Impact Pricing

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

Brian Sharp is an Innovative Sales, Marketing & Pricing leader with a track record of driving step-change improvement in the enterprise’s financials through institutionalization of value-led disciplines. His expertise is integrating pricing and value disciplines across Sales, Marketing, Innovation, Supply Chain, Technology and Finance functions in large or complex organizations.  

In this episode, Brian talks about value over cost and contract packaging pricing in the petrochemical and personal care industries. He shares how Velo provides service that prepares you for negotiation readiness and places you on the advantage against other negotiators. 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast: 

• Learn and understand negotiation readiness as a process to save you worth millions of dollars
• Find out why companies need the best relationship managers more than the best negotiators
• Learn how you price value over cost 

“What we find consistently is less than 4% of customers almost always drive more than 64% of margins and revenues. And if you really want to change pricing in your business, figure out how to impact that concentrated mix and those monumental episodic negotiations.”  

- Brian Sharp 

Topics Covered: 

01:16 - How Brian’s Pricing career started 

02:23 - Why does he stay in pricing and why he shuns the pricing title 

04:05 - How people define pricing 

05:22 - What is a rise-fall mechanism in pricing 

06:33 - Thinking in terms of value over cost in the petrochemical industry 

07:43 - Pricing in contract packaging 

08:46 - How businesses in commodities are invested in the value chain 

10:16 - How incumbent transactional relationships are often shaped by context 

13:01 - Understanding negotiation readiness as a process 

15:57 - Effective relationship managers versus savvy negotiators 

21:00 - Why wouldn't we go sell to the committee, and then pass the negotiations off to procurement 

22:44 - Why process beats individual skill in large complex transactions 

24:31 - The training you do when you purchase the Velo software 

26:23 - How the Velo service works a deal from the minute the clients engage them 

Key Takeaways: 

“The way to think about it [petrochemical pricing] is its value over cost. So, it's easy to sell, it's cost-plus pricing. But really that base price, especially the base price, at the beginning of the contract period, is where value pricing manifests itself in these kinds of deals.” - Brian Sharp 

“One of the things that we do in Velo is, we deliver an outcome that is driven by negotiation readiness as a process and part of that process is telling our clients, and in many cases, pulling our clients executives out of the foxhole, we're getting them off the front line.” - Brian Sharp 

“Many companies have their best relationship managers, not their best negotiators. Because they're managing three- and four-year relationship cycles against the contract.” - Brian Sharp 

“In large complex transactions, process beats individual skill, and it's not even close. There are several irrefutable fact basis. And what does that say? It says preparation, and structured process to get ready. The negotiator that's better prepared is going to win.”  - Brian Sharp 

“Our Velo service is, from the first minute our client engages us we're working a deal. There's a name, we're looking at stakeholder, who are the stakeholders who's going to be in the room.” - Brian Sharp 

Resources / People Mentioned: 

• Vendavo
• Pricefx
• Zilliant
• A.T. Kearney
• Castor Oil Lubricants

Connect with Brian Sharp: 

• E: [email protected] 
• hellovelo.com
• LinkedIn

Connect with Mark Stiving:   

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Brian Sharp is an Innovative Sales, Marketing & Pricing leader with a track record of driving step-change improvement in the enterprise’s financials through institutionalization of value-led disciplines. His expertise is integrating pricing and value disciplines across Sales, Marketing, Innovation, Supply Chain, Technology and Finance functions in large or complex organizations.  

In this episode, Brian talks about value over cost and contract packaging pricing in the petrochemical and personal care industries. He shares how Velo provides service that prepares you for negotiation readiness and places you on the advantage against other negotiators. 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast: 

• Learn and understand negotiation readiness as a process to save you worth millions of dollars
• Find out why companies need the best relationship managers more than the best negotiators
• Learn how you price value over cost 

“What we find consistently is less than 4% of customers almost always drive more than 64% of margins and revenues. And if you really want to change pricing in your business, figure out how to impact that concentrated mix and those monumental episodic negotiations.”  

