Impact Pricing

Kevin Mitchell is the President of The Professional Pricing Society (PPS), the worldwide professional organization dedicated to pricing training, education, and networking. 

In this episode, Kevin shares what a pricing professional should be -- one that is not only adept at pricing strategies but can articulate, communicate, and negotiate in and outside the organization.  

He also talks about the pricing career path that the Professional Pricing Society provides in its pricing education. He doubles down on saying that every money that goes into what the company spends on and the revenue generated ties back to a pricing decision at one point in time.  

That’s why it is best to learn and understand pricing so we can make the best decisions. Because this would impact the organization and the people who work hard to create value in the products and services available to the consumers. 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Find out how to be a great pricing professional with pricing leadership
• Learn about the pricing education Professional Pricing Society provides for someone in terms of forging a pricing career path
• Hear about the future of pricing considering the uncertainty that concerns us at this time

“Everything in your company, all the profitability, all of your salaries, all of your bosses' salaries, every Dollar, Yen, Euro, Won that comes into your organization has a pricing decision attached to it.”

- Kevin Mitchell

Topics Covered:

01:49 - What made Kevin start a Pricing career

04:54 - Professional Pricing Society being a subscription company

06:19 - Who joins the Professional Pricing Society

08:09 - What is a pricing professional

11:22 - Two things that a company does in terms of R&D, product development, marketing

15:56 - How does PPS does education on pricing leadership

18:06 - Thoughts on the pricing landscape COVID and post COVID

25:19 - Changing names but keeping the value

26:43 - Best pricing advice that could impact your business

Key Takeaways:

“For a lot of individuals, pricing people, it's our job to make sure that we keep the lights on and keep everything running. And we do that because a lot of people invest a lot of resources in creating whatever it is that our company does, it's our job to make sure that we are adequately compensated for that.” - Kevin Mitchell

“The price is often the first impactful thing about a product or service. And it is our job to manage that.” - Kevin Mitchell

“To be a great pricing professional, you have to be an artist and also a scientist at certain levels. Certainly, you do need the mathematical, data, analysis background. But I think sometimes we can be lacking in communication, on the negotiation with others inside and outside of our company. I think both are very, very important about what we're trying to get across.” - Kevin Mitchell

“All of the money that comes into any organization, and therefore all of our salaries, all of the benefits that we get, that's all tied to a pricing decision at one point, and it's just a matter of, are we going to have our influence in it or are we going to let the marketplace decide?” - Kevin Mitchell

“It's so important that we should all be in the mind-frame that we're going to learn as much about it as we can to make the best decisions for ourselves, for our companies, and for all of the people in our organizations who work so hard to create the value in the products and services that we deliver to the marketplace.” - Kevin Mitchell

People/ Resources mentioned:

• Ford
• Xerox
• IBM
• Tom Nagel
• Reed Holden
• Eric Mitchell

Connect with Kevin Mitchell:

• LinkedIn
• pricingsociety.com

Connect with Mark Stiving: 

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Brooks Hamilton is the Vice President of Services at Zilliant.  He is responsible for Services sales, the technical team, engagement methodology, partner enablement, and training across multiple countries as well as assist building Zilliant's brand via industry speaking engagements. Zilliant is a global company with blue-chip customers around the world.

In this episode, Brooks shares how tariffs can make changes on your cost basis and impact your company’s bottom line. That’s why companies who respond quickly in their pricing and have a better understanding of their pricing and tools fare better than those who are not. He also talks about price modes and how clarity and knowledge about it can turn more revenues for your company.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Find out why you should care about tariff pricing and what you can do to protect your company’s bottom line
• Learn and understand pricing mode to turn more profit dollars for your company
• Understand how pricing culture affects the usage of pricing mode to effect changes in price the best way possible

“Pricing clarity to understand the different mechanisms, to understand who owns them, and the decision-making process that's behind them. So that each level of that process is solving the approach in the best way possible.”

