Impact Pricing

As a consultant, coach, and 6-time executive, Amanda Northcutt has launched, grown, and scaled online businesses with fantastic results on both the individual and organizational level, while creating extraordinary, frictionless, and successful journeys for their customers.

In this episode, Amanda delves on the importance of focusing on customer retention and expansion to maximize recurring revenue. And leveraging foundational desires and social proof to enhance one's marketing efforts. She also highlights the value of dynamic and continuous pricing strategies and the need for personalized connections in sales and the impact of showing proven value to customers.

Why you have to check out today's podcast:

• Learn to prioritize expansion, not just acquiring and retaining customers, to maximize lifetime value
• Discover why it's crucial to avoid static pricing and the importance of regularly testing and adjusting your pricing
• Gain a deep understanding of your customers' core desires and master the art of leveraging social proof to create highly effective marketing strategies

"Always be testing your pricing. Your pricing should not be static. That is such a rookie mistake to think that you've nailed it the first time, or at any time really."

- Amanda Northcutt

Topics Covered:

01:39 - An accidental entry into recurring revenue

03:20 - Talking about the time of Salesforce' rise in the SaaS industry

04:46 - Sharing her journey into the subscription-based business model

05:57 - The challenges and importance of marketing and delivering value in subscription-based businesses

08:25 - An added challenge for SaaS businesses of needing a product that continuously delivers value to retain customers

10:46 - The need to create expansion opportunities with tailored solutions and the need to leverage social proof to strengthen the value proposition to potential and existing customers

13:31 - Understanding and leveraging consumer psychology and desires to drive value perception and retention in both B2B and B2C contexts.

15:46 - Expanding on customer's foundational desires as effective marketing strategies

17:21 - Helping customers achieve their goals and meet their needs rather than simply trying to make a sale.

20:06 - Describing her current work and her pricing approach for her clients' customers.

25:52 - Amanda's best pricing advice

26:57 - What it means to be always testing your pricing

Key Takeaways:

"...the whole deal with recurring revenue: If your marketing sucks, one, people aren't going to sign up. Two, if you're not delivering value over and over and over and over and over again, people are going to churn." - Amanda Northcutt

"If you truly actually care about someone and you want to help match them with a solution that is actually going to help them not only reach their foundational desires, but the real business needs that they have, that's where the most sales are going to be made." - Amanda Northcutt

"Desperation is the enemy of all sales, ever." - Amanda Northcutt

"Another element of closing the deal in an automated sales funnel is that guarantee is very, very, very important. It's right up there with social proof." - Amanda Northcutt

People/Resources Mentioned:

• Texas A&M University: https://www.tamu.edu/
• TexAgs.com: https://texags.com
• Marc Benioff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Benioff
• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/ap/
• Alan Weiss: https://alanweiss.com/about-alan-weiss/
• Convertkit: https://convertkit.com
• Active Campaign: https://www.activecampaign.com/
• Amazon Prime Video: https://www.primevideo.com/

Connect with Amanda Northcutt:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/northcuttamanda/
• Email: [email protected]

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: [email protected]

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on April 4, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go.

Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/discover-our-custom-pricing-gpt/

If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at [email protected].

Now, go make an impact.

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

Sundar Ramanathan is a Banking Product and Pricing Executive with experience in exceeding/meeting growth, capital, liquidity, and profitability objectives through product and pricing levers.

In this episode, Sundar emphasizes the importance of moving beyond product commoditization, instead, focusing on creating value through customer experiences, and pricing as the outcome of value creation.

Why you have to check out today's podcast:

• Discover the fascinating concept of the indifference curve in the context of pricing banking products
• Learn the art of developing a customer-centric approach to pricing banking products, taking into account essential factors for success
• Find out how you can implement value pricing strategies, even with commoditized banking products

"On the retail banking side, we hear commoditization a lot. But I think there is an opportunity to go beyond that. I think products disappear and experiences emerge, and experience is what creates value. And value can be priced."

- Sundar Ramanathan

Topics Covered:

01:36 - How he found himself in pricing

02:47 - Talking about examples of banking products

04:39 - Is bank's pricing based on value or cost

09:15 - The importance of balancing cost and value and highlighting the indifference curve in pricing

11:55 - Determining the area of indifference in banking pricing

16:06 - How to let borrowers decide in your favor over your competitors

19:37 - Where you create value pricing in banking products

22:06 - Sundar's best pricing advice

Key Takeaways:

"The product structure and pricing might be commoditized, but where you create the value and enhance your pricing margin is the experience." - Sundar Ramanathan

"You will never know the right pricing unless you are bold enough to make those decisions to test that elasticity and have a plan B." - Sundar Ramanathan

"You can only create value by removing the friction as much as possible compared to competition." - Sundar Ramanathan

"You can never win by pricing." - Sundar Ramanathan

Connect with Sundar Ramanathan:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sundar

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: [email protected]

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on March 28, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go.

Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/show-me-the-value/

If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at [email protected].

Now, go make an impact.

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

Vivek Anand leads a team of data scientists, statisticians and operations research professionals that apply Data Science and Operations Research techniques to build production ready solutions for problems related to Price Optimization, Inventory Management, and Fulfillment Optimization for a Fortune Fashion retailer.

In this episode, Vivek delves into the strength of combining science and machine learning to make informed pricing decisions. He emphasizes the importance of starting small and continuously enhancing strategies through data-driven approaches. It also explores the differences in B2C and B2B pricing, the impact of AI on supporting salespeople, and the challenges of misaligned incentives in achieving business success.

Why you have to check out today's podcast:

• Understand the need for compensation structures and incentives to align with business objectives that support desired outcomes
• Discover how AI is impacting the way salespeople handle pricing and negotiation
• Learn how to leverage both science and machine learning to make more informed pricing decisions

"If you're new to the journey, start small. You don't have to go and build a transformer network on day one. Even a simple EDA, Exploratory Data Analysis, can give you a ton of insights than just a guesswork."

- Vivek Anand

Topics Covered:

01:19 - What paved his way into pricing

03:26 - How credit risk and interest risk influence pricing derivatives

04:37 - Thoughts on quantifying risks

05:36 - Data science in relation to AI advancement

07:39 - AI capabilities in capturing contextual and temporal information and other pricing techniques using AI

11:30 - Talking about AI and extrapolation

12:47 - B2C pricing versus B2B pricing and the significant difference in data availability between the two

18:38 - How AI can be utilized in the B2B world to assist salespeople in pricing and negotiation

23:57 - Vivek's one best pricing advice

Key Takeaways:

"B2C is mostly, pricing is a lever to generate demand. Whereas in B2B, it's more of a lever to gauge the willingness to pay from the customer's standpoint." - Vivek Anand

"I think data science is a big tent, and AI is a part of it." - Vivek Anand

"The way I think about AI is like, instead of making it heuristics, it learns from the data or it just comes up with a mechanism that just translates input to the output, more systemic, faster learning and can be deployed at scale." - Vivek Anand

Connect with Vivek Anand:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/va2260/

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: [email protected]

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on March 21, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go.

Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/a-value-perception-gap/

If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at [email protected].

Now, go make an impact.

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

Steven Forth is Ibbaka's Co-Founder, CEO, and Partner. Ibbaka is a strategic pricing advisory firm. He was CEO of LeveragePoint Innovations Inc., a SaaS business.

In this episode, Steven delves into the dynamic world of pricing strategies as revealed through the lens of the Professional Pricing Society event. He talks about the latest developments, innovative practices, and thought-provoking discussions emerging from these events of pricing professionals. From uncovering cutting-edge pricing technologies to dissecting evolving pricing trends that offer valuable insights to help you in navigating the ever-changing landscape of pricing strategies especially where AI is concerned.

Why you have to check out today's podcast:

• Discover what's in store for this year's Professional Pricing Society conferences
• Find out the significant and engaging topics discussed in the PPS event
• Look forward to Steven's valuable insights and key points on pricing trends and innovations, particularly in relation to AI

"The other problem or challenge, I think, that one can have with AI-based approaches to pricing is the sort of black box nature. And generative AI, gives something of a path forward for that."

- Steven Forth

Topics Covered:

01:46 - Steven highlighting how the Professional Pricing Society [PPS] listens to Impact Pricing podcast

03:29 - Professional Pricing Society's calendar of events this year

04:39 - What's coming up for this year's event: Return of the book store

06:25 - Featured and notable books available at the event

09:54 - Other interesting things coming up for PPS' event

11:28 - Steven's important thoughts on pricing sustainability and some examples on point

15:41 - What differentiates a value model from a sustainability model as far as Ibbaka's concerned

17:26 - What he thinks of these big pricing vendors approach to AI

18:46 - Talking about pricing industry frustration and the black box nature of AI and the shift to generative AI

21:19 - Discussing the application of generative AI in a dynamically configuring software and its implications on the pricing strategies

24:56 - Sharing about the scale and complexity of traditional value model as well as the potential of generative AI to quickly adapt to different pricing and value configurations