- Brian Sharp 

Topics Covered: 

01:16 - How Brian’s Pricing career started 

02:23 - Why does he stay in pricing and why he shuns the pricing title 

04:05 - How people define pricing 

05:22 - What is a rise-fall mechanism in pricing 

06:33 - Thinking in terms of value over cost in the petrochemical industry 

07:43 - Pricing in contract packaging 

08:46 - How businesses in commodities are invested in the value chain 

10:16 - How incumbent transactional relationships are often shaped by context 

13:01 - Understanding negotiation readiness as a process 

15:57 - Effective relationship managers versus savvy negotiators 

21:00 - Why wouldn't we go sell to the committee, and then pass the negotiations off to procurement 

22:44 - Why process beats individual skill in large complex transactions 

24:31 - The training you do when you purchase the Velo software 

26:23 - How the Velo service works a deal from the minute the clients engage them 

Key Takeaways: 

“The way to think about it [petrochemical pricing] is its value over cost. So, it's easy to sell, it's cost-plus pricing. But really that base price, especially the base price, at the beginning of the contract period, is where value pricing manifests itself in these kinds of deals.” - Brian Sharp 

“One of the things that we do in Velo is, we deliver an outcome that is driven by negotiation readiness as a process and part of that process is telling our clients, and in many cases, pulling our clients executives out of the foxhole, we're getting them off the front line.” - Brian Sharp 

“Many companies have their best relationship managers, not their best negotiators. Because they're managing three- and four-year relationship cycles against the contract.” - Brian Sharp 

“In large complex transactions, process beats individual skill, and it's not even close. There are several irrefutable fact basis. And what does that say? It says preparation, and structured process to get ready. The negotiator that's better prepared is going to win.”  - Brian Sharp 

“Our Velo service is, from the first minute our client engages us we're working a deal. There's a name, we're looking at stakeholder, who are the stakeholders who's going to be in the room.” - Brian Sharp 

Resources / People Mentioned: 

• Vendavo
• Pricefx
• Zilliant
• A.T. Kearney
• Castor Oil Lubricants

Connect with Brian Sharp: 

• E: [email protected] 
• hellovelo.com
• LinkedIn

Connect with Mark Stiving:   

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Zen Ore, a.k.a. “that pricing guy”, is a respected consultant who helped business across Australia, UK, USA, and Israel. Zen’s background is in procurement, negotiations, and deal structure, which gave him quite the reputation with pricing teams he opposed in negotiations. 

After years in operations management roles, he specialized in analytics and BI, leveraging his statistics-rich engineering degree. Zen constantly volunteers to support small business and young entrepreneurs. 

In this episode, Zen shares how pricing is not about how much you invested now but the value you deliver. He also highlights that pricing is not something you do at the end just before the product launch; it’s something you do even before you design a product.  He touched on Wine Pricing and what influences buyers’ purchasing decisions with spirit products. He made mention on the psychology of pricing in this regard. Other than that, he gives his thoughts on how pricing works in the petrol industry; the pricing metrics used to gauge buyers’ willingness to pay. 

[powerpress] 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Learn about wine pricing and how its price is a strong indicator of the product’s quality and influences the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of buyers’ purchasing decisions 
• Find out how petrol pricing works where an increase or decrease in the world’s oil price movement is concerned 
• Find out why ‘pricing is a thing’ in your business 

“Making sure your initial pricing doesn't damage your brand and addresses more than one market segment. I think that's the most common mistake I see with small businesses.” 