- Brooks Hamilton

Topics Covered:

01:37 - How Brooks’ career in Pricing started

03:32 - What is a tariff

05:03 - How tariffs impact cost basis and a company’s revenue

06:03 - Important questions you ask yourself when faced with a tariff concern

07:55 - Contributing factors that can help in the decision to increase price brought about by a tariff

09:15 - Why Zilliant cares about tariff pricing

10:35 - What plagues organizations of all sizes

10:57 - What are a price mode and the mechanisms that go with it

12:04 - What is a great aspect of a price mode for a pricing organization

14:59 - How to use price modes to

16:35 - How the number of price modes used depends on pricing culture

17:17 - Taking a look at an organization’s pricing culture to see how it affects the usage of price modes

19:09 - What is considered as one mode and a price envelope

19:41 - The challenge we see in organizations when it comes to price modes

21:01 - What are the things we need to know for any given price mode

22:05 - Who has the authorization to make the change

23:52 - Understanding price mode and getting into a mode shift

26:43 - Brooks’ best pricing advice that greatly impacts your business

Key Takeaways:

“You may be able to provide some air cover, some pricing air cover for you and the competitor. But that's largely going to be based upon whether or not you are a price leader or perceived price follower in the market. And it may also be one where a competitor is poised to make a bit of a move during that time to try to gain additional market share.” - Brooks Hamilton

“We know that those customers who can or organizations who can respond quickly, who both have an understanding of their pricing as well as tools to rapidly change their pricing are going to fare better in an environment where tariffs are changing quickly as opposed to those where they're not able to move as nimbly.” - Brooks Hamilton

“So, when we engage with a customer, the one thing we want to make sure we do is we establish a common understanding of the mechanisms that a customer uses to price. So, what I mean by a mechanism is having a product price that's available to all reference or downstream prices.” - Brooks Hamilton

“I think a great aspect of a price mode for a pricing organization is to first have a really clear understanding of what are the price modes that we use, how much of my revenue do I have going through these various price modes, and then really importantly, who makes the decisions behind the prices for each of those modes.” - Brooks Hamilton

“Every organization has price modes, whether they recognize them or not. And the more common challenge that we see is organizations having great clarity behind the price modes that they use in the role that they play, and having a really good understanding of how they make decisions around them, what portion of their business is associated with it, and which tools they use to inform those decisions, as opposed to the exact setup and structure of those modes themselves.”  - Brooks Hamilton

Connect with Brooks Hamilton:

• LinkedIn
• Email: [email protected]

Connect with Mark Stiving: 

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Brooks Hamilton is the Vice President of Services at Zilliant.  He is responsible for Services sales, the technical team, engagement methodology, partner enablement, and training across multiple countries as well as assist building Zilliant's brand via industry speaking engagements. Zilliant is a global company with blue-chip customers around the world.

In this episode, Brooks shares how tariffs can make changes on your cost basis and impact your company’s bottom line. That’s why companies who respond quickly in their pricing and have a better understanding of their pricing and tools fare better than those who are not. He also talks about price modes and how clarity and knowledge about it can turn more revenues for your company.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Find out why you should care about tariff pricing and what you can do to protect your company’s bottom line
• Learn and understand pricing mode to turn more profit dollars for your company
• Understand how pricing culture affects the usage of pricing mode to effect changes in price the best way possible

“Pricing clarity to understand the different mechanisms, to understand who owns them, and the decision-making process that's behind them. So that each level of that process is solving the approach in the best way possible.”

- Brooks Hamilton

Topics Covered:

01:37 - How Brooks’ career in Pricing started

03:32 - What is a tariff

05:03 - How tariffs impact cost basis and a company’s revenue

06:03 - Important questions you ask yourself when faced with a tariff concern

07:55 - Contributing factors that can help in the decision to increase price brought about by a tariff

09:15 - Why Zilliant cares about tariff pricing

10:35 - What plagues organizations of all sizes

10:57 - What are a price mode and the mechanisms that go with it

12:04 - What is a great aspect of a price mode for a pricing organization

14:59 - How to use price modes to

16:35 - How the number of price modes used depends on pricing culture

17:17 - Taking a look at an organization’s pricing culture to see how it affects the usage of price modes

19:09 - What is considered as one mode and a price envelope

19:41 - The challenge we see in organizations when it comes to price modes

21:01 - What are the things we need to know for any given price mode

22:05 - Who has the authorization to make the change

23:52 - Understanding price mode and getting into a mode shift

26:43 - Brooks’ best pricing advice that greatly impacts your business

Key Takeaways:

“You may be able to provide some air cover, some pricing air cover for you and the competitor. But that's largely going to be based upon whether or not you are a price leader or perceived price follower in the market. And it may also be one where a competitor is poised to make a bit of a move during that time to try to gain additional market share.” - Brooks Hamilton

