Impact Pricing

Alex Galkin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Competera, a pricing optimization SaaS company converting technologies into ready-to-use products for enterprise retailers worldwide. Alex has been a mentor at his startups for several years, and he's a Ukrainian who left four days before the war started.

In this episode, Alex helps us understand the pricing and ML work that they do at Competera as he talks about the three models they always put into use.

Why you have to check out today's podcast:

• Understand why you should treat pricing as a process
• Find out how Competera helps their clients in making pricing decisions
• Discover three models that Competera puts into use as MLs look for reasonable factors to make a price adjustment

"Pricing is a process, and you need to continuously improve as any other process in your organization."

– Alex Galkin

Topics Covered:

01:04 – How Alex got into pricing

03:07 – The work that Competera does in relation to pricing, and how they do it

08:28 – Using ML-driven price recommendations: Competera creating a 'gray box'

12:35 – Talking about the portfolio-wide pricing/portfolio optimization

14:12 – An ML example of the decoy effect

17:20 – Alex explains how their smart product segmentation works; a product bringing more people in the store

23:09 – Alex's pricing advice

23:49 – Connect with Alex Key Takeaways:

"ML is not a human. He's not trying to play with the price; he's changing only if he sees the reasonable factor to make this price adjustment." – Alex Galkin

People / Resources Mentioned:

• Competera: https://competera.net/

Connect with Alex Galkin:

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

Connect with Mark Stiving:

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

This one is the 7 of Hearts from the Selling Value card deck.

It is true, value propositions really are awesome.

Marketing teams, companies, sit around to try to figure out, what's the value proposition of this product? And it turns out that we can often come up with something that's pretty good, pretty general. It essentially is the solution to a problem that most people have, and we think of that as the value proposition.

But the thing is, the value proposition isn't specific enough. Anytime you go to an individual customer, or an individual buyer, they've got different problems. Maybe our value proposition caught their attention, got them to come talk to us.

But in the end, we need to understand, what are the specific problems that that buyer has? What's the result that that buyer's looking to achieve? And then help them figure out, what's the business case for that? How much value, or additional profit, will they make because they're solving those specific problems?

So, I love value propositions. They're just not magic words that are enough to get people to buy.

We hope you enjoyed this example of Pricing Table Topics. What you just heard was done without a script. If you want to get better at speaking about pricing and value, grab a deck of our cards, pick a card, read the saying, and then talk for one to two minutes about what that card says. You'll become a better speaker and expert.

If you have any questions or feedback, please email me, [email protected].

Now, go make an impact.

Connect with Mark Stiving:

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

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on February 22, 2023, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go.

Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/lessons-from-the-library/

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/

Casey Brown is the President of Boost Pricing, and she has been since 2011. She started her career as a Chemical Engineer at GE, and she's been in pricing for almost 20 years now. Casey loves whitewater kayaking, and she's a big Buckeye fan.

In this episode, Casey explains how important it is for sellers to connect with the emotional component of the buyer/s as she shares her knowledge on how to substantially increase your ability to earn higher prices.

Why you have to check out today's podcast:

• Learn how crucial the seller's mindset and beliefs are to the business' profitability, especially as to whether they're operating from a place of confidence or fear
• Find out why you should not put the blame on cost increases when doing a price increase
• Understand the power of taking into consideration the emotional component, like selling value through the language, mind, and heart of your customer

"I have yet to find, even in this current economic climate, a company that doesn't have some pricing opportunity, and I would just ask everyone to keep looking for it. It's there." – Casey Brown

Topics Covered:

01:33 – How Casey got into pricing 04:54 – Mark to Casey: Why don't I know you? Why have I never seen you before? 07:00 – The biggest problem in sales being the lack of recognition that there's a problem 09:33 – Is Casey trying to compete with people who are doing sales training and education? Both yes and no 11:33 – An exchange of Mark's and Casey's magic formulas in communicating price increases 15:05 – More about blaming costs and cost-plus pricing 18:02 – Teaching salespeople how to properly sell value 20:40 – Convincing Mark that the emotional component is as important in B2B as it is in B2C 29:17 – Casey's pricing advice 30:08 – Connect with Casey Brown

Key Takeaways:

"Our entire profession – we are the best kept secret in business. And frankly, if more people understood how impactful pricing is to the profitability and how easy it is to pull that lever, there'd be a lot more of us." – Casey Brown

"It does not occur to most people that the biggest opportunity to make a huge improvement in your pricing performance very quickly is not necessarily to fix your strategy, but instead to help the team understand the skill set and mindset gaps that your team has." – Casey Brown

"Connecting with the emotional component of the buyer is not just a consumer phenomenon." – Casey Brown

People / Resources Mentioned:

• Pricing with Confidence (Reed Holden's book): https://www.amazon.com/Pricing-Confidence-Leaving-Money-Table/dp/0470197579

Connect with Casey Brown:

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

Connect with Mark Stiving:

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

This one is the 7 of Spades from the Selling Value card deck.

It is true that when a buyer's asking for help justifying a purchase, this is the ultimate opportunity to influence that sale.

Let's take a step back for just a minute and think about what a customer is going through. And if you ever have the opportunity to help a buyer understand their underlying problems, what's the value of solving those problems, you've become a trusted advisor. You've become someone that this company, this person, looks to for real information so they can make smart decisions.

Now, this is a very different decision process than, how is your product better than somebody else's product? Instead, they've brought you in to help create the business case. What a great position.

And if we go to the table that I have in the Selling Value book, you'll find that this is the beginning of the trust or the relationship journey. Where they say to you, would you please help me answer, is this a good place for me to spend my money? Is this a good place for my budget?

And if we can help them with that, not only have we helped them solve a problem they're trying to solve, but we've built that trust and credibility in their eyes that no competitor could ever catch up to. So absolutely, this is the biggest opportunity you have to influence that sale.

We hope you enjoyed this example of Pricing Table Topics. What you just heard was done without a script. If you want to get better at speaking about pricing and value, grab a deck of our cards, pick a card, read the saying, and then talk for one to two minutes about what that card says. You'll become a better speaker and expert.

If you have any questions or feedback, please email me, [email protected].

Now, go make an impact.

Connect with Mark Stiving:

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

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on February 15, 2023, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go.

Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/amc-changes-pricing-finally/

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/

Griff Parry is the Founder and CEO of m3ter where he helps make it easy for SaaS companies to intelligently deploy and manage usage-based pricing. He's led AWS' go-to market strategy for games and gambling in EMEA, and his background includes entertainment at Sky TV and accounting at Ernst & Young. Griff was an extra in the movie "First Night" around 1993.

In this episode, Griff shares the work that they do at m3ter in helping customers deploy and manage usage-based pricing. He also discusses common pricing challenges, especially on doing a price change, emphasizing the importance of agility and transformation.

Why you have to checkout today's podcast:

• Understand the importance of having the agility to change pricing models quickly and in different situations, especially as to why pricing is not a one-and-done thing
• Discover how m3ter helps SaaS companies make it easy to deploy and manage usage-based pricing
• Find out in which circumstance usage-based pricing works best as you learn about different pricing philosophies

"Particularly in these market conditions, I would suggest that you set yourself up so that you can customize pricing by customer, or do more of that. There is a lot of money you'll be leaving on the table if you have a one-size-fits-all pricing strategy."

– Griff Parry

Topics Covered:

01:49 – How Griff got into pricing

03:05 – What m3ter aims to solve in relation to usage-based pricing

05:06 – Delivering agility to the customers (why pricing is not a one-and-done thing)

08:57 – How m3ter helps customers find the right pricing model for the right situation

11:30 – Circumstances wherein you'd want to use usage-based pricing

14:45 – Pricing is an exchange of value between you and your customers

16:09 – Bill for overage over cap vs. renegotiate next year (tips on do's and don'ts)

20:02 – Platform versus solution pricing (pricing philosophy of AWS and m3ter)

30:59 – Griff's pricing advice

33:05 – Connect with Griff

Key Takeaways:

"Pricing is complicated; it involves lots of people. You need to bring them together so that they can plan and deploy those changes." – Griff Parry

"Pricing is very definitely not one-and-done." – Griff Parry

"To work out what you want to price, you have to look at what's going on at the moment. You have to have ready access to data about what people are consuming and how they respond to pricing changes." – Griff Parry

"Pricing is an exchange of value between you and your customers. If they understand that they should pay more because they're using more or getting more value, that's fantastic; that's great for both parties." – Griff Parry

People / Resources Mentioned:

• m3ter: https://www.m3ter.com

Connect with Griff Parry:

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

Connect with Mark Stiving:

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

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on February 8, 2023, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go.

Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/a-price-signaling-example/

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/

This one is the 8 of Diamonds from the Selling Value card deck.

Let's say that you are in a marketplace where people almost always decide between your product and competitor's products. Gee, could I think of some? How about an automobile, right? You happen to be the Audi dealer and somebody is, somebody just crashed their car and we think they're going to walk into our Audi dealership.

In our mind we're thinking, Hey, they're not only looking at us, but they're also looking at BMW or Mercedes or Lexus or Porsche, right? There's lots of different places where they might be go looking at my competitive alternatives. And so as a salesperson, I might be thinking, Ohh, I've got to sell against all of these other problems, or all of these other competitive alternatives.

On the other hand, it is very possible that somebody walks into our showroom and isn't going to consider a competitive alternative. They walk into our showroom because somebody told them that we are the best product, we're the best dealership, and they should go buy a product from us. And they're not even going to go look at somebody else.

Or maybe they walked into our showroom because they've owned three Audis in the past. They're an Audi loyalist. And they're going to come in and buy another Audi from us because that's what they drive. That's who they identify as.

There are lots of reasons why people might choose to just buy your product. What we want to do is think about, what are those different situations? What are those different mindsets where people might just be looking at our product and not a competitive alternative? And the reason this is so important is because when we can recognize those reasons, we don't have to give big discounts.

People are going to buy from us because we solve their problem, not because we're cheaper than a competitor.

We hope you enjoyed this example of Pricing Table Topics. What you just heard was done without a script. If you want to get better at speaking about pricing and value, grab a deck of our cards, pick a card, read the saying, then talk for one to two minutes about what that card says. You'll become a better speaker and expert.

If you have any questions or feedback, please email me, [email protected].

Now, go make an impact.

Connect with Mark Stiving:

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

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:

• Orkin: https://www.orkin.com/

Connect with Satish Dharmarajan:

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

Connect with Mark Stiving:

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