- Zen Ore 

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

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:35 - How an impactful event in his life got him started in Pricing 

03:27 - How do consumers base their purchase decision on when it comes to wine pricing 

04:39 - Why Pricing is a thing 

05:50 - How Petrol Pricing works 

09:48 - Why gas price goes up the same time oil price goes up for the day even if lead time for the oil production takes days for it to be brought to the station  

12:28 - How everyone else raises prices without collusion once world oil price goes up   

12:43 - When do oil companies make a better margin 

13:37 - Getting out of a price war 

14:25 - How Zen’s Jewish-Buddhist background made him put a pro-bono tab on his pricing website 

17:36 - Zen’s testimonial about Mark’s online courses  

19:38 - The need to understand the mental toolkit for Pricing 

Key Takeaways:

“They don't understand that pricing is a thing. It's not something you do at the end, occasionally, five minutes before you launch into the market. It's something you have to think about way before you even start designing your service or product.” - Zen Ore 

“There's a lot of costing involved because that's a factory, making wine is the factory, but the way pricing works, I think even without calling it by that name, it's more psychological than one might think.” - Zen Ore 

 “We started playing with the metrics [petrol pricing], and we realized that yes, sometimes you can raise the price. As long as you raise another metric or another value driver, they will keep buying and you will maintain the same volume with the higher price. And I think that's the business you want to have.” - Zen Ore 

“[On his website’s pro bono tab] It's me, showing that I believe in what I do, and I believe in what I understand about how people pay. You can pay as much as you want. And I'm not going to criticize you for this. And experience shows that's actually not a bad financial decision on my end as well.”  - Zen Ore 

“Once you get accustomed to that kind of strategic thinking, it's in your mental toolbox. And I think it's the same with your courses. So, it doesn't matter if you're pricing petrol or you're pricing fast-moving consumer goods or anything. You understand the mental toolkit for pricing. And I think that's priceless.”  - Zen Ore 

Connect with Zen Ore:

• pricingisathing.com 
• LinkedIn 

Connect with Mark Stiving:   

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Zen Ore, a.k.a. “that pricing guy”, is a respected consultant who helped business across Australia, UK, USA, and Israel. Zen’s background is in procurement, negotiations, and deal structure, which gave him quite the reputation with pricing teams he opposed in negotiations. 

After years in operations management roles, he specialized in analytics and BI, leveraging his statistics-rich engineering degree. Zen constantly volunteers to support small business and young entrepreneurs. 

In this episode, Zen shares how pricing is not about how much you invested now but the value you deliver. He also highlights that pricing is not something you do at the end just before the product launch; it’s something you do even before you design a product.  He touched on Wine Pricing and what influences buyers’ purchasing decisions with spirit products. He made mention on the psychology of pricing in this regard. Other than that, he gives his thoughts on how pricing works in the petrol industry; the pricing metrics used to gauge buyers’ willingness to pay. 

[powerpress] 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Learn about wine pricing and how its price is a strong indicator of the product’s quality and influences the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of buyers’ purchasing decisions 
• Find out how petrol pricing works where an increase or decrease in the world’s oil price movement is concerned 
• Find out why ‘pricing is a thing’ in your business 

“Making sure your initial pricing doesn't damage your brand and addresses more than one market segment. I think that's the most common mistake I see with small businesses.” 

- Zen Ore 

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

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:35 - How an impactful event in his life got him started in Pricing 

03:27 - How do consumers base their purchase decision on when it comes to wine pricing 

04:39 - Why Pricing is a thing 

05:50 - How Petrol Pricing works 

09:48 - Why gas price goes up the same time oil price goes up for the day even if lead time for the oil production takes days for it to be brought to the station  

12:28 - How everyone else raises prices without collusion once world oil price goes up   

12:43 - When do oil companies make a better margin 

13:37 - Getting out of a price war 

14:25 - How Zen’s Jewish-Buddhist background made him put a pro-bono tab on his pricing website 

17:36 - Zen’s testimonial about Mark’s online courses  

19:38 - The need to understand the mental toolkit for Pricing 

Key Takeaways:

“They don't understand that pricing is a thing. It's not something you do at the end, occasionally, five minutes before you launch into the market. It's something you have to think about way before you even start designing your service or product.” - Zen Ore 