“We know that those customers who can or organizations who can respond quickly, who both have an understanding of their pricing as well as tools to rapidly change their pricing are going to fare better in an environment where tariffs are changing quickly as opposed to those where they're not able to move as nimbly.” - Brooks Hamilton

“So, when we engage with a customer, the one thing we want to make sure we do is we establish a common understanding of the mechanisms that a customer uses to price. So, what I mean by a mechanism is having a product price that's available to all reference or downstream prices.” - Brooks Hamilton

“I think a great aspect of a price mode for a pricing organization is to first have a really clear understanding of what are the price modes that we use, how much of my revenue do I have going through these various price modes, and then really importantly, who makes the decisions behind the prices for each of those modes.” - Brooks Hamilton

“Every organization has price modes, whether they recognize them or not. And the more common challenge that we see is organizations having great clarity behind the price modes that they use in the role that they play, and having a really good understanding of how they make decisions around them, what portion of their business is associated with it, and which tools they use to inform those decisions, as opposed to the exact setup and structure of those modes themselves.”  - Brooks Hamilton

Connect with Brooks Hamilton:

• LinkedIn
• Email: [email protected]

Connect with Mark Stiving: 

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Axel Kirstetter is a global and multilingual technology executive with start-up and large-cap experience for companies achieving accelerated growth targets, category leadership, and successful exits (Datasite, COLT, TomTom, Intralinks).  He has been in the cloud space since 2000, subscription economy since 2003, SaaS sector since 2006, and tackling product-led growth since 2017.

In this episode, Axel shares how you start from a transaction nature of a product, then find your best market fit, work around what pricing is relevant to support it. Eventually, you look at the genuine subscription model that best gives you the chance to achieve your revenue objectives.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Find out how to build a business so you can get subscription revenue and, more than that, finds opportunities for upselling and cross-selling
• Find out which subscription revenue model is best to go after considering the growth rate mode at which you are at the moment
• Learn how to combine the subscription revenue model with the consumption-based notion to achieve revenue objectives better

“Keep optimizing, keep iterating; it's never done. Don't overthink the quantitative elements because you do have the possibility nowadays to quickly and rapidly adjust once you are in market. So really keep optimizing, keep working away at what the price point is.”

- Axel Kirstetter

Increase Your Pricing Knowledge: Become a Champions of Value INSIDER!

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:24 - How he became so good at all issues around pricing and started a career at it

02:26 - How does he define his title as Content Marketing and Pricing VP?

03:51 - Product people talk about Pricing but don't really understand in the detail level what Pricing does

05:17 - A degree of maturity and sophistication as to how you do pricing discovery and value discovery

07:06 - Axel’s thoughts about a subscription

09:17 - Taking a look at Salesforce subscription pricing

10:02 - What do most associate 3.0 with?

11:07 - What is 4.0?

13:46 - The difference among consumption, subscription, and recurring revenue

16:49 - Are Coke and Uber a recurring revenue model?

22:24 - Combining subscription with consumption notion

24:57 - Which one to use: subscription business model or recurring revenue business model

25:55 - Axel’s perspectives on these three revenue buckets of winning customers, keeping customers, and growing customers

28:23 - Which one to focus on: going after recurring revenue or asking what’s the right business model

Key Takeaways:

“There has to be a degree of maturity and sophistication as to how you do pricing discovery and really value discovery. And that takes understanding the sort of product-market fit; it requires a bit of understanding of how your salespeople would negotiate.” - Axel Kirstetter

“A company is willing to be very clever about a subscription versus a consumption mode. I think being online is fantastic because it makes you findable that you don't have to gravitate towards the notion of you know, subscribe to over 12 months, when all you do is you need it at certain peak times at certain convenience levels.” - Axel Kirstetter

“We need to think beyond just the gold-silver-bronze approach. Because it's more than just a subscription. It's more than just sort of meeting the needs of investors; you have to meet the needs of the end consumer.” - Axel Kirstetter

“Subscription has varied flavors to them. Think which type of subscription model works for the client circumstance.” - Axel Kirstetter

Resources Mentioned:

• Salesforce
• Starbucks
• Panera
• Pret
• Uber
• Coke
• Harry’s Razor
• Zappos
• Amazon

Connect with Axel Kirstetter:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Mark Stiving: 

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Axel Kirstetter is a global and multilingual technology executive with start-up and large-cap experience for companies achieving accelerated growth targets, category leadership, and successful exits (Datasite, COLT, TomTom, Intralinks).  He has been in the cloud space since 2000, subscription economy since 2003, SaaS sector since 2006, and tackling product-led growth since 2017.

