Impact Pricing

• Learn how pricing in retail is done, the strategies to implement to get the right data analytics for value pricing 
• Why throwing out a number before a customer tells you your value to them is a mistake 
• Understanding  the impact of category management on retailer prices and performance: theory and evidence 

Stacy Sifleet is a consultant whose expertise includes pricing strategy, business process improvement, change management, inventory, S&OP, advanced problem solving, strategic planning and procurement. 

In this episode Stacy shares how using data analytics, correctly, identifies value levers for customized pricing, especially in the B2C market. 

“I think it is important that once you figure out what you want your pricing strategy to be, figure out how to make it easy for your team to execute it.” 

–Stacy Sifleet 

Topics Covered:  

00:45 – Stacy’s backstory in pricing 

01:22 - Her biggest mistake in pricing: Why throwing out your number to a customer without knowing your value to them is a mistake 

06:10 - Differences between B2C and  B2B in business systems’ pricing 

08:53 - How using data analytics, correctly, identifies value levers for customized pricing 

09:40 - What is category management is all about and its relation to value pricing 

16:11 - How pricing in the retail industry is done? 

20:39 - Stacy’s favorite data tools and strategy she implements to get the value pricing right 

Key Takeaways:  

“When I think about B2B, I think the sales team, even if the're working on  a specific account, they really should be diving into the data across their account and say.’ How are these customers different? Which of these customers add more value to the business?' You cannot do that just by  conversation, you have to look at the numbers.” –Stacy Sifleet 

Connect With Stacy Sifleet 

• https://www.supplyvelocity.com 
• Email:[email protected] 
• LinkedIn   

Connect with Mark Stiving    

• Email: [email protected]    
• LinkedIn    
• Twitter  

• Learn how pricing audit relates to growing a company’s value 
• You will learn why there is a need to document processes to increase a company’s valuation 
• Understanding the role of an exit strategist and value growth advisor in terms of the goals the company wants to achieve 

Kerri Salls, MBA, CVGA is a certified value growth advisor, author, and speaker. She works as a value growth advisor to underperforming and closely held businesses by helping them to revamp and improve operations for sustainability and scalability. 

Added to this, she is also a podcast show host of 3x Value Growth Podcast. 

In this episode, Kerri shares how she operates at the intersection of strategy, systems, and value growth to help middle-market companies multiply value three-fold in three years. Just as it is important to build a product with value, Kerri helps build companies with value.  

Tune in to this episode to know more. 

“What is value?  I am focused on the enterprise value itself-stand alone enterprise value-but where that comes from is your vision of value you want inside your company.”

-Kerri Salls

Topics Covered: 

01:45 - The difference between value growth and exit strategy, in term of growing a company’s worth 

03:00 - Skillset of  a value growth strategist and an exit strategist in terms of strengthening a business 

05:36 - What is value for a company and how do you judge the value strategy prior to the exit 

07:42 - How does  value relate to a market capitalization 

10:23 - Does increasing profit margin also doubles the value of the company? 

11:26 - How does documentation processes improves a company's valuation 

13:31 - Common problems Kerri helps solve in companies she helped out 

16:19 - Difference among advisor, consultant, mentor and  coach 

17:39 - Thoughts of her being the ‘chief investigator of a company’ to look for what is broken and the red flags 

18:12 - How Kerri does her ‘value audit’, the places that usually had the red and yellow flags 

Key Takeaways: 

“The value on an outside basis just keeps rolling up and up and up. I've seen clients who start at eight and 9% who get to well above 20%. I have client stories that I do in my webinar wherein less than two years they are increasing the value of their business, 300 400, 500% just because we are giving them the structure and the foundation and we're taking the owner out of the hot seat of being the gatekeeper for every one of those decisions. Now there's a structure in place so they can indeed take that three-week vacation even without the cell phone.” - Kerri Salls  

“Every one of those elements that make you more understood as being like a public company because you're so well managed--that increases value. That can't be taken away from you, that they can't whittle it down when you're in a competition about pricing.” - Kerri Salls 