“There's a lot of costing involved because that's a factory, making wine is the factory, but the way pricing works, I think even without calling it by that name, it's more psychological than one might think.” - Zen Ore 

 “We started playing with the metrics [petrol pricing], and we realized that yes, sometimes you can raise the price. As long as you raise another metric or another value driver, they will keep buying and you will maintain the same volume with the higher price. And I think that's the business you want to have.” - Zen Ore 

“[On his website’s pro bono tab] It's me, showing that I believe in what I do, and I believe in what I understand about how people pay. You can pay as much as you want. And I'm not going to criticize you for this. And experience shows that's actually not a bad financial decision on my end as well.”  - Zen Ore 

“Once you get accustomed to that kind of strategic thinking, it's in your mental toolbox. And I think it's the same with your courses. So, it doesn't matter if you're pricing petrol or you're pricing fast-moving consumer goods or anything. You understand the mental toolkit for pricing. And I think that's priceless.”  - Zen Ore 

Connect with Zen Ore:

• pricingisathing.com 
• LinkedIn 

Connect with Mark Stiving:   

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Maciej Kraus is an experienced strategy executive with a broad operational background. He specializes in pricing and sales excellence in B2B, B2C, and retail markets. He worked both for leading multinationals as well as SMEs. He is also a guest lecturer at Stanford and LBS and an author of 2 books on Sales, Strategy, and Pricing. He is also an acknowledged sales coach and trainer, a certified business coach at the same time a TED speaker. 

In this episode, Maciej shares how companies should think more than monetization of their product and go after customer retention. He underscores how Pricing validates product-market price fit. As with SaaS Pricing, he points out that it is not about building cool marketing around the product but creating an intrinsic value in the product itself. He shares how one should not be scared to raise prices because for as long as you are winning your deals your price is not high enough.   

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Learn to understand how Pricing is the best validation for your product-market price fit and why you should not feel scared to raise your prices 
• Find out why you should come from a mindset of not just acquiring but also keeping customers 

• Find out what Pricing strategy you need to put in place now so that when COVID is over you are prepared that you only have to access and launch it right there and then 

“Raise your price by 5% increments. And just wait until you have 20% of your customers leaving you. And then it means that you got to the optimal price.”  

- Maciej Kraus 

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

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:11 - How Maciej got started in Pricing 

01:36 - What got him stuck in Pricing 

02:02 - Emphasizing Pricing on the webpage 

03:14 - Pricing as a validation for your product-market fit 

03:32 - Not just a product-market fit but product market price fit 

03:57 - How do startups think of Pricing 

05:02 - Agreeing to what Stiving Value Table stands for 

05:12 - How does SaaS Pricing excite him 

06:10 - The intrinsic value you need to build in SaaS products 

07:42 - Mistakes that a lot of subscription businesses make 

12:26 - Understanding the value you deliver in a subscription business 

14:42 - What should you prepare and what pricing strategy should you need to roll out once COVID ends 

16:29 - His best pricing advice that can impact your business 

17:13 - The best test if you get Pricing or not 

18:10 - How to get your optimal price 

18:29 - Why you should raise your prices 

Key Takeaways:

“For me, Pricing is the best validation for your product-market fit. If you have to give away your product for free, what is it worth?” - Maciej Kraus  

“We both agree that you should quite often start with your Pricing, and then build a product around it.” - Maciej Kraus 

“I think what I really love about SaaS is that it's not that you sell and forget, which quite often happens with just any other product. You have to build the value on the ground when you have a relationship with your customer.” - Maciej Kraus 

“I see quite often with the SaaS businesses they have this product kind of mindset; you just have to acquire customers. And this is the only thing you have to do. But actually, where the money for the SaaS model comes from is from that monetization and the retention.” - Maciej Kraus 