In this episode, Axel shares how you start from a transaction nature of a product, then find your best market fit, work around what pricing is relevant to support it. Eventually, you look at the genuine subscription model that best gives you the chance to achieve your revenue objectives.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Find out how to build a business so you can get subscription revenue and, more than that, finds opportunities for upselling and cross-selling
• Find out which subscription revenue model is best to go after considering the growth rate mode at which you are at the moment
• Learn how to combine the subscription revenue model with the consumption-based notion to achieve revenue objectives better

“Keep optimizing, keep iterating; it's never done. Don't overthink the quantitative elements because you do have the possibility nowadays to quickly and rapidly adjust once you are in market. So really keep optimizing, keep working away at what the price point is.”

- Axel Kirstetter

Increase Your Pricing Knowledge: Become a Champions of Value INSIDER!

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:24 - How he became so good at all issues around pricing and started a career at it

02:26 - How does he define his title as Content Marketing and Pricing VP?

03:51 - Product people talk about Pricing but don't really understand in the detail level what Pricing does

05:17 - A degree of maturity and sophistication as to how you do pricing discovery and value discovery

07:06 - Axel’s thoughts about a subscription

09:17 - Taking a look at Salesforce subscription pricing

10:02 - What do most associate 3.0 with?

11:07 - What is 4.0?

13:46 - The difference among consumption, subscription, and recurring revenue

16:49 - Are Coke and Uber a recurring revenue model?

22:24 - Combining subscription with consumption notion

24:57 - Which one to use: subscription business model or recurring revenue business model

25:55 - Axel’s perspectives on these three revenue buckets of winning customers, keeping customers, and growing customers

28:23 - Which one to focus on: going after recurring revenue or asking what’s the right business model

Key Takeaways:

“There has to be a degree of maturity and sophistication as to how you do pricing discovery and really value discovery. And that takes understanding the sort of product-market fit; it requires a bit of understanding of how your salespeople would negotiate.” - Axel Kirstetter

“A company is willing to be very clever about a subscription versus a consumption mode. I think being online is fantastic because it makes you findable that you don't have to gravitate towards the notion of you know, subscribe to over 12 months, when all you do is you need it at certain peak times at certain convenience levels.” - Axel Kirstetter

“We need to think beyond just the gold-silver-bronze approach. Because it's more than just a subscription. It's more than just sort of meeting the needs of investors; you have to meet the needs of the end consumer.” - Axel Kirstetter

“Subscription has varied flavors to them. Think which type of subscription model works for the client circumstance.” - Axel Kirstetter

Resources Mentioned:

• Salesforce
• Starbucks
• Panera
• Pret
• Uber
• Coke
• Harry’s Razor
• Zappos
• Amazon

Connect with Axel Kirstetter:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Mark Stiving: 

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Chris Barth is currently the Vice-President of Pricing at Pitney Bowes Commerce Services. He used to be the Vice President of Finance Operations at Newgistics.

In this episode, Chris talks about how to sell on value, matching the markets’ needs with a solution and tying it up with an appropriate and justifiable price.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Learn how to bring salespeople to sell on value and at price points that make sense in the market
• Find out how to articulate value and translate it to price
• Find out a commission algorithm that makes salespeople earn more when selling on value but earns lower when selling below the target price

“Really understanding what you're trying to do as a business has many functions of what they're working on, what's on their roadmap. And ultimately, how is that translating into the pricing and that story that you're trying to communicate to your customers through your sales team.”

 - Chris Barth

Increase Your Pricing Knowledge: Become a Champions of Value INSIDER!

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:18 - How his pricing career started with Dell

03:05 - What does special pricing mean?