28:39 - Watch out for an upcoming webinar on May 23rd

29:08 - What he thinks of people's reception to his presentation at the Professional Pricing Society's conference

Key Takeaways:

"Feel good metrics or social responsibility, none of those things are really going to get people to buy and pay for sustainable solutions. It has to be tied to value, and you have to be able to show that your green solution provides more value than the competing solutions." - Steven Forth

"I think the secret here, at least from a pricing and modeling approach, is to find those variables that get used across the different models. And by having the same variable used in different models you can pull sustainability together with value together with pricing." - Steven Forth

People/Resources Mentioned:

• Arnab Sinha Impact Pricing Episode 564: https://impactpricing.com/podcast/564-exploring-game-changing-pricing-dynamics-for-different-industries-with-arnab-sinha/
• Game Changer: How Strategic Pricing Shapes Businesses, Markets, and Society by Jean-Manuel Izaret and Arnab Sinha: https://www.amazon.com/Game-Changer-Strategic-Pricing-Business/dp/1394190581
• Stephan Liozu Impact Pricing Episode 582: https://impactpricing.com/?s=stephan+liozu
• Nick Nalepa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-nalepa/
• Stop Racing In A Blindfold!: Big Data + Pricing Science Drive Bigger Profits by Jim Vaughn: https://www.amazon.com/Stop-Racing-Blindfold-Pricing-Science/dp/099068380X
• Michelin: https://www.michelinman.com
• Hydropoint: https://www.hydropoint.com
• Vendavo: https://www.vendavo.com
• Pros: https://pros.com
• PriceFX: https://www.pricefx.com
• Totogi: https://www.totogi.com/
• Resilience: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/resilient-pricing-for-uncertain-world

Connect with Steven Forth:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenforth/
• Email: [email protected]

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: [email protected]

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on March 14, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go.

Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/using-value-to-break-down-silos/

If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at [email protected].

Now, go make an impact.

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

Rishi Bhatia is an experienced analytics consultant, data expert and market research professional with domain expertise in retail, technology, telecom, apparel, manufacturing, and insurance domain.

In this episode, Rishi shares about Walmart's lower pricing strategy. He emphasizes the importance of prioritizing the customer when determining pricing strategies. He also highlights the significance of leveraging data and analytics to inform pricing decisions. And also the importance of adopting AI-driven models to streamline operations and remain competitive in the market.

Why you have to check out today's podcast:

• Learn how Walmart maximizes profitability while maintaining its everyday low prices
• Discover how AI revolutionizes the retail industry by enabling retailers to make informed pricing decisions, rather than just providing pricing insights
• Explore the impact of retail pricing on customer loyalty and retention

"Put your customer first. Rather than going for the traditional route, learn from the data as much as you can. And then, improve your models constantly based on how can you get the prices right."

- Rishi Bhatia

Topics Covered:

01:01 - How he found himself in pricing

02:46 - Why everyday low price policy for Walmart and how do they maximize revenue with this strategy

03:46 - Pricing and how it affects loyalty and retention

05:18 - What makes Walmart's margins high other than lower prices

06:48 - How AI in pricing optimization has evolved from basic insights generation to sophisticated model-driven recommendations

08:41 - Is AI a blackbox and how the process works in achieving pricing decision

11:31 - Walmart's primary focus regarding pricing decisions and how AI ensures timely transitions between product cycles and maintaining profitability

13:47 - How algorithms and recommendations ensures consistency and optimization across the retail chain

14:44 - Discussion around Wendy's dynamic pricing

19:49 - Rishi's response to Mark's advice for retailers and also talking about Walmart Plus

21:15 - Rishi's best pricing advice

23:12 - How do you measure value in retail products

Key Takeaways:

"Value pricing, what does your customer want, at what price your customer will be more loyal to you and what will they... because pricing is one component that everyone wants low price." - Rishi Bhatia

"When you're putting the product, rather than going for the traditional route, learn from the data as much as you can and improve your models constantly based on that, how can you get the prices right." - Rishi Bhatia

"If you're able to improve on that and the customer, your overall complaints are also going down. And that is one value you can measure from that perspective as well. It's not always in the monetary term, it's always on the customer satisfaction side as well." - Rishi Bhatia

People/ Resources Mentioned:

• Walmart: https://www.walmart.com
• Uber: https://www.uber.com

Connect with Rishi Bhatia:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishi-bhatia-5480577/

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: [email protected]

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on March 7, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go.

Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/to-fee-or-not-to-fee-that-is-the-question/

If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at [email protected].

Now, go make an impact.

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/