partners, and make sure they know – not that you're going to necessarily agree all the time – but that they have a voice and you are going to be collaborative with them.” – Anne Warren   Topics Covered: 01:40 – From being an auditor to becoming a pricing person 03:20 – Pricing people being that connector between finance, marketing, and sales 05:41 – Learning about the need to be collaborative across these departments 06:38 – How Anne works with salespeople 08:42 – The context of Anne’s script when talking to customers 10:24 – Mark’s four points with regards to writing a price increase letter 11:09 – Why raising prices shouldn’t be an intimidating initiative 13:33 – How Anna does what needs to be done while working with finance and salespersons 14:59 – Marketing people know the value of their products better than pricing people 16:23 – Seeing the collaboration in different perspectives 18:08 – Having a value statement and being able to share it 19:35 – Product managers being too far removed from value 22:18 – Anne’s piece of pricing advice for today’s listeners   Key Takeaways: “It’s important to take yourself outside of your role as a pricing person or as a finance person, and really think and learn, most importantly, about the other person's goals.” – Anne Warren “It's the pricing person's role to be that connector between finance, marketing, and sales.” – Anne Warren “Being transparent. Don't try to hide. Don't try to be mysterious. Be honest with your customers. I think that will definitely go a long way. And the letters that go out are fine, but I think a live discussion between a salesperson and their customer works wonders as well.” – Anne Warren “You want them to feel good about their product. You want to help call out that value proposition maybe in more less technical terms, if it's a technical product, and more about the value prop to the end user customer or B2B customer. What's in it for them and how can we monetize that? Help bridge the gap to get the salespeople confident.” – Anne Warren “Never underestimate the power of a confident salesperson.” – Anne Warren “If you're starting a new job as a pricing professional, I feel strongly you also need a good relationship with finance, but the sales teams in particular, if you have good rapport with them, you're going to make huge inroads and be very successful as a pricing professional.” – Anne Warren “Try to be as natural as you can be, as open and transparent. What is your role? Your role is to be a partner. That is the first message you should deliver to establish that rapport and mean it. Be that partner and establish that early on in the relationship. That's the best thing you can do that will give you firepower for initiatives that you want to perform later on.” – Anne Warren   People / Resources Mentioned: Shure Incorporated: http://www.shure.com Ameritech / AT&T: https://www.att.com/   Connect with Anne Warren: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-warren-214ab745/ Email:annewarren720@gmail.com   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

28 Feb 202226min

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on January 12, 2022, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/willingness-to-accept/ 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 Feb 20222min

When we think about pricing, typically we have a product in hand and we say, how much does our customer value this? How much are they willing to pay? Now, we're going to put a price tag on that. And that's really important. We want to be able to do that well. And that's typically what we think of when we think of pricing. But if we take a step or two backwards in the business process, the fact that we as pricing people understand value, we understand how customers perceive value. Imagine if the product managers or developers or whoever's defining the products that we're going to build, imagine if they understood this concept of value the way we understand the concept of value. Because then they could be creating products that our customers actually value. “The less obvious but more powerful part of pricing is creating value.”  - Mark Stiving If we think about the products or the features that we create and how they drive value, we'll end up creating better products, products that our customers love more, products that we can charge more for. So, yes, product management, the creating value part, is huge. We hope you enjoyed this memecast. 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/

23 Feb 20221min

Shantanu Basu is currently the Senior Director of Go-To Marketing Strategy and Operations at Tanium. He was Director of Strategy and Operations at Intel for a long time, and he's part of an organization called RevGenius. Shantanu got his MBA from the University of Michigan. In this episode, Shantanu discusses value chain alignment alongside the importance of knowing what your value is and understanding what your customers think what your value is.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Discover why knowing your company’s value and understanding how your customer sees value in you when doing pricing; Understand the importance of doing things one at a time, especially when communicating about the company’s value chain; and Find out why it’s necessary for you to be able to ask the right value chain alignment questions   “When you think of yourself as a pricing professional, you're doing your pricing jobs so to speak, don't limit yourself to what somebody else might consider the definition of your job. As a pricing professional, you should be able to ask questions and articulate – if you ask the right questions; articulate the value of your product across the entire value chain.” – Shantanu Basu   Topics Covered: 01:47 – How Shantanu got into pricing alongside the discussion around capturing and communicating value 04:20 – Knowing your value vs. understanding what your customers think your value is 10:34 – How he communicates with people to help them understand how the value chain inside that company looks like 13:57 – The difference between being right and being effective in doing pricing 17:58 – How to align product positioning with packaging 22:34 – Discussion around the good, better, best framework 26:35 – Briefly talking platform pricing and how it intersects with good, better, best 30:49 – Shantanu’s piece of pricing advice for today’s listeners   Key Takeaways: “Do you understand how value is created for your product, your business, your industry? Do you know how to communicate and then, hence, capture that value? It starts and ends with value. As long as you can connect those different points along the value chain, you perhaps have something to go to market with.” – Shantanu Basu “Change comes from understanding. If I don't understand how my product positioning team and/or my sales team thinks our value is, I don't know how to influence that change, assuming I am right in understanding what the customer said.” – Shantanu Basu “Every time there is a shift to be made from our steady state, you start to ask these questions and go try to reach as far back into the value chain as you can without pissing off too many people and slowing down business. It becomes an art rather than a science.” – Shantanu Basu “Change management is not about right and wrong or numbers or the customer. It's about people and the emotions and maneuvering the informal dynamics of an organization, which I would like to think it only comes with experience.” – Shantanu Basu “Pricing isn't rocket science. Influencing change via pricing and influencing the right behavior – whether of your customer, your sales rep, your CEO, or your customer success person – is where the art comes in.” – Shantanu Basu “You don't have to be an expert in every piece of the value chain. That's not your job. There are people who will always do better than you. But stretch all the way down the value chain and all the way up the value chain and feel free and empowered to ask questions at each point so that you understand the entire value chain. Because when it comes down to this “simple piece of pricing”, your understanding across the value chain is what's going to probably provide the best results, not just coming up with a number and not just coming up with X.” – Shantanu Basu   People / Resources Mentioned: Tanium: https://www.tanium.com/ Stephanie Hallford: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-hallford-ba90732   Connect with Shantanu Basu: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/basushantanu/ Email: basu@gmail.com   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

21 Feb 202233min