03:39 - What contributed to his status as VP of Pricing

06:14 - Matching up value with price

08:00 - The time in his career when he pivoted his thinking on pricing and considering the value components

12:14 - The challenges of making salespeople sell on value instead of price

15:34 - Putting yourself in your customers’ shoes when trying to set up price

17:47 - Structuring commission plans for salespeople to sell on value rather than just giving discounts

21:48 - Coming up with an algorithm that incentivizes bigger commission those that sell on the sweet spot and higher

24:51 - Chris’ best pricing advice that has a great impact on your business

Key Takeaways:

“You're always thinking about how can I hold the line on price. It's really trying to match what are the needs of the customers with the solution that you're offering and what is the appropriate price?” - Chris Barth

“We didn't have this grand network; we didn't have assets. And here, we had to sell value and convince retailers to pay for our solution. And then, in turn, we had to coach our customers on how to position it with their consumers.” - Chris Barth

“All the things that go into what you're trying to do as a business have got to translate into your positioning in the market and what you're trying to do. So, when I say that, it’s just understanding your business strategy.” - Chris Barth

“When you're trying to set value, then, put yourself in the customer's shoes. Would you buy this product? Would you pay for the solution? What need or problem are you trying to solve in the market? And what is it worth?” - Chris Barth

“What you want are sales folks, really being able to articulate the value, matching that value to a customer's needs and being able to capture the highest possible price that can tie to the value and optimizing your profit as a company.”  - Chris Barth

Resources / People Mentioned:

• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt

Connect with Chris Barth:

• LinkedIn
• E: [email protected]

Connect with Mark Stiving: 

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Chris Barth is currently the Vice-President of Pricing at Pitney Bowes Commerce Services. He used to be the Vice President of Finance Operations at Newgistics.

In this episode, Chris talks about how to sell on value, matching the markets’ needs with a solution and tying it up with an appropriate and justifiable price.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Learn how to bring salespeople to sell on value and at price points that make sense in the market
• Find out how to articulate value and translate it to price
• Find out a commission algorithm that makes salespeople earn more when selling on value but earns lower when selling below the target price

“Really understanding what you're trying to do as a business has many functions of what they're working on, what's on their roadmap. And ultimately, how is that translating into the pricing and that story that you're trying to communicate to your customers through your sales team.”

 - Chris Barth

Increase Your Pricing Knowledge: Become a Champions of Value INSIDER!

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:18 - How his pricing career started with Dell

03:05 - What does special pricing mean?

03:39 - What contributed to his status as VP of Pricing

06:14 - Matching up value with price

08:00 - The time in his career when he pivoted his thinking on pricing and considering the value components

12:14 - The challenges of making salespeople sell on value instead of price

15:34 - Putting yourself in your customers’ shoes when trying to set up price

17:47 - Structuring commission plans for salespeople to sell on value rather than just giving discounts

21:48 - Coming up with an algorithm that incentivizes bigger commission those that sell on the sweet spot and higher

24:51 - Chris’ best pricing advice that has a great impact on your business

Key Takeaways:

“You're always thinking about how can I hold the line on price. It's really trying to match what are the needs of the customers with the solution that you're offering and what is the appropriate price?” - Chris Barth

“We didn't have this grand network; we didn't have assets. And here, we had to sell value and convince retailers to pay for our solution. And then, in turn, we had to coach our customers on how to position it with their consumers.” - Chris Barth

“All the things that go into what you're trying to do as a business have got to translate into your positioning in the market and what you're trying to do. So, when I say that, it’s just understanding your business strategy.” - Chris Barth

“When you're trying to set value, then, put yourself in the customer's shoes. Would you buy this product? Would you pay for the solution? What need or problem are you trying to solve in the market? And what is it worth?” - Chris Barth

“What you want are sales folks, really being able to articulate the value, matching that value to a customer's needs and being able to capture the highest possible price that can tie to the value and optimizing your profit as a company.”  - Chris Barth

Resources / People Mentioned:

• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt

Connect with Chris Barth:

• LinkedIn
• E: [email protected]

Connect with Mark Stiving: 

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Stephan Liozu is the Chief Value Officer at Thales. His expertise includes Customer value modeling, value proposition design & value-based pricing, Business model innovation & differentiation strategies, Creative & disruptive innovation strategies, Change management & leadership training.

In this episode, Stephan shares how important it is for C-suite to be more than just focusing on the usual aspects of cost improvements, acquisitions, and cash flow management. There is a need for them to educate themselves in the pricing profession on how pricing can help them drive profitability, improve customer experience and satisfaction.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Find out the need to convince the C-suite why understanding pricing is important
• Find out what the important objectives of the book are, ‘From the Profession to the C-Suite’
• Find out the soft skill courses you have to invest yourself in to become a better leader

"Invest in yourself, learn some of the soft skills, get a better-rounded person, and in 2021 invest in training in your soft skills, and I think that will help you for the rest of your career to become a better leader."