“When you are overwhelmed with those different options that you cannot see the difference, then probably most customers will say, my old car is still okay, so I don't need a new one.” - Maciej Kraus 

“And this is where I spent quite some time these days working with companies on how to think about what should be our pricing strategy when the reality changes so that we are prepared and we just can press the button and launch it.” - Maciej Kraus 

“It's easier to lower price than to increase it. That's why it's always better to start a bit too high than a bit too low.” - Maciej Kraus 

“Keep raising by 5%. Because what you hear is that 'Okay, so I listened or I read a marketing book, I raised my prices and guess what -- none of my customers left me. Usually, the answer is, so probably you still have a lot of room for price increases.” - Maciej Kraus 

Resources / People Mentioned: 

• Marc Andreessen 

• Kyle Poyar 

Connect with Maciej Kraus:

• LinkedIn 

Connect with Mark Stiving:   

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Maciej Kraus is an experienced strategy executive with a broad operational background. He specializes in pricing and sales excellence in B2B, B2C, and retail markets. He worked both for leading multinationals as well as SMEs. He is also a guest lecturer at Stanford and LBS and an author of 2 books on Sales, Strategy, and Pricing. He is also an acknowledged sales coach and trainer, a certified business coach at the same time a TED speaker. 

In this episode, Maciej shares how companies should think more than monetization of their product and go after customer retention. He underscores how Pricing validates product-market price fit. As with SaaS Pricing, he points out that it is not about building cool marketing around the product but creating an intrinsic value in the product itself. He shares how one should not be scared to raise prices because for as long as you are winning your deals your price is not high enough.   

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Learn to understand how Pricing is the best validation for your product-market price fit and why you should not feel scared to raise your prices 
• Find out why you should come from a mindset of not just acquiring but also keeping customers 

• Find out what Pricing strategy you need to put in place now so that when COVID is over you are prepared that you only have to access and launch it right there and then 

“Raise your price by 5% increments. And just wait until you have 20% of your customers leaving you. And then it means that you got to the optimal price.”  

- Maciej Kraus 

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

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:11 - How Maciej got started in Pricing 

01:36 - What got him stuck in Pricing 

02:02 - Emphasizing Pricing on the webpage 

03:14 - Pricing as a validation for your product-market fit 

03:32 - Not just a product-market fit but product market price fit 

03:57 - How do startups think of Pricing 

05:02 - Agreeing to what Stiving Value Table stands for 

05:12 - How does SaaS Pricing excite him 

06:10 - The intrinsic value you need to build in SaaS products 

07:42 - Mistakes that a lot of subscription businesses make 

12:26 - Understanding the value you deliver in a subscription business 

14:42 - What should you prepare and what pricing strategy should you need to roll out once COVID ends 

16:29 - His best pricing advice that can impact your business 

17:13 - The best test if you get Pricing or not 

18:10 - How to get your optimal price 

18:29 - Why you should raise your prices 

Key Takeaways:

“For me, Pricing is the best validation for your product-market fit. If you have to give away your product for free, what is it worth?” - Maciej Kraus  

“We both agree that you should quite often start with your Pricing, and then build a product around it.” - Maciej Kraus 

“I think what I really love about SaaS is that it's not that you sell and forget, which quite often happens with just any other product. You have to build the value on the ground when you have a relationship with your customer.” - Maciej Kraus 

“I see quite often with the SaaS businesses they have this product kind of mindset; you just have to acquire customers. And this is the only thing you have to do. But actually, where the money for the SaaS model comes from is from that monetization and the retention.” - Maciej Kraus 

“When you are overwhelmed with those different options that you cannot see the difference, then probably most customers will say, my old car is still okay, so I don't need a new one.” - Maciej Kraus 

“And this is where I spent quite some time these days working with companies on how to think about what should be our pricing strategy when the reality changes so that we are prepared and we just can press the button and launch it.” - Maciej Kraus 

“It's easier to lower price than to increase it. That's why it's always better to start a bit too high than a bit too low.” - Maciej Kraus 

“Keep raising by 5%. Because what you hear is that 'Okay, so I listened or I read a marketing book, I raised my prices and guess what -- none of my customers left me. Usually, the answer is, so probably you still have a lot of room for price increases.” - Maciej Kraus 

Resources / People Mentioned: 

• Marc Andreessen 

• Kyle Poyar 

Connect with Maciej Kraus:

• LinkedIn 

Connect with Mark Stiving:   

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Chris Hopf is a Trusted and Respected Monetization + Pricing Strategy Consultant to Innovative Software and Technology Market Leaders. He helps innovative software and technology companies of all sizes create, recognize and capitalize on opportunities to achieve their full market potential - every day - every transaction. For more than twenty-five years, he has worked as an owner, employee, and as a consultant with small startups, mid-sized mergers, and Fortune 50 Corporations such as Microsoft and United Technologies. 

In this episode, Chris shares why companies should know how to communicate their value as there is always pressure to reduce price. In this regard, they need to stand up for their value. He also talks about how companies must understand the distinction of strengths, advantages, and alternatives, so they won’t be missing opportunities to be always relevant to their customers. 

[powerpress] 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Discover the ‘Ten Steps to Scalable and Recurring Revenue’ and see where you can work on your strengths and advantages to always put you in a better and unique position against your competitors 
• Find out how to always reinforce the value you are delivering to your customers so they won’t take it for granted, and so you always create value and not destroy it  
• Learn how to prioritize your efforts in terms of acquiring customers so you are spending time well focusing on being relevant 

“Give your pricing a chance. And part of that is making sure that you're taking a really honest look at what your advantages are, and honest look at what your advantages will be in the future. And making sure that you're giving those advantages the best chance.”  

- Chris Hopf 

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

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:36 - The different ways Chris works with companies 

03:09 - How he got involved in Pricing by chance 

04:09 - His main reason for staying with Pricing all these years 

05:29 - What is ‘The Revenue Due Diligence: The Ten Steps to Scalable and Recurring Revenue’ all about 

06:29 - Why would someone pay? 

08:32 - Who is willing to pay -- what ‘The Pricing Window’ visual is all about 

09:27 - How can you influence the ability to pay  

10:37 - Why is it important to understand who your customers are and prioritize your efforts 

11:48 - When are they most likely to pay -- understanding the ‘buyers’ journey’ 

13:10 - How seasonality’s affect how companies buy 

15:28 - How will they know about you -- how is it best for people to know about the value and the advantages that you deliver to your customers 

16:36 - Why is it that in the ten steps mentioned, in no way does it ask how much should we charge 

17:04 - Why choose you now -- what are your advantages 

18:13 - What is the key to creating a sense of urgency 

20:01 - Pricing problem versus value messaging opportunity 

21:27 - Why do companies sometimes don't do a very good job of communicating their advantages 

22:15 - Distinction between advantage and a strength 

23:09 - Why keep choosing you, and why pay more from you? 

23:28 - Why tell others about you? 

24:27 - Why stop choosing you? 

25:43 - Why always highlight to your customers the value you are delivering to them 

27:05 - Chris’ best pricing advice that will impact your business 

27:41 - Stand up for your value 

Key Takeaways:

“One way you can influence the ability to pay or possibly drive or increase the ability to pay is if you think of your solution and the people within the organization that are impacted the value that is received.” - Chris Hopf 

“Companies don't think through these in a very organized and deliberate way. And they can spend a lot of time focusing on being relevant, and acquiring customers that really are and should be considered distractions, maybe distractions for now, and maybe not in the future. But it really is important to prioritize your efforts.” - Chris Hopf 

“For some companies, there's seasonality to how they buy, and this isn't only their initial purchase, their initial decision to do business with you, but what are they most likely to pay to expand with you?” - Chris Hopf 

