Darlene Nordstrom is an accomplished pricing professional with experience in developing and implementing worldwide software pricing and licensing strategies spanning traditional on premise, cloud and software as a service (SaaS) offerings. Broad financial knowledge including revenue recognition, standalone selling price, return on investment, profit and loss statements and various analyses such as profitability, variance, impact, market and competitive analyses.

In this episode, Darlene highlights the crucial role of interdepartmental collaboration in developing a robust pricing strategy. Additionally, she stresses the importance of having a designated pricing specialist to oversee the entire process.

Why you have to check out today's podcast:

• Find out why interdepartmental cooperation makes a successful pricing strategy
• What added value does a pricing person bring to the table with departmental integration notwithstanding
• Learn why you should be discerning when creating short-term and long-term pricing efforts

"Cross-functional collaboration - to me that is key. What's been successful in my 15 plus years of doing pricing is having that cross-functional collaboration where everyone feels like they have a voice." - Darlene Nordstrom

Topics Covered

01:30 - What prompted her to pursue a career in pricing?

02:15 - Pricing as a team effort and a collaborative endeavor

04:49 - How does a collaborative effort in pricing look like in IBM?

05:29 - Discussing the process in reaching a pricing decision

07:18 - Which pricing decisions need this complicated process of decision making?

08:52 - Why the need for a pricing person when there is already a collaboration with other departments?

11:50 - What added value does a pricing team bring to a corporation?

12:52 - Important considerations to think about in terms of creating short and long-term efforts in pricing

15:17 - Partnering with financial folks to do the analytical part of interpreting data and KPIs

17:14 - IBM as a premium price leader doing the competitor-based pricing

18:57 - Talking about the differential value in a competitor-based pricing

20:57 - How hard was it changing a pricing metric for a product and when do you consider changing it?

22:58 - Darlene's pricing advice that could impact one's business

Key Takeaways:

"You don't set your price once and done, you just keep reiterating it. And the pricing team is responsible for providing those meaningful insights." - Darlene Nordstrom

"What you shouldn't do is make short-term decisions that will impact your long-term goals. Being short-sighted and reacting, you don't want to end up in a price war and react because a competitor did something." - Darlene Nordstrom

"You always have to be thinking in terms of that end goal in mind and work backwards, and maybe there are some iterative steps that you could take to get to that end goal. I'd be careful about making some short-term decisions that impact your long-term goals." - Darlene Nordstrom

People / Resources Mentioned:

• IBM: https://www.ibm.com/

Connect with Darlene Nordstrom:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darlene-nordstrom-96ab4220/

Connect with Mark Stiving:

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