- Stephan Liozu

Increase Your Pricing Knowledge: Become a Champions of Value INSIDER!
To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:40 - What the C-suite has not done in the pricing profession

03:22 - What do C-suite pay attention to that they keep from wanting to do pricing

04:32 - Is thinking about cost a more tactical thing than pricing

06:28 - What’s missing in the C-suite when it comes to wanting to do pricing

07:53 - What’s behind pricing person not able to educate or inform a CEO in the organization

10:11 - What’s this book all about and what’s its purpose: ‘From the Profession to the C-Suite’

13:15 - What are the objectives of the book

15:53 - Much more on the value side much less on the pricing side

17:34 - What does work look like for Directors and VPs of Pricing

19:23 - What the leadership side of Pricing entails

20:34 - A chapter in a book dealing with strategic capabilities

21:30 - His personal mission for having the book

22:44 - What success for a company mean

23:16 - Stephan’s best pricing advice that will significantly impact your business

23:42 - Different courses you can invest in for soft skill improvement

Key Takeaways:

“We have to take the responsibility as a profession, not organizing ourselves enough, not publishing enough as a profession, not educating the C-suite enough. And I think we got to get to the point where we do it.” - Stephan Liozu

“The first objective of the book is to really show them the impact. Once and for all let's put that discussion to rest. So, there is going to be lots of chapters on impact, showing case studies showing statistics.” - Stephan Liozu

“The second purpose is really to address the myth and the lack of understanding. So, we have papers around, you know, what pricing is now, especially post-COVID. You know, what it can do for you, why do you need it?” - Stephan Liozu

“We're going to talk about the third objective and to show them what capabilities do you need to really do good pricing projects.” - Stephan Liozu

“I'm trying to convince a lot of the pricing people to invest in themselves and develop these soft skills and be able to tell stories and be able to understand the social fabric of their organization, who knows, well, this is kind of a sixth sense that we need to have.” - Stephan Liozu

“It's a question of us as a profession to send books up to the C-suite for them to read it. And then more than that, it's going to be difficult to do. But it will be, for me an objective that I always wanted to do. As you know, you and I are evangelists; we push pricing day in, day out. And I think we need as a profession to promote ourselves better and to start coordinating the messages that we have.” - Stephan Liozu

“Frankly, either we do nothing, or we try our best to do something and influence. And for us, it's not like it's going to change our life as far as income is concerned; my interest is really to get pricing much more on the radar and much more adopted, like other functions, like supply chain analytics these days. And it is a mission for me, I took it as a personal mission to really educate and get into the C-suite to make a difference.” - Stephan Liozu

Resources / People Mentioned:

• Kevin Mitchell

Connect with Stephan Liozu:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Stephan Liozu is the Chief Value Officer at Thales. His expertise includes Customer value modeling, value proposition design & value-based pricing, Business model innovation & differentiation strategies, Creative & disruptive innovation strategies, Change management & leadership training.

In this episode, Stephan shares how important it is for C-suite to be more than just focusing on the usual aspects of cost improvements, acquisitions, and cash flow management. There is a need for them to educate themselves in the pricing profession on how pricing can help them drive profitability, improve customer experience and satisfaction.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Find out the need to convince the C-suite why understanding pricing is important
• Find out what the important objectives of the book are, ‘From the Profession to the C-Suite’
• Find out the soft skill courses you have to invest yourself in to become a better leader

"Invest in yourself, learn some of the soft skills, get a better-rounded person, and in 2021 invest in training in your soft skills, and I think that will help you for the rest of your career to become a better leader."

- Stephan Liozu

Increase Your Pricing Knowledge: Become a Champions of Value INSIDER! To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:40 - What the C-suite has not done in the pricing profession

03:22 - What do C-suite pay attention to that they keep from wanting to do pricing

04:32 - Is thinking about cost a more tactical thing than pricing

06:28 - What’s missing in the C-suite when it comes to wanting to do pricing

07:53 - What’s behind pricing person not able to educate or inform a CEO in the organization

10:11 - What’s this book all about and what’s its purpose: ‘From the Profession to the C-Suite’

13:15 - What are the objectives of the book

15:53 - Much more on the value side much less on the pricing side

17:34 - What does work look like for Directors and VPs of Pricing

19:23 - What the leadership side of Pricing entails

20:34 - A chapter in a book dealing with strategic capabilities

21:30 - His personal mission for having the book

22:44 - What success for a company mean

23:16 - Stephan’s best pricing advice that will significantly impact your business