Connect With Kerri Salls 

• 3xvaluegrowth.com  
• Email:[email protected]  
• LinkedIn  
• Facebook 
• Podcast 

Connect with Mark Stiving   

• Email: [email protected]   
• LinkedIn   
• Twitter 

• Learn how pricing audit relates to growing a company’s value 
• You will learn why there is a need to document processes to increase a company’s valuation 
• Understanding the role of an exit strategist and value growth advisor in terms of the goals the company wants to achieve 

Kerri Salls, MBA, CVGA is a certified value growth advisor, author, and speaker. She works as a value growth advisor to underperforming and closely held businesses by helping them to revamp and improve operations for sustainability and scalability. 

Added to this, she is also a podcast show host of 3x Value Growth Podcast. 

In this episode, Kerri shares how she operates at the intersection of strategy, systems, and value growth to help middle-market companies multiply value three-fold in three years. Just as it is important to build a product with value, Kerri helps build companies with value.  

Tune in to this episode to know more. 

“What is value?  I am focused on the enterprise value itself-stand alone enterprise value-but where that comes from is your vision of value you want inside your company.”

-Kerri Salls

Topics Covered: 

01:45 - The difference between value growth and exit strategy, in term of growing a company’s worth 

03:00 - Skillset of  a value growth strategist and an exit strategist in terms of strengthening a business 

05:36 - What is value for a company and how do you judge the value strategy prior to the exit 

07:42 - How does  value relate to a market capitalization 

10:23 - Does increasing profit margin also doubles the value of the company? 

11:26 - How does documentation processes improves a company's valuation 

13:31 - Common problems Kerri helps solve in companies she helped out 

16:19 - Difference among advisor, consultant, mentor and  coach 

17:39 - Thoughts of her being the ‘chief investigator of a company’ to look for what is broken and the red flags 

18:12 - How Kerri does her ‘value audit’, the places that usually had the red and yellow flags 

Key Takeaways: 

“The value on an outside basis just keeps rolling up and up and up. I've seen clients who start at eight and 9% who get to well above 20%. I have client stories that I do in my webinar wherein less than two years they are increasing the value of their business, 300 400, 500% just because we are giving them the structure and the foundation and we're taking the owner out of the hot seat of being the gatekeeper for every one of those decisions. Now there's a structure in place so they can indeed take that three-week vacation even without the cell phone.” - Kerri Salls  

“Every one of those elements that make you more understood as being like a public company because you're so well managed--that increases value. That can't be taken away from you, that they can't whittle it down when you're in a competition about pricing.” - Kerri Salls 

Connect With Kerri Salls 

• 3xvaluegrowth.com  
• Email:[email protected]  
• LinkedIn  
• Facebook 
• Podcast 

Connect with Mark Stiving   

• Email: [email protected]   
• LinkedIn   
• Twitter 

• Understanding the complexities each organization have involving pricing and zeroing in on how to capture a product’s full value  
• Understanding Fear and Competence when talking about value pricing, digging deep into how to do it (increasing prices) side by side with the confidence to do it 
• Getting an overview of a masterclass about value pricing and what value can you get from it 

Adrienne Gordon has a passion for the power of pricing. She has dedicated her career to pricing since 1999, working with multiple companies in several different pricing roles. She began her pricing career at Parker Hannifin as the project manager of their global strategic pricing initiative. During this time, Adrienne worked with multiple consulting groups and revenue optimization technology companies as she helped architect the vision for Parker’s Best in Class pricing approach. From there, Adrienne took the Director of Pricing role at American Greetings, where she executed a multi-phase value pricing research effort ultimately resulting in the redesign of their approach to pricing cards. At Eaton Corp, she worked with several different businesses on strategic projects as an internal consultant. Finally, in 2009, Adrienne became an external pricing consultant based in Northeast Ohio, working with dozens of companies in the manufacturing and distribution space. Today, she is a blogger, author, and entrepreneur. Prior to pricing, Adrienne held several roles in Technical Sales and Marketing. She holds an MBA in Marketing from Western New England College and a Bachelor’s in Engineering from Boston University. 

In this episode, Adrienne takes us to dig deeper into the culture of fear in pricing that is pervading an organization. She manages to uncover bit by bit where this fear is coming from at the same time provides a perspective where all these fears can be removed thus capturing a full value for a product. With an expertise spanning  two decades, she has but a lot of inputs to share about winning deals even when you increase prices, where most organizations are afraid to toe in. 

“When in doubt, offer versions and your customer will opt into the best value proposition for themselves and you'll learn a ton about your business.”

- Adrienne Gordon

Topics Covered: 

01:07 - What got her into pricing 

02:46 - Scope of her work as a pricing manager at Parker Hannifin 

05:57 -  Where is the culture of fear in pricing  manifesting in an organization 

06:57 -  Her thoughts on companies building a great product but not good at capturing value for their product 

08:46 -  How to fix that culture of fear of pricing in an organization 

09:41 -  How to remove fear to capture a full value 

10:36 -  Of fear, of competence, of metrics and of analytics. How do these relate to pricing and value 

15:11 - How do I do it versus do I have the confidence to do it 

16:58 -  How to win deals even when you increase prices 

18:51 -  Tools to help companies have the confidence in going about their value pricing 

19:32 -  Talking more about the masterclass she is offering on value pricing 

20:14 -  Who is this  masterclass for  

22:08 -  Giving her  best advice on value pricing to impact your business 

Key Takeaways: 

“So companies that think about this, in my opinion, in the right way, look at it as a process. Knowing that it's not going to be perfect, we're going to have an opinion on our strategy, we're going to execute it flawlessly, we're going to measure what happened. I'm going to optimize that strategy. It's very simple. And I think when leadership can articulate that, that's how they want to approach pricing from a continuous improvement process standpoint. It gives their teams the comfort that it is gonna be okay, a little bit of failure is okay cause we're going to learn and we're going to get better.” - Adrienne Gordon 

“And so all the work that a lot of organizations do around pricing around the data science, around this strategy and testing and the research, It's all good stuff, but at the end of the day, it's really just taking that information and getting it in front of a person to say it's okay to ask for a little bit more.” - Adrienne Gordon  

“Leadership will never be effective at attaining their full value unless they recognize their job is to remove the culture of fear.” - Adrienne Gordon 

Connect With Adrienne Gordon 

• pricingempowered.com 
• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 

Connect with Mark Stiving  

• Email: [email protected]  
• LinkedIn  
• Twitter  

• Understanding the complexities each organization have involving pricing and zeroing in on how to capture a product’s full value  
• Understanding Fear and Competence when talking about value pricing, digging deep into how to do it (increasing prices) side by side with the confidence to do it 
• Getting an overview of a masterclass about value pricing and what value can you get from it 

Adrienne Gordon has a passion for the power of pricing. She has dedicated her career to pricing since 1999, working with multiple companies in several different pricing roles. She began her pricing career at Parker Hannifin as the project manager of their global strategic pricing initiative. During this time, Adrienne worked with multiple consulting groups and revenue optimization technology companies as she helped architect the vision for Parker’s Best in Class pricing approach. From there, Adrienne took the Director of Pricing role at American Greetings, where she executed a multi-phase value pricing research effort ultimately resulting in the redesign of their approach to pricing cards. At Eaton Corp, she worked with several different businesses on strategic projects as an internal consultant. Finally, in 2009, Adrienne became an external pricing consultant based in Northeast Ohio, working with dozens of companies in the manufacturing and distribution space. Today, she is a blogger, author, and entrepreneur. Prior to pricing, Adrienne held several roles in Technical Sales and Marketing. She holds an MBA in Marketing from Western New England College and a Bachelor’s in Engineering from Boston University. 

In this episode, Adrienne takes us to dig deeper into the culture of fear in pricing that is pervading an organization. She manages to uncover bit by bit where this fear is coming from at the same time provides a perspective where all these fears can be removed thus capturing a full value for a product. With an expertise spanning  two decades, she has but a lot of inputs to share about winning deals even when you increase prices, where most organizations are afraid to toe in. 

“When in doubt, offer versions and your customer will opt into the best value proposition for themselves and you'll learn a ton about your business.”

- Adrienne Gordon

Topics Covered: 

01:07 - What got her into pricing 

02:46 - Scope of her work as a pricing manager at Parker Hannifin 

05:57 -  Where is the culture of fear in pricing  manifesting in an organization 

06:57 -  Her thoughts on companies building a great product but not good at capturing value for their product 

08:46 -  How to fix that culture of fear of pricing in an organization 

09:41 -  How to remove fear to capture a full value 

10:36 -  Of fear, of competence, of metrics and of analytics. How do these relate to pricing and value 

15:11 - How do I do it versus do I have the confidence to do it 

16:58 -  How to win deals even when you increase prices 

18:51 -  Tools to help companies have the confidence in going about their value pricing 

19:32 -  Talking more about the masterclass she is offering on value pricing 

20:14 -  Who is this  masterclass for  

22:08 -  Giving her  best advice on value pricing to impact your business 

Key Takeaways: 

“So companies that think about this, in my opinion, in the right way, look at it as a process. Knowing that it's not going to be perfect, we're going to have an opinion on our strategy, we're going to execute it flawlessly, we're going to measure what happened. I'm going to optimize that strategy. It's very simple. And I think when leadership can articulate that, that's how they want to approach pricing from a continuous improvement process standpoint. It gives their teams the comfort that it is gonna be okay, a little bit of failure is okay cause we're going to learn and we're going to get better.” - Adrienne Gordon 

“And so all the work that a lot of organizations do around pricing around the data science, around this strategy and testing and the research, It's all good stuff, but at the end of the day, it's really just taking that information and getting it in front of a person to say it's okay to ask for a little bit more.” - Adrienne Gordon  

“Leadership will never be effective at attaining their full value unless they recognize their job is to remove the culture of fear.” - Adrienne Gordon 

Connect With Adrienne Gordon 

• pricingempowered.com 
• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 

Connect with Mark Stiving  

• Email: [email protected]  
• LinkedIn  
• Twitter  

• Discover how Rondalynn is helping accountants understand how to add value and why she thinks branding, social media, and marketing are a waste of money 
• Know how Rondalynn helps accountants find their clients’ “thirst” and “hunger” and make their pains more painful 
• Get to know how neuroscience affects pricing that will let your clients say yes to your solutions 

Rhondalynn Korolak is the Managing Director of businest, a simple and effective tool for greater time focus and profitable growth.  Rhondalynn is a lawyer, chartered accountant, best-selling author and business coach.  She has a wealth of 20 years of senior management and business coaching experience, which enabled her to uncover the secrets of business success.  She was able to produce a simple, step-by-step process to boost sales, bottom line and cash flow. Her consulting work focuses now in the accounting industry.  

Rhondalynn shares a whole new concept of neuroscience affecting pricing.  Imagine making it easier for people to say yes to the value you will give without the tricks or any force to do it.  Further, she will provide in-depth discussions on the six C’s of pricing to effectively create value to your clients.  Listen as she connects the two concepts that she is passionate about - teaching accountants to ask questions and find value, and using emotions in making decisions.  Tune in as Rhondalynn will give exciting peeks of her best-selling books in today’s exciting episode. 

"I don't spend all heaps of time on convincing.  Because if you can lay the proverbial breadcrumbs like a Hansel and Gretel, all the way along in the process, you shouldn't have a hard time to close people. They should be dying to say yes. If they're thirsty for what you have and you've got a glass of water, they'll pay any price for it. That's my philosophy.”

 – Rhondalynn Korolak

Topics Covered:

01:40 – Sharing why she is passionate about helping fellow accountants to improve soft skills 

02:57 – How she is helping the accountants to understand how to add value and why she thinks branding, social media, and marketing are a waste of money 

03:59 – Mark discusses the three Cs of pricing  

04:31 – Rhondalynn explains her six C's of pricing 

05:38 – Why she thinks finding clients is a value desert, as described in Chapter One of her two books - Pricing Value and From Value Pricing to Pricing Value  

06:48 – How she helps accountants find the “thirst” or “hunger” of their clients 

08:30 – The compelling reason why Rhondalynn advises accountants to ask questions and listen to their clients first 

10:28 – An interesting relationship between neuroscience and pricing 

11:27 – What Price Club is all about and the rules of pricing 

12:11 – Why she is passionate about neuroscience 

13:04 – How she ties the two concepts of teaching accountants to ask questions and find value, and using emotions in making decisions 

17:26 – Understanding cashflow so simple that a 6-year old kid can get it, as written in her book Financial Foreplay  

18:22 – What a deal-breaker is and a few examples 

20:07 – A price of pricing advice that would impact the business of the listeners 

Key Takeaways: 

“People make pricing decisions that are largely driven by survival and emotional cues.” – Rhondalynn Korolak 

“That's why I'm really passionate about focusing on neuroscience because it's how we make it easier for people to say yes.  We're not trying to trick them into it. We're not trying to coerce them into it. We're just packaging up our message so much more in a simple fashion that it's just easy for the brain to go yet. I'm thirsty. I need that solution right now. I say, yes, that's it.” – Rhondalynn Korolak 

“I’ve always believed that people tend to make that first decision emotionally and then they have to find a way to justify it.” – Mark Stiving 

“If you go into the relationship thinking to value price something, you're going to make a mistake probably.  And that mistake is you're going to be thinking about, what do I need to get? I want you to go into that relationship thinking, how do I add more value? Adding more value first earns you the right to be able to put your prices up.  So please enter the relationship thinking about how are you going to create more value first and then the pricing is only 5% of it. That's the easy part.” – Rhondalynn Korolak 

“Whether you need tier pricing and should your prices end on a nine. All that stuff is job number two. Job Number one is, please remember that your job is actually to add more value first.” - Rhondalynn Korolak 

Check out and read Rhondalynn Korolak’s books: 

• Pricing Value: The Art of Pricing What Your Accounting Clients Value Most 
• From Value Pricing to Pricing Value: Using Science, Psychology, and Systems to Attract Higher Paying Clients to Your Accounting Firm 
• Financial Foreplay: Whip Your Business Into Shape - Take Home More Cash 

Connect with Rhondalynn Korolak: 

• mailto:[email protected] 
• businest.com 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 
• Facebook 

Connect with Mark Stiving 

• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

• Discover how Rondalynn is helping accountants understand how to add value and why she thinks branding, social media, and marketing are a waste of money 
• Know how Rondalynn helps accountants find their clients’ “thirst” and “hunger” and make their pains more painful 
• Get to know how neuroscience affects pricing that will let your clients say yes to your solutions 

Rhondalynn Korolak is the Managing Director of businest, a simple and effective tool for greater time focus and profitable growth.  Rhondalynn is a lawyer, chartered accountant, best-selling author and business coach.  She has a wealth of 20 years of senior management and business coaching experience, which enabled her to uncover the secrets of business success.  She was able to produce a simple, step-by-step process to boost sales, bottom line and cash flow. Her consulting work focuses now in the accounting industry.  

Rhondalynn shares a whole new concept of neuroscience affecting pricing.  Imagine making it easier for people to say yes to the value you will give without the tricks or any force to do it.  Further, she will provide in-depth discussions on the six C’s of pricing to effectively create value to your clients.  Listen as she connects the two concepts that she is passionate about - teaching accountants to ask questions and find value, and using emotions in making decisions.  Tune in as Rhondalynn will give exciting peeks of her best-selling books in today’s exciting episode. 

"I don't spend all heaps of time on convincing.  Because if you can lay the proverbial breadcrumbs like a Hansel and Gretel, all the way along in the process, you shouldn't have a hard time to close people. They should be dying to say yes. If they're thirsty for what you have and you've got a glass of water, they'll pay any price for it. That's my philosophy.”

 – Rhondalynn Korolak

Topics Covered:

01:40 – Sharing why she is passionate about helping fellow accountants to improve soft skills 

02:57 – How she is helping the accountants to understand how to add value and why she thinks branding, social media, and marketing are a waste of money 

03:59 – Mark discusses the three Cs of pricing  

04:31 – Rhondalynn explains her six C's of pricing 

05:38 – Why she thinks finding clients is a value desert, as described in Chapter One of her two books - Pricing Value and From Value Pricing to Pricing Value  

06:48 – How she helps accountants find the “thirst” or “hunger” of their clients 

08:30 – The compelling reason why Rhondalynn advises accountants to ask questions and listen to their clients first 

10:28 – An interesting relationship between neuroscience and pricing 

11:27 – What Price Club is all about and the rules of pricing 

12:11 – Why she is passionate about neuroscience 

13:04 – How she ties the two concepts of teaching accountants to ask questions and find value, and using emotions in making decisions 

17:26 – Understanding cashflow so simple that a 6-year old kid can get it, as written in her book Financial Foreplay  

18:22 – What a deal-breaker is and a few examples 

20:07 – A price of pricing advice that would impact the business of the listeners 

Key Takeaways: 

“People make pricing decisions that are largely driven by survival and emotional cues.” – Rhondalynn Korolak 

“That's why I'm really passionate about focusing on neuroscience because it's how we make it easier for people to say yes.  We're not trying to trick them into it. We're not trying to coerce them into it. We're just packaging up our message so much more in a simple fashion that it's just easy for the brain to go yet. I'm thirsty. I need that solution right now. I say, yes, that's it.” – Rhondalynn Korolak 

“I’ve always believed that people tend to make that first decision emotionally and then they have to find a way to justify it.” – Mark Stiving 

“If you go into the relationship thinking to value price something, you're going to make a mistake probably.  And that mistake is you're going to be thinking about, what do I need to get? I want you to go into that relationship thinking, how do I add more value? Adding more value first earns you the right to be able to put your prices up.  So please enter the relationship thinking about how are you going to create more value first and then the pricing is only 5% of it. That's the easy part.” – Rhondalynn Korolak 

“Whether you need tier pricing and should your prices end on a nine. All that stuff is job number two. Job Number one is, please remember that your job is actually to add more value first.” - Rhondalynn Korolak 

Check out and read Rhondalynn Korolak’s books: 

• Pricing Value: The Art of Pricing What Your Accounting Clients Value Most 
• From Value Pricing to Pricing Value: Using Science, Psychology, and Systems to Attract Higher Paying Clients to Your Accounting Firm 
• Financial Foreplay: Whip Your Business Into Shape - Take Home More Cash 

Connect with Rhondalynn Korolak: 

• mailto:[email protected] 
• businest.com 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 
• Facebook 

Connect with Mark Stiving 

• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

Why you have to check out Today’s podcast: 

• Learn the rules and tactics to charge more for new work and run a more profitable business 
• Know the pricing training his company offers to creative companies and how it benefits them 
• Discover and learn the four conversations in a sale and how to successfully apply it to boost your sales conversation and presentation 

Blair Enns is the author of The Win Without Pitching Manifesto and Pricing Creativity: A Guide to Profit Beyond the Billable Hour. He co-hosts, along with David C. Baker, and the podcast 2Bobs: Conversations on the Art of Creative Entrepreneurship. Based on the remote mountain village of Kaslo, British Columbia, Canada, Blair lectures throughout the world on how creative professionals can win more business at higher prices and lower cost of sale. 

In this episode, Blair shares the ups and downs of the business side of creativity. He takes us into the pages of his books sharing the principles behind pricing creativity, sales conversation and winning without pitching. He also deep dives into the rules and tactics to help creative professionals charge more for work and how to train their clients to a value-based pricing rather than hourly billable hours. 

“I cannot think of a more valuable skill in all of business than the ability to conduct a value conversation which is to essentially  find out what the client or the customer wants, and what they would  be  willing to pay if you could help create that  value ”

 – Blair Enns 

Topics Covered: 

02:31 – How Blair got into pricing 

02:59 – What his company does and the type of professionals they serve  

05:33 – Citing examples of creative companies 

06:42 – Talking about the training on pricing his company also offers  

07:38 – Blair explains putting a stake in the ground which is detailed in his book - The Win Without Pitching Manifesto 

10:09 – Two most essential lessons for creative firms 

12:52 – How they train their clients to a value-based pricing 

15:00 – The four-step framework and four-step pricing guidance discussed in his book Pricing Creativity: A Guide to Profit Beyond the Billable Hour 

19:05 – The four conversations in the sale 

26:37 – Mark asks for feedback on the ways they apply value conversations in product companies 

29:35 – Advice for product managers 

32:05 – Blair explains why and how he priced his book that much 

34:56 – A piece of pricing advice that would impact the business of the listeners 

Key Takeaways: 

“You need to put a stake in the ground. And the mistake that people make is that stake or that claim of expertise is too broad in terms of both the discipline on the market. It should be narrow enough in a way that allows you to be compelling and meaningfully different.” – Blair Enns 

“A customized service means you have a small number of clients at any one time.” – Blair Enns 

“If you can help this client create the value that you've uncovered, then your idea of fair compensation for yourself really needs to transcend the idea of your inputs or how long it's taken you to do to help create that value.” – Blair Enns 

“The goal of value-based pricing is to create an organization filled with people like that who are laser-focused on the client and how they can help create value for the client.” – Blair Enns 

“Options with a high anchor. If you just always put forward options, three options and lead with the most expensive one. Your average settled price will go up, I promise you.” – Blair Enns 

Resources Mentioned: 

• Pricing Creativity: A Guide to Profit Beyond the Billable Hour 
• The Win Without Pitching Manifesto 

Connect with Blair Enns: 

• winwithoutpitching.com 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

Connect with Mark Stiving 

• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

Why you have to check out Today’s podcast: 

• Learn the rules and tactics to charge more for new work and run a more profitable business 
• Know the pricing training his company offers to creative companies and how it benefits them 
• Discover and learn the four conversations in a sale and how to successfully apply it to boost your sales conversation and presentation 

Blair Enns is the author of The Win Without Pitching Manifesto and Pricing Creativity: A Guide to Profit Beyond the Billable Hour. He co-hosts, along with David C. Baker, and the podcast 2Bobs: Conversations on the Art of Creative Entrepreneurship. Based on the remote mountain village of Kaslo, British Columbia, Canada, Blair lectures throughout the world on how creative professionals can win more business at higher prices and lower cost of sale. 

In this episode, Blair shares the ups and downs of the business side of creativity. He takes us into the pages of his books sharing the principles behind pricing creativity, sales conversation and winning without pitching. He also deep dives into the rules and tactics to help creative professionals charge more for work and how to train their clients to a value-based pricing rather than hourly billable hours. 

“I cannot think of a more valuable skill in all of business than the ability to conduct a value conversation which is to essentially  find out what the client or the customer wants, and what they would  be  willing to pay if you could help create that  value ”

 – Blair Enns 

Topics Covered: 

02:31 – How Blair got into pricing 

02:59 – What his company does and the type of professionals they serve  

05:33 – Citing examples of creative companies 

06:42 – Talking about the training on pricing his company also offers  

07:38 – Blair explains putting a stake in the ground which is detailed in his book - The Win Without Pitching Manifesto 

10:09 – Two most essential lessons for creative firms 

12:52 – How they train their clients to a value-based pricing 

15:00 – The four-step framework and four-step pricing guidance discussed in his book Pricing Creativity: A Guide to Profit Beyond the Billable Hour 

19:05 – The four conversations in the sale 

26:37 – Mark asks for feedback on the ways they apply value conversations in product companies 

29:35 – Advice for product managers 

32:05 – Blair explains why and how he priced his book that much 

34:56 – A piece of pricing advice that would impact the business of the listeners 

Key Takeaways: 

“You need to put a stake in the ground. And the mistake that people make is that stake or that claim of expertise is too broad in terms of both the discipline on the market. It should be narrow enough in a way that allows you to be compelling and meaningfully different.” – Blair Enns 

“A customized service means you have a small number of clients at any one time.” – Blair Enns 

“If you can help this client create the value that you've uncovered, then your idea of fair compensation for yourself really needs to transcend the idea of your inputs or how long it's taken you to do to help create that value.” – Blair Enns 

“The goal of value-based pricing is to create an organization filled with people like that who are laser-focused on the client and how they can help create value for the client.” – Blair Enns 

“Options with a high anchor. If you just always put forward options, three options and lead with the most expensive one. Your average settled price will go up, I promise you.” – Blair Enns 

Resources Mentioned: 

• Pricing Creativity: A Guide to Profit Beyond the Billable Hour 
• The Win Without Pitching Manifesto 

Connect with Blair Enns: 

• winwithoutpitching.com 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

Connect with Mark Stiving 

• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

 Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Learn the not-so-good strategies that companies do using subscription pricing
• Know the pitfalls in subscription pricing
• Discover what a pricing roadmap is and how is it related to big business decisions

Laura Fay is currently the VP Research & Advisory of XAAS Product Management for Technological Services Industry Association (TSIA) and founding member of Health Tech Capital.  Laura is a technology industry veteran with over 30 years of experience driving business growth in the enterprise software industry via leadership roles in product management, general management, product development, and customer success.

In this episode, Laura, who is a results-driven person and a very successful in driving enterprise software growth shares her perspectives about the role of pricing on subscription-type businesses and the relationship between pricing and product management.  She will also reveal the pitfalls that she found out in subscription pricing and how value metric and pricing metric are differentiated.

“If you’re going to build a pricing model based on your value proposition, you've got to understand at a deep level how the customer is getting value from the solution.” 

– Laura Fay

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Topics Covered: 

01:20 – Laura tells a brief background and the business model of TSIA

03:13 – Her role in TSIA

04:08 – How pricing fits with product management

05:13 – The role of pricing on subscription-type businesses

07:13 – Relationship of pricing and product management

08:38 – What companies don’t do well when it comes to subscription pricing

13:35 – Estimated percentage of businesses that will not transition to subscription pricing in the next five years

16:22 – Two pitfalls that Laura sees in subscription pricing

18:58 – The difference between value metric and pricing metric

23:06 – Two stages of the pitfall in timing when product management starts to think about pricing

26:18 – Pricing roadmap and what it means

27:49 – A piece of pricing advice which could impact the listeners’ business

Key Takeaways:

“Understanding the value proposition that's being delivered and getting into those level of detail of understanding the customer process, how they use the product so that you can start doing that alignment of value and pricing.  It's not something you can turn on a dime overnight once you suddenly decide to do it. So, having a point of view on that earlier in the game and evolving it is pretty critical.” – Laura Fay

“I know the timing thing is only thinking about pricing at the launch phase and not thinking about pricing during the product design, and the offer design phase because they are interdependent. You might choose to move things around and how you put your packages or your solutions together, how you put your product suite together and what features, functions and capabilities and use cases and value go into each element in the portfolio. And that's going to pose how you price it. But if you don't think about that until the very end, you're probably missing an opportunity.” – Laura Fay

“Product managers should be called value managers because ultimately, that's what their job is.  The promise of that value proposition is the promise of the product, and that is to put a value proposition that you're going to realize when you purchase whatever solution they're defining and building.”  – Laura Fay

“The remit of product management to understand how the customer is perceiving that value that they're creating and then leverage that in into their pricing design.” – Laura Fay

Connect with Laura Fay:

• mailto:[email protected]
• tsia.com
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Connect with Mark Stiving

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn
• Twitter