“What I found is sometimes people do a relatively good job, some better than others around understanding their advantages. But they don't go to that next step around, 'Why now?'. What are you going to do to compel action?” - Chris Hopf 

“What's key to creating a sense of urgency is creating a sense of opportunity, you create that sense of opportunity, and you frame that well in their minds in terms that they understand and relate to their business and the outcomes they care about. And then that's how you're going to create that sense of urgency. But what's key is that it needs to be directed back at your solution over other alternatives.”  - Chris Hopf 

“People actually don't spend much time understanding with clarity an honest assessment of their advantages over alternatives.” - Chris Hopf 

“A lot of times when people reach out to somebody like me, is they think they have a pricing problem. And oftentimes, they actually just have a value messaging opportunity, right. So, they aren't doing a very good job of not only communicating their value that will resonate with their prospects and customers, but they don't do a very good job of communicating their advantages.” 

Connect with Chris Hopf:

• LinkedIn 
• pricingwire.com 

Connect with Mark Stiving:   

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Chris Hopf is a Trusted and Respected Monetization + Pricing Strategy Consultant to Innovative Software and Technology Market Leaders. He helps innovative software and technology companies of all sizes create, recognize and capitalize on opportunities to achieve their full market potential - every day - every transaction. For more than twenty-five years, he has worked as an owner, employee, and as a consultant with small startups, mid-sized mergers, and Fortune 50 Corporations such as Microsoft and United Technologies. 

In this episode, Chris shares why companies should know how to communicate their value as there is always pressure to reduce price. In this regard, they need to stand up for their value. He also talks about how companies must understand the distinction of strengths, advantages, and alternatives, so they won’t be missing opportunities to be always relevant to their customers. 

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Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Discover the ‘Ten Steps to Scalable and Recurring Revenue’ and see where you can work on your strengths and advantages to always put you in a better and unique position against your competitors 
• Find out how to always reinforce the value you are delivering to your customers so they won’t take it for granted, and so you always create value and not destroy it  
• Learn how to prioritize your efforts in terms of acquiring customers so you are spending time well focusing on being relevant 

“Give your pricing a chance. And part of that is making sure that you're taking a really honest look at what your advantages are, and honest look at what your advantages will be in the future. And making sure that you're giving those advantages the best chance.”  

- Chris Hopf 

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

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:36 - The different ways Chris works with companies 

03:09 - How he got involved in Pricing by chance 

04:09 - His main reason for staying with Pricing all these years 

05:29 - What is ‘The Revenue Due Diligence: The Ten Steps to Scalable and Recurring Revenue’ all about 

06:29 - Why would someone pay? 

08:32 - Who is willing to pay -- what ‘The Pricing Window’ visual is all about 

09:27 - How can you influence the ability to pay  

10:37 - Why is it important to understand who your customers are and prioritize your efforts 

11:48 - When are they most likely to pay -- understanding the ‘buyers’ journey’ 

13:10 - How seasonality’s affect how companies buy 

15:28 - How will they know about you -- how is it best for people to know about the value and the advantages that you deliver to your customers 

16:36 - Why is it that in the ten steps mentioned, in no way does it ask how much should we charge 

17:04 - Why choose you now -- what are your advantages 

18:13 - What is the key to creating a sense of urgency 

20:01 - Pricing problem versus value messaging opportunity 

21:27 - Why do companies sometimes don't do a very good job of communicating their advantages 

22:15 - Distinction between advantage and a strength 

23:09 - Why keep choosing you, and why pay more from you? 

23:28 - Why tell others about you? 

24:27 - Why stop choosing you? 