23:42 - Different courses you can invest in for soft skill improvement

Key Takeaways:

“We have to take the responsibility as a profession, not organizing ourselves enough, not publishing enough as a profession, not educating the C-suite enough. And I think we got to get to the point where we do it.” - Stephan Liozu

“The first objective of the book is to really show them the impact. Once and for all let's put that discussion to rest. So, there is going to be lots of chapters on impact, showing case studies showing statistics.” - Stephan Liozu

“The second purpose is really to address the myth and the lack of understanding. So, we have papers around, you know, what pricing is now, especially post-COVID. You know, what it can do for you, why do you need it?” - Stephan Liozu

“We're going to talk about the third objective and to show them what capabilities do you need to really do good pricing projects.” - Stephan Liozu

“I'm trying to convince a lot of the pricing people to invest in themselves and develop these soft skills and be able to tell stories and be able to understand the social fabric of their organization, who knows, well, this is kind of a sixth sense that we need to have.” - Stephan Liozu

“It's a question of us as a profession to send books up to the C-suite for them to read it. And then more than that, it's going to be difficult to do. But it will be, for me an objective that I always wanted to do. As you know, you and I are evangelists; we push pricing day in, day out. And I think we need as a profession to promote ourselves better and to start coordinating the messages that we have.” - Stephan Liozu

“Frankly, either we do nothing, or we try our best to do something and influence. And for us, it's not like it's going to change our life as far as income is concerned; my interest is really to get pricing much more on the radar and much more adopted, like other functions, like supply chain analytics these days. And it is a mission for me, I took it as a personal mission to really educate and get into the C-suite to make a difference.” - Stephan Liozu

Resources / People Mentioned:

• Kevin Mitchell

Connect with Stephan Liozu:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Alon Ellis is a partner at Deloitte Monitor. He is leading Deloitte Australia’s Pricing Strategy & Margin Management capability

In this episode, Alon shares how he believes it is value-based pricing but understands what value means not from your perspective but on customers’. He talks about not giving everything away to the customer as you are in the business of providing a service or a product, and you have to be profitable.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Learn how to sell on value and what that actually means not from your point of view but from the customer’s point of view
• Learn how to communicate simply and straightforwardly your value and the pricing strategy that aligns with it
• Understand the economic analysis in every pricing decision

“Make it easy. And this is the hardest thing in pricing. Let’s assume that you’re entirely on board with value-based pricing and you’re thinking about getting the consistency and all that kind of stuff. The simpler you can make your pricing without losing big valuables, the better.”

– Alon Ellis

Increase Your Pricing Knowledge: Become a Champions of Value INSIDER!

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:18 – How Alon’s curiosity led him to a career in Pricing

02:36 – How he went from industry to consulting to industry to consulting

06:57 – What is pricing consistency

08:58 – Having an economic analysis in every pricing decision

13:20 – Analytics versus value

15:41 – What is economic value estimation

17:23 – The difficulty when customers don’t care about the features and benefits you make

18:58 – Factors you can’t reduce to purely analytical process

20:21- How Australia and the US differ in terms of companies not understanding their product’s value

21:31 – Why salespeople need to be confident in communicating to the consumers that price is fair and reasonable

25:39 – How do the market perceive discounts

26:48 – Alon’s pricing advice that would greatly impact your business

Key Takeaways:

“Sometimes I get to kind of almost the extreme customer advocacy. So, everything is about us giving away stuff to the customer, or the other extreme, you know that trying to screw over the customer. And that’s never going to create a long-lasting relationship. You need them to be somewhere in the middle.” – Alon Ellis

“We always need to sell on value, but we need to make certain we understand what that actually means not from our point of view but from the customer’s point of view.” – Alon Ellis

“I believe it’s always value-based pricing as the number one way but they actually have to understand what value means from the customer’s point.” – Alon Ellis

“There’s nothing worse than a client who’s invested lots and lots of money into features that they think should have some value. But you’ve actually done this while you figured out that no one really cares.” – Alon Ellis

“This is where the psychology, the real world comes in. And that’s where, I think you can’t reduce this into a purely analytical process.”  – Alon Ellis

Resources / People Mentioned: 

• LexisNexis

Connect with Alon Ellis:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Mark Stiving:   

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn