Impact Pricing

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Discover the concept of dynamic pricing to help you keep pace with constantly changing market dynamics
• Learn how to maximize your business ‘profit with predictive analytics and powerful artificial intelligence (AI) pricing strategy
• Know the definition of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning

Alexander Shartsis is the co-founder and CEO of Perfect Price, an artificial intelligence (AI) company empowering companies to make better decisions about pricing, profitability, and utilization. He is an entrepreneur and executive with a background in business development, sales, product, and engineering. He is a member of the Forbes Technology Council. He wrote a book called The Ultimate Guide to Pricing Strategy: A Playbook for Behavior-Based Pricing and Promotions. Alex holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and an AB from Dartmouth College.

In this episode, Alexander shares his expertise in the dynamic pricing model, which industries use it, and will it be harder to use it on a subscription type of business over the traditional ones? You’ll also get to understand the concept of artificial intelligence and machine learning and how they are associated with pricing strategies. Further, learn how his company, Perfect Price, delivers artificial intelligence for pricing that will significantly impact your company’s revenue.

“Always put yourself in the customer's shoes or just out of your own world of being a pricing professional and try and think about it differently. And maybe you'll come to the same conclusion or maybe you'll, you'll have an epiphany and think about things totally and differently. Letting go of your assumptions and your conviction of being right about how you're doing things today is a really powerful tool.”

– Alexander Shartsis

Stay updated on all thing pricing.  

Subscribe to 'The Pricing Perspective' here

Topics Covered: 

01:32 – Alexander’s shares how his focus in bringing technologies got him into pricing 

03:20 – The concept of dynamic pricing 

05:08 – Car rentals and car manufacturers as examples of industries which use dynamic pricing 

09:28 – Two ways to achieve dynamic pricing: demand-based pricing and market trend 

12:25 – Gathering outside data to predict demand or willingness to pay  

13:10 – The overlooked significance of a company’s own data – actual purchase data and web traffic data  

17:24 – Example of an AI pricing strategy  

18:20 – Definition of AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning, and specifying Google Translate as a good example 

22:34 – How Alex’s company, Perfect Price, provides data with the companies to get the results they want 

25:23 – Difference of subscription business from the traditional types in terms of dynamic pricing 

27:41 – A piece of pricing advice from Alex – “Be really open-minded about pricing.  It's really easy to get emotionally attached to the way you've been doing things.” 

Key Takeaways: 

“It becomes much more about, how are you framing the problem? And I think the key difference with AI is learning from the data, as opposed to making a bunch of human understandable assumptions.” –  Alexander Shartsis 

“The thing that's almost always overlooked by companies is their own data.” –  Alexander Shartsis 

“In our opinion, wherever you're running an AI pricing strategy, you do need some human control over it.” –  Alexander Shartsis 

“It's hard to do dynamic pricing for anything where the consumer or buyer really has a solid expectation of price. And that can be subscriptions.” –  Alexander Shartsis 

“It is so often that we start down some path for whatever reason.  It's easy as a startup company.  We price it this way, and that's mostly internally focused, not externally focused. And as soon as we step back and start thinking about customers and willingness to pay and how it changes in situations, suddenly, we have so many more doors, so many more levers we can pull.” – Mark Stiving 

Resources mentioned: 

The Ultimate Guide to Pricing Strategy: A Playbook for Behavior-Based Pricing and Promotions 
 

Connect with Alex Shartsis: 

• perfectprice.com 
• LinkedIn
• Twitter 
   

Connect with Mark Stiving 

• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Know how to find the right value metric for your business 
• Learn the difference between subscription and recurring revenue 
• Discover the strategies in packaging and pricing metrics 

Kyle Poyar is the Vice President for Market Strategy at OpenView since 2016.  He is responsible for helping OpenView’s portfolio companies accelerate top-line growth through deep insights.  He leads segmentation, positioning, channel/partner strategy, new market entry, and packaging/pricing initiatives, partnering closely with portfolio leadership teams. He also covers OpenView’s SaaS metrics and benchmarking research.    

Previously, he worked for Simon-Kucher & Partners as a Pricing Consultant for six years.  Kyle earned his AB Economics & Environmental Studies at Brown University.  He graduated Magna cum Laude and with departmental honors in Environmental Studies. 

In today's episode, Kyle shares his pricing journey and his perspective on how pricing is essential in decision-making. Check out his expert advice that will undoubtedly impact your business to its optimum level. 

“Pricing is the tip of the spear. It's a pain point that's universal among companies, especially among earlier companies. But then once you do a pricing project, you uncover so many areas of opportunity for follow-on work.”

 – Kyle Poyar

Stay updated on all thing pricing.  

Subscribe to 'The Pricing Perspective' here  

Topics Covered:  

02:59– Kyle talks about why he thinks pricing is a Trojan horse, a spear and a pain point among companies 

04:12 – Sharing the reasons why he left Simon-Kucher & Partners (SKP) and moved to OpenView 

06:31 – Talking about OpenView’s expansion team and the pricing challenges he encountered in their early stages of the business 

08:41 – Company in expansion stage defined 

09:49 – Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) as a marketing metric, and what it reveals about the status of your business  

11:22 – Spearheading the SaaS benchmark initiative as Kyle’s first roles at OpenView  

13:15 – Subscription and recurring revenue, understanding both revenue streams  

15:44 – How he helped one company pivoted from subscription to recurring model 

20:03 – Difference of packaging from pricing metrics: the good, better, best services 

24:08 – Not spending time to look at pricing as one of the biggest pricing problems that subscription companies currently have 

27:32 – Pricing advice to listeners – “If you start getting involved in thinking about what model (free trial or freemium models) could look like and what are the KPIs for it in your business, that elevates the role of pricing in the organization and helps you stay relevant with your users.” 

29:43 – His opinion on the similarity of designing the sales force out of the system and product-led growth  

Key Takeaways:  

“I think the biggest ‘AHA’ moment for CEOs is when someone finally tracks the revenue impact of pricing changes and they start counting all of the dollars that they're making from making a pricing change. It's amazing if you can bring proof points around impact and real dollars and cents. I think you can change minds quickly.” – Kyle Poyar 

“The early stages of business founders tend to undervalue their products. They start with extremely low pricing, and they don't change that and increase it. There's just a ton of opportunity in the early stages for business to increase prices and in many cases, not even seeing any sort of impact to win rate or conversion, just additional revenue, and bottom-line profitability.” – Kyle Poyar 

“Subscriptions is a great business model for a lot of companies, and obviously the investors recognize that and are willing to pay a premium for subscription companies.  But you can get a lot of the same characteristics without actually having any sort of commitment for your customers. That can be a disruptive value proposition. And I think the investors will recognize companies that are disruptive and winning in the market and reward them.” – Kyle Poyar 

“I think structurally speaking, companies are not spending enough time on pricing.  The biggest challenge is just a lack of great pricing skills and then more tactically for businesses.  It's a very competitive world in technology right now.” – Kyle Poyar  

Resources mentioned: 

• Mastering SaaS Pricing 
• SaaS Metrics

Connect with Kyle Poyar: 

• openviewpartners.com 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

Connect with Mark Stiving 

• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Know how to find the right value metric for your business 
• Learn the difference between subscription and recurring revenue 
• Discover the strategies in packaging and pricing metrics 

Kyle Poyar is the Vice President for Market Strategy at OpenView since 2016.  He is responsible for helping OpenView’s portfolio companies accelerate top-line growth through deep insights.  He leads segmentation, positioning, channel/partner strategy, new market entry, and packaging/pricing initiatives, partnering closely with portfolio leadership teams. He also covers OpenView’s SaaS metrics and benchmarking research.    

Previously, he worked for Simon-Kucher & Partners as a Pricing Consultant for six years.  Kyle earned his AB Economics & Environmental Studies at Brown University.  He graduated Magna cum Laude and with departmental honors in Environmental Studies. 

In today's episode, Kyle shares his pricing journey and his perspective on how pricing is essential in decision-making. Check out his expert advice that will undoubtedly impact your business to its optimum level. 

“Pricing is the tip of the spear. It's a pain point that's universal among companies, especially among earlier companies. But then once you do a pricing project, you uncover so many areas of opportunity for follow-on work.”

 – Kyle Poyar

Stay updated on all thing pricing.  

Subscribe to 'The Pricing Perspective' here  

Topics Covered:  

02:59– Kyle talks about why he thinks pricing is a Trojan horse, a spear and a pain point among companies 

04:12 – Sharing the reasons why he left Simon-Kucher & Partners (SKP) and moved to OpenView 

06:31 – Talking about OpenView’s expansion team and the pricing challenges he encountered in their early stages of the business 

08:41 – Company in expansion stage defined 

09:49 – Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) as a marketing metric, and what it reveals about the status of your business  

11:22 – Spearheading the SaaS benchmark initiative as Kyle’s first roles at OpenView  

13:15 – Subscription and recurring revenue, understanding both revenue streams  

15:44 – How he helped one company pivoted from subscription to recurring model 

20:03 – Difference of packaging from pricing metrics: the good, better, best services 

24:08 – Not spending time to look at pricing as one of the biggest pricing problems that subscription companies currently have 

27:32 – Pricing advice to listeners – “If you start getting involved in thinking about what model (free trial or freemium models) could look like and what are the KPIs for it in your business, that elevates the role of pricing in the organization and helps you stay relevant with your users.” 

29:43 – His opinion on the similarity of designing the sales force out of the system and product-led growth  

Key Takeaways:  

“I think the biggest ‘AHA’ moment for CEOs is when someone finally tracks the revenue impact of pricing changes and they start counting all of the dollars that they're making from making a pricing change. It's amazing if you can bring proof points around impact and real dollars and cents. I think you can change minds quickly.” – Kyle Poyar 

“The early stages of business founders tend to undervalue their products. They start with extremely low pricing, and they don't change that and increase it. There's just a ton of opportunity in the early stages for business to increase prices and in many cases, not even seeing any sort of impact to win rate or conversion, just additional revenue, and bottom-line profitability.” – Kyle Poyar 

“Subscriptions is a great business model for a lot of companies, and obviously the investors recognize that and are willing to pay a premium for subscription companies.  But you can get a lot of the same characteristics without actually having any sort of commitment for your customers. That can be a disruptive value proposition. And I think the investors will recognize companies that are disruptive and winning in the market and reward them.” – Kyle Poyar 

“I think structurally speaking, companies are not spending enough time on pricing.  The biggest challenge is just a lack of great pricing skills and then more tactically for businesses.  It's a very competitive world in technology right now.” – Kyle Poyar  

Resources mentioned: 

• Mastering SaaS Pricing 
• SaaS Metrics

Connect with Kyle Poyar: 

• openviewpartners.com 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

Connect with Mark Stiving 

• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Discover how Chris Hopf's pricing metric decision guide can help you evaluate your options and confirm your existing pricing approach
• The difference between pricing metrics and value metrics and discover why not all value metrics should be used as a pricing metric
• Know how understanding your customer better through metrics can help you achieve your revenue goals faster and with more confidence

Chris Hopf worked for more than twenty-five years as an owner, employee and as a consultant with small startups, mid-sized mergers and Fortune 50 Corporations such as Microsoft and United Technologies.

He helps client companies clearly communicate their value advantages, convert more prospects, keep more customers and capture their markets' full profit potential. His experience spans a number of industries including software, technology, IoT, AI, ML, digital media, retail, publishing, general and specialty contractors, industrial suppliers and wholesale distribution and more.

In this episode, Chris shares his pricing journey, all about his decision guide tool for pricing that helps determine business profit, and the importance of understanding the customer to help you increase your pricing confidence. 

“Pricing confidence comes from value clarity.”

- Chris Hopf

Stay updated on all thing pricing.  

Subscribe to 'The Pricing Perspective' here 

Topics Covered: 

01:10 - Chris’s pricing backstory and how he got involved in pricing in  every company he worked for 

02:37 - The story behind his ‘Decision Guide for Pricing Metric’ 

03:26 - The difference between value metric and pricing metric 

04:15 - Mark’s insight on value metric versus pricing metric 

11:20 - Different evaluation example using his ‘Decision Guide for Pricing Metric’  

19:45 - How pricing metric encourages per use or charging per user 

22:40- Examples of what a company don’t measure in terms of internal execution 

23:49- Creating your pricing metric, differences and cost impact

26:08 - Chris valuable advice: "Give your pricing a chance. One of the best ways to really inform your pricing should always start to understand your customer.’" 

Key Takeaways:

 “Pricing metric is what we look at the seller side and the value metric is what we look at the buyer side.”- Mark Stiving 

“Pricing confidence comes from value clarity. So the more you increase your value clarity the better you understand your customer and the difference you make and what they care about what they’re trying to accomplish, you will simultaneously also be increasing your pricing confidence.” - Chris Hopf 

Connect with Chris Hopf

• pricingwire.com 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 
• Instagram 

Connect with Mark Stiving 

• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Discover how Chris Hopf's pricing metric decision guide can help you evaluate your options and confirm your existing pricing approach
• The difference between pricing metrics and value metrics and discover why not all value metrics should be used as a pricing metric
• Know how understanding your customer better through metrics can help you achieve your revenue goals faster and with more confidence

Chris Hopf worked for more than twenty-five years as an owner, employee and as a consultant with small startups, mid-sized mergers and Fortune 50 Corporations such as Microsoft and United Technologies.

He helps client companies clearly communicate their value advantages, convert more prospects, keep more customers and capture their markets' full profit potential. His experience spans a number of industries including software, technology, IoT, AI, ML, digital media, retail, publishing, general and specialty contractors, industrial suppliers and wholesale distribution and more.

In this episode, Chris shares his pricing journey, all about his decision guide tool for pricing that helps determine business profit, and the importance of understanding the customer to help you increase your pricing confidence. 

“Pricing confidence comes from value clarity.”

- Chris Hopf

Stay updated on all thing pricing.  

Subscribe to 'The Pricing Perspective' here 

Topics Covered: 

01:10 - Chris’s pricing backstory and how he got involved in pricing in  every company he worked for 

02:37 - The story behind his ‘Decision Guide for Pricing Metric’ 

03:26 - The difference between value metric and pricing metric 

04:15 - Mark’s insight on value metric versus pricing metric 

11:20 - Different evaluation example using his ‘Decision Guide for Pricing Metric’  

19:45 - How pricing metric encourages per use or charging per user 

22:40- Examples of what a company don’t measure in terms of internal execution 

23:49- Creating your pricing metric, differences and cost impact

26:08 - Chris valuable advice: "Give your pricing a chance. One of the best ways to really inform your pricing should always start to understand your customer.’" 

Key Takeaways:

 “Pricing metric is what we look at the seller side and the value metric is what we look at the buyer side.”- Mark Stiving 

“Pricing confidence comes from value clarity. So the more you increase your value clarity the better you understand your customer and the difference you make and what they care about what they’re trying to accomplish, you will simultaneously also be increasing your pricing confidence.” - Chris Hopf 

Connect with Chris Hopf

• pricingwire.com 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 
• Instagram 

Connect with Mark Stiving 

• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

• Why you should charge a premium fee for your services 
• Why undercharging is killing your business 
• The halo effect of premium pricing: How to use it for your business 

David Newman specializes in working with speakers, authors, consultants, and independent professionals who want to stop throwing money into a marketing black hole and attract, engage, and win more clients. He’s been running his own business called Do It Marketing for 18 years. He earned his CSP, Certified Speaking Professional from National Speakers Association.  David hosts his own podcast called The Speaking Show.  

In this episode, David will walk us through the ideas and strategies of charging a premium price for your product and services.  

In his vast experience as a speaker and consultant to various big firms in different industries and to solopreneurs, be assured he will share the relevant pricing tactics of reinforcing that psychological perception of premium products and services. 

“You have to charge premium fees before you think you are ready to charge premium fees. Your pricing is your positioning. And your positioning is integrated into your pricing. ” 

– David Newman 

Stay updated on all thing pricing.

Subscribe to ‘The Pricing Perspective’ here

Topics Covered:  

01:44 – Relating his transition from being a corporate consultant to helping other speakers raise their game 

03:33 – The feeling of fulfillment seeing his clients reach their goals 

04:43 – His thought on ignorance and undercharging your services  

08:12 – Why do people hire speakers? Is it for content or delivery? 

12:21 – Influence and Differentiation in a pricing frame of mind 

14:51 – How much should you price your service as a speaker 

18:54 – The halo effect of premium pricing: How to use it for your business 

19:48 – On pricing less than what you are really worth 

23:47 – The value of premium pricing 

25:31 – Pricing advice from David: “People buy who they are, they really buy who they are. There are passengers on an airplane that always fly economy, would never think of business class or first class because it doesn’t match their identity. It’s not who they are.”  

Key Takeaways: 

“The more research that you do about what's the going rate in your market, in your topic for your level of expertise, you will be shocked. You'll be shocked and stunned about how much you should be getting. Because we always underprice ourselves and we always overestimate the value that others deliver.” - David Newman  

“When people pay more, they pay more attention. They value your product more just because they paid more and then they implement more and then they get more results.” - David Newman 

“When you're not offering something at a premium price, I guarantee you that you're leaving money on the table. People that want the biggest, the best and the most expensive, if they don't see it with you, they're going to go find it with somebody else. ”  - David Newman 

Connect with David Newman: 

• doitmarketing.com  
• LinkedIn 

Connect with Mark Stiving 

• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

• Why you should charge a premium fee for your services 
• Why undercharging is killing your business 
• The halo effect of premium pricing: How to use it for your business 

David Newman specializes in working with speakers, authors, consultants, and independent professionals who want to stop throwing money into a marketing black hole and attract, engage, and win more clients. He’s been running his own business called Do It Marketing for 18 years. He earned his CSP, Certified Speaking Professional from National Speakers Association.  David hosts his own podcast called The Speaking Show.  

In this episode, David will walk us through the ideas and strategies of charging a premium price for your product and services.  

In his vast experience as a speaker and consultant to various big firms in different industries and to solopreneurs, be assured he will share the relevant pricing tactics of reinforcing that psychological perception of premium products and services. 

“You have to charge premium fees before you think you are ready to charge premium fees. Your pricing is your positioning. And your positioning is integrated into your pricing. ” 

– David Newman 

Stay updated on all thing pricing.

Subscribe to ‘The Pricing Perspective’ here

Topics Covered:  

01:44 – Relating his transition from being a corporate consultant to helping other speakers raise their game 

03:33 – The feeling of fulfillment seeing his clients reach their goals 

04:43 – His thought on ignorance and undercharging your services  

08:12 – Why do people hire speakers? Is it for content or delivery? 

12:21 – Influence and Differentiation in a pricing frame of mind 

14:51 – How much should you price your service as a speaker 

18:54 – The halo effect of premium pricing: How to use it for your business 

19:48 – On pricing less than what you are really worth 

23:47 – The value of premium pricing 

25:31 – Pricing advice from David: “People buy who they are, they really buy who they are. There are passengers on an airplane that always fly economy, would never think of business class or first class because it doesn’t match their identity. It’s not who they are.”  

Key Takeaways: 

“The more research that you do about what's the going rate in your market, in your topic for your level of expertise, you will be shocked. You'll be shocked and stunned about how much you should be getting. Because we always underprice ourselves and we always overestimate the value that others deliver.” - David Newman  

“When people pay more, they pay more attention. They value your product more just because they paid more and then they implement more and then they get more results.” - David Newman 

“When you're not offering something at a premium price, I guarantee you that you're leaving money on the table. People that want the biggest, the best and the most expensive, if they don't see it with you, they're going to go find it with somebody else. ”  - David Newman 

Connect with David Newman: 

• doitmarketing.com  
• LinkedIn 

Connect with Mark Stiving 

• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 

• Find out how the HAAS Alert technology prevents road collisions
• Discover the pricing approach used on direct selling vs indirect selling through channel distribution
• Learn how customers can save more on paying upfront fees vs annually on a five-year plan
   

Jeremy Agulnek is the Vice President of Connected Car at HAAS Alert since October 2017.  His start-up company offers real-time collision prevention system on roadways through its HAAS Alert Safety Cloud technology. He brings in years of sales and product management expertise from the various technology companies he joined in the past.  Jeremy earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with Honors from the University of Chicago – Booth School of Business. 

Today, Mark dives into his first Impact Pricing recorded coaching session in this special podcast episode with guest, Jeremy.  You’ll get first-hand information as they share a power-packed conversation about Jeremy’s company, HAAS Alert.  Jeremy will tell more on how HAAS Alert operates and generates income, how the three categories of costs affect the economic value of the vehicle, more so, the pricing model of HAAS Alert and know the different approach used on direct selling and indirect selling through channel distribution.  Mark, then again, will give his insightful and expert tips and advice that will surely help your business. 

Whether you’re a business owner, a student, or somebody interested in pricing, don’t forget to grab your pen and ensure you take down notes as this is one interview you shouldn’t miss! 

“Find the market segment where they get the most value out of what you’re offering.” 

– Mark Stiving

Topics Covered:

02:05 – Jeremy talks about his company, HAAS Alert and how it prevents a collision on-road vehicles 

03:52 – How real-time and automatic feeding of data into the Waze app adds value to HAAS Alert 

05:05 – The two-sided marketplace where the company generates revenues: (1) fleet owners and operators, and (2) car co-manufacturers 

08:45 – Three categories of costs on roadside accidents: 

Minor collisions – requires repair of the vehicle and out of service time 
Medium – major damage happens which might need a vehicle replacement 
High – may involve personal injury lawsuits 
11:02 – Probability that the three categories will occur to determine the economic value to the buyer 

13:42 – Detailing the flexible pricing model of HAAS Alert 

15:38 – Mark gives his expert opinion on the pricing model of HAAS Alert 

19:20 – Discussion on the effects of direct selling vs indirect selling through channel distribution 

22:43 – Challenge on bundling hardware to the subscription price and pay the distribution channel 

25:40 – Value-based pricing as a healthy approach to attain business sustainability 

27:16 – The churn rate at the end of the term 

28:34 – How customers save more on paying upfront fees vs annually on a five-year plan 

31:39 – Pros and cons of upfront price and upfront buy-in 

34:53 – Mark shared a brief story when he kept on increasing his rate as a speaker, and yet people still agree to pay 

36:08 – Mark’s thoughts on price segmentation specifically when asked what to do if customers talk 

Key Takeaways:

You find the market segment where they get the most value out of what you’re offering, and that’s where you go penetrate first because those are the people who have the biggest pain and they’re more likely to say yes to us. They’re more likely to pay us higher numbers, and we start to build the business that way.”– Mark Stiving 

“We want to capture more of the value that our buyers believe is there, that our buyers perceive. That’s always important.” – Mark Stiving 

“In the long run, you’d like your distribution channel to be out of getting that subscription revenue. That’s your revenue, not theirs. You need to pay them enough to sell your product, but you don’t need to pay them forever.” – Mark Stiving 

Connect with Jeremy Agulnek:

• haasalert.com
• LinkedIn – HAAS Alert
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Connect with Mark Stiving

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

• Find out how the HAAS Alert technology prevents road collisions
• Discover the pricing approach used on direct selling vs indirect selling through channel distribution
• Learn how customers can save more on paying upfront fees vs annually on a five-year plan
   

Jeremy Agulnek is the Vice President of Connected Car at HAAS Alert since October 2017.  His start-up company offers real-time collision prevention system on roadways through its HAAS Alert Safety Cloud technology. He brings in years of sales and product management expertise from the various technology companies he joined in the past.  Jeremy earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with Honors from the University of Chicago – Booth School of Business. 

Today, Mark dives into his first Impact Pricing recorded coaching session in this special podcast episode with guest, Jeremy.  You’ll get first-hand information as they share a power-packed conversation about Jeremy’s company, HAAS Alert.  Jeremy will tell more on how HAAS Alert operates and generates income, how the three categories of costs affect the economic value of the vehicle, more so, the pricing model of HAAS Alert and know the different approach used on direct selling and indirect selling through channel distribution.  Mark, then again, will give his insightful and expert tips and advice that will surely help your business. 

Whether you’re a business owner, a student, or somebody interested in pricing, don’t forget to grab your pen and ensure you take down notes as this is one interview you shouldn’t miss! 

“Find the market segment where they get the most value out of what you’re offering.” 

– Mark Stiving

Topics Covered:

02:05 – Jeremy talks about his company, HAAS Alert and how it prevents a collision on-road vehicles 

03:52 – How real-time and automatic feeding of data into the Waze app adds value to HAAS Alert 

05:05 – The two-sided marketplace where the company generates revenues: (1) fleet owners and operators, and (2) car co-manufacturers 

08:45 – Three categories of costs on roadside accidents: 

Minor collisions – requires repair of the vehicle and out of service time 
Medium – major damage happens which might need a vehicle replacement 
High – may involve personal injury lawsuits 
11:02 – Probability that the three categories will occur to determine the economic value to the buyer 

13:42 – Detailing the flexible pricing model of HAAS Alert 

15:38 – Mark gives his expert opinion on the pricing model of HAAS Alert 

19:20 – Discussion on the effects of direct selling vs indirect selling through channel distribution 

22:43 – Challenge on bundling hardware to the subscription price and pay the distribution channel 

25:40 – Value-based pricing as a healthy approach to attain business sustainability 

27:16 – The churn rate at the end of the term 

28:34 – How customers save more on paying upfront fees vs annually on a five-year plan 

31:39 – Pros and cons of upfront price and upfront buy-in 

34:53 – Mark shared a brief story when he kept on increasing his rate as a speaker, and yet people still agree to pay 

36:08 – Mark’s thoughts on price segmentation specifically when asked what to do if customers talk 

Key Takeaways:

You find the market segment where they get the most value out of what you’re offering, and that’s where you go penetrate first because those are the people who have the biggest pain and they’re more likely to say yes to us. They’re more likely to pay us higher numbers, and we start to build the business that way.”– Mark Stiving 

“We want to capture more of the value that our buyers believe is there, that our buyers perceive. That’s always important.” – Mark Stiving 

“In the long run, you’d like your distribution channel to be out of getting that subscription revenue. That’s your revenue, not theirs. You need to pay them enough to sell your product, but you don’t need to pay them forever.” – Mark Stiving 

Connect with Jeremy Agulnek:

• haasalert.com
• LinkedIn – HAAS Alert
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Connect with Mark Stiving

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

• Find out how subscription-based pricing works for software B2B companies 
• Discover the metrics and criteria you need to track your SaaS subscription business  
• Know the pros and cons of feature-based pricing model for SaaS 

Ryan Glushkoff founded Fraction8, a consulting firm focused on delivering pricing and product marketing expertise for business to business (B2B) software companies.  He worked in the software industry for a massive 20 years and has relevant experience in both pre-sales and post-sales for the mass-market and custom-enterprise type of software companies.  These opportunities gave him an advantage in understanding how SaaS (software as a service) companies need to position, price, and market themselves for success.  He was a student of Mark who took the first Price class in his Pragmatic Marketing course. 

In this episode, Ryan shares the foundations of his career in pricing and his exposure in the B2B software market which paved the way of starting his consulting firm catering to the same market.  His insights into the evolution of pricing, risks in changing the pricing structure, and the concept of feature-based pricing model.  

Get an in-depth explanation of the pricing metrics of subscriptions – the three essential criteria and the process of identifying the appropriate metrics for customers.

“Talk to your market, whether that be your customers, your prospects, your churn customers or your white space prospects that you’ve never spoken with before in your town. Get out there and talk to them because there is no substitute for hearing from them firsthand.”

– Ryan Glushkoff

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Subscribe to ‘The Pricing Perspective’ here

Topics Covered: 

01:35 – Ryan’s core beliefs in pricing and how his pricing career started 

02:15 – Working at Disney where he was first exposed in pricing and where he met his wife 

03:01 – His experience in B2B software providers in a marketing capacity and eventually starting his own company 

04:07 – Focusing his market on software subscriptions in B2B companies 

05:53 – How Disney figure out how to offer their packages to families with the B2C approach 

07:20 – Subscription pricing vs. normal pricing  

08:36 – Defining the concept of metrics in software subscription 

10:07 – Three (3) important criteria of pricing metrics: Alignment with business, easy to understand,and scalability 

11:54 – Walking through the process of identifying the right pricing metrics for customers: brainstorming, surveying the market, segmentation, and pricing  evaluation  

15:59 – Ryan’s thoughts on pricing evolution and his advice on that  

19:13 – Why companies need to be cautious when updating their pricing structure  

22:43 – The strategy of raising prices with new customers and the risks involved 

24:20 – Two (2) important pricing advice to the audience: Get out there and talk to your customers and choose a pricing metric that is not feature-based. 

26:23 – Citing an example of a feature-based pricing metric 

Key Takeaways: 

“One of my core beliefs is that pricing is a blend of art and science together. You got to be good with numbers of course because it is pricing after all, but you have to also be very good at discerning behavioral patterns that you are not easily visible in the market.”– Ryan Glushkoff 

“Subscription pricing means that you as the buyer agree to pay a fee in perpetuity or at least until the end of your contract term in exchange for a product or services that are rendered to you.  (While) Non-Subscription pricing means that you're obligated to pay only once, or at least according to the payment terms of your contract.”– Ryan Glushkoff 

“How the customer pays do not necessarily have to align with the value derived. Although I would submit to you that it works out better economically for the vendor if the pricing is aligned to the value created by the product per surface. And that's the whole value metric side and software subscription.”– Ryan Glushkoff 

“You have to be careful with customers though because a paying customer is better than a churned customer even if they aren't as profitable as you'd like them to be.” – Ryan Glushkoff 

Resources Mentioned: 

Monetizing Innovation: How Smart Companies Design the Product Around the Price 
 

Connect with Ryan Glushkoff: 

• fraction8.io 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter 
   

Connect with Mark Stiving

• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn 
• Twitter