25:43 - Why always highlight to your customers the value you are delivering to them 

27:05 - Chris’ best pricing advice that will impact your business 

27:41 - Stand up for your value 

Key Takeaways:

“One way you can influence the ability to pay or possibly drive or increase the ability to pay is if you think of your solution and the people within the organization that are impacted the value that is received.” - Chris Hopf 

“Companies don't think through these in a very organized and deliberate way. And they can spend a lot of time focusing on being relevant, and acquiring customers that really are and should be considered distractions, maybe distractions for now, and maybe not in the future. But it really is important to prioritize your efforts.” - Chris Hopf 

“For some companies, there's seasonality to how they buy, and this isn't only their initial purchase, their initial decision to do business with you, but what are they most likely to pay to expand with you?” - Chris Hopf 

“What I found is sometimes people do a relatively good job, some better than others around understanding their advantages. But they don't go to that next step around, 'Why now?'. What are you going to do to compel action?” - Chris Hopf 

“What's key to creating a sense of urgency is creating a sense of opportunity, you create that sense of opportunity, and you frame that well in their minds in terms that they understand and relate to their business and the outcomes they care about. And then that's how you're going to create that sense of urgency. But what's key is that it needs to be directed back at your solution over other alternatives.”  - Chris Hopf 

“People actually don't spend much time understanding with clarity an honest assessment of their advantages over alternatives.” - Chris Hopf 

“A lot of times when people reach out to somebody like me, is they think they have a pricing problem. And oftentimes, they actually just have a value messaging opportunity, right. So, they aren't doing a very good job of not only communicating their value that will resonate with their prospects and customers, but they don't do a very good job of communicating their advantages.” 

Connect with Chris Hopf:

• LinkedIn 
• pricingwire.com 

Connect with Mark Stiving:   

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn

Love Sanoria is the Director of Operations at ChargePoint. He is also a Professionally Qualified Senior Finance business partner adept at increasing profitability, having significant all-round corporate experience of 16+ years in Finance & Accounts domain. He is a subject matter expert in creating processes for driving financial forecast & annual budget for the organization in collaboration with multiple teams.

In this episode, Love talks about what IT pricing is all about, though it may be based on what the costs are but it is never about not putting concern over quality first for as to him quality never comes cheap. He points the fact on how a company’s IT landscape determines its subscription need. He also shares how COVID will increase pricing due to expenses and losses incurred by companies at this time of the pandemic.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Learn how to charge your product based on the level of differentiation, how better your product is from your competition
• Learn what is COVID pricing and how it affects future pricing
• Understand how IT pricing is arrived at

“If you understand the business, then pricing is a derivative of that. So, if you understand what are the cost elements to it, you will be able to do the pricing.”

- Love Sanoria

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

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

Topics Covered:

01:00 - What made Love consider Pricing

01:54 - How does Revenue Assurance differ from Pricing

03:38 - Looking at cash and revenue from the accounting standpoint

04:44 - Does it happen that transaction in million dollars not paid

05:08 - What is IT pricing

08:55 - His thoughts on pricing based on customers’ willingness to pay and not about the cost

11:39 - Quality never come cheap

13:54 - How a company’s IT landscape determines subscription needs of companies

15:30 - How people wouldn’t mind spending something just to keep things as it is

17:00 - How has COVID hurt the IT industry and how it affects future pricing

18:20 - How prices are going higher not because of consumer’s willingness to pay but because companies expenses have gone up 

Key Takeaways:

“I would say pricing comes... might be at a second, third level, but quality comes at first but given the transparency of the process in the big companies, it adds a weightage to your overall budget from the customer perspective.” - Love Sanoria

“Think from a vendor perspective, no one wants to lose a deal from high price perspective, given the very competitive scenario.”  - Love Sanoria

“There are different vendors. And if you talk about vendor, they have different cost strategies as well. They have different quality. But if a customer wants to choose the high quality, they have to pay the high price, quality never comes cheap.”  - Love Sanoria

“COVID has hurt, I would say, the IT industry, generally a lot. Obviously, they have their margin pressure, they have cost pressure, it will bounce back, once it bounced back, they will obviously charge back from their customer.” - Love Sanoria

Connect with Love Sanoria:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Mark Stiving:   

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn