Let's Talk Pricing Podcast

PPS President Kevin Mitchell has a quick message for the pricing community about what’s waiting for you at profitABLE26 Atlanta, October 27–30.

Hear why Kevin believes now is the time to invest in pricing, your team, and your own development, and why he hopes you’ll join us in Atlanta.

⏰ Early bird pricing ends September 25th at 11:59 PM EDT. Register now to lock in your savings: pricingsociety.com/profitable26atl

Most organizations say they've adopted value-based pricing. But when it's time to price the next deal, many sales teams still default to cost-plus.

In this episode of Let's Talk Pricing, Kevin Mitchell sits down with Gaurav Dawar, Senior Manager, Pricing & Revenue Management at WillScot, to explore why that gap exists and what it takes to make value-based pricing the default in everyday commercial decisions.

Drawing from a real-world implementation at WillScot, Gaurav shares practical lessons on estimating willingness to pay from transaction behavior, delivering pricing guidance sales teams can actually use, and measuring whether those recommendations improve business outcomes.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why many organizations never fully transition from cost-plus pricing.
• How transaction data can provide a more practical estimate of willingness to pay.
• Why pricing ranges are often more effective than a single recommended price.
• The role explainability plays in sales adoption.
• Lessons learned from implementing value-based pricing at scale.
• Where pricing is headed over the next several years.

Pricing isn’t just about numbers.

While models, margins, and optimization often take center stage, the most powerful forces shaping pricing decisions are human—how customers perceive value, how decisions are made, and what ultimately drives willingness to pay.

In this episode of Let’s Talk Pricing, we’re joined by Jenny Millar, Founder and CEO of Untapped Pricing and co-author of The Pricing Sprint. Drawing on her experience leading pricing strategy at eBay across eleven European markets, Jenny shares how behavioral science is reshaping the way organizations approach pricing.

We explore:

• Why pricing is often treated as a technical exercise—and what’s missing

• How human behavior influences pricing outcomes more than data alone

• Why companies consistently leave value on the table

• What it takes to build a more collaborative, evidence-driven pricing process

• How pricing teams must evolve in a more data-driven, customer-centric world

If you’ve ever felt that pricing decisions don’t always follow logic, this conversation will change how you think about the role of behavior in pricing strategy.

Guest: Josh Bardell, Principal of Global Industries, Conga

Many pricing organizations have historically optimized around one objective: winning the deal. But as technology, buying behavior, and data capabilities evolve, leading companies are beginning to rethink what pricing success actually looks like.

In this episode of Let’s Talk Pricing, Josh Bardell joins Kevin Mitchell to explore how AI-powered pricing and decision intelligence are helping B2B organizations move beyond transactional thinking toward maximizing customer lifetime value.

The conversation examines how advances in neural networks and AI agents are enabling pricing teams to generate more dynamic, real-time offers while aligning pricing decisions with long-term customer engagement. Along the way, Josh shares practical perspectives from industries including airlines, retail, distribution, and manufacturing.

Topics discussed include:

• Why focusing only on “winning the deal” can limit long-term profitability

• How pricing teams can shift toward a customer lifetime value mindset

• What neural networks have changed about AI-driven pricing models

• How AI agents enable real-time, optimized offers for digital-native buyers

• The evolving role of rebates, subscriptions, and engagement-based pricing tactics

• Where pricing leaders should start when adopting AI-driven decision intelligence

• What capabilities will define high-performing pricing teams in the coming years

This episode offers a practical look at how pricing strategy is evolving as AI capabilities mature and customer expectations change.

Many pricing professionals don’t struggle because their analysis is wrong — they struggle because their insights don’t travel.

In the first new episode of 2026, Kevin Mitchell sits down with Claire Wang, pricing strategist and influence expert, to explore the shift from technical excellence to strategic influence.

Pricing teams are often analytically strong. They build rigorous models, validate assumptions, and produce sound recommendations. Yet too often, those recommendations stall — not because they lack logic, but because they fail to gain buy-in across functions and decision-makers.

Claire shares why influence is not persuasion or authority — but a skill rooted in relevance, translation, clarity, and consistency. Drawing from her upcoming book The Price of Influence, she explains:

• Why technically correct recommendations often fail to land

• What separates an analyst from a strategic advisor

• How pricing professionals can influence decisions without formal authority

• Why influence, like pricing, depends on perceived value

• What high-performing pricing leaders will need in increasingly complex organizations

If you’ve ever felt that your pricing insights deserved more traction than they received, this episode will challenge how you think about influence — and show you that it’s a learnable capability, not a personality trait.

In this special episode of Let’s Talk Pricing, PPS President Kevin Mitchell reflects on a year of profound change across the pricing profession. From shifting market dynamics and rising complexity to the growing influence of AI, data, and cross-functional leadership, Kevin explores how pricing roles, expectations, and capabilities are evolving in real time.

Looking ahead, he shares his perspective on what pricing professionals must focus on next—where opportunities are emerging, where risks remain, and how the discipline is positioning itself as a critical driver of enterprise value. Whether you’re early in your pricing career or shaping strategy at the leadership level, this episode offers timely insights into where pricing has been—and where it’s headed.

In this episode of Let’s Talk Pricing, PPS President Kevin Mitchell sits down with Kiran Gange, Founder and CEO of RapidPricer, to explore how AI and analytics are transforming retail pricing across Europe and beyond.

With nearly two decades of experience in retail, Kiran shares his perspective on how automation, data, and ethical AI are reshaping the way pricing teams forecast demand, manage promotions, and stay compliant in a rapidly evolving environment.

They discuss practical strategies for integrating AI into pricing workflows, balancing human intuition with algorithmic precision, and ensuring innovation doesn’t come at the expense of compliance.

• How AI and analytics are changing retail pricing and promotions

• Balancing automation with human judgment in pricing decisions

• Practical approaches to improve demand forecasting

• Real-world examples of AI-driven pricing success

• Navigating VAT, GDPR, and ethical AI in European markets

• Building compliance-ready pricing frameworks

• How non-technical professionals can start with AI and analytics

• What’s next for retail pricing innovation

Kiran Gange is the Founder and CEO of RapidPricer, headquartered in Amsterdam. With nearly 20 years of experience in retail pricing and analytics, Kiran has helped retailers across Europe and beyond use data and AI to optimize decisions, improve margins, and create smarter pricing systems. He’ll also be leading the workshop AI & Analytics in Retail Pricing at PPS profitABLE: Barcelona, this December.

What happens when the pricing playbook you’ve relied on no longer works? In this episode of Let’s Talk Pricing, PPS President Kevin Mitchell sits down with Christina Wirth, CPP, Managing Director and Head of Pricing & Commercial Enablement at KPMG US, to explore what it really means to “forget what you knew about pricing.”

With over 20 years of experience driving pricing transformation across global professional services firms, Christina shares:

• The legacy pricing habits holding companies back—and why they persist

• How leaders can dismantle outdated models to unlock new value

• The disruptive role of Generative AI and the rise of Outcome-Based Pricing at Scale

• Where human judgment still matters in an algorithmic world

• Her roadmap for leading successful pricing transformations

Christina also gives a sneak peek into her upcoming profitABLE25 Las Vegas keynote, where she’ll challenge pricing leaders to rethink what’s possible.

In this episode of Let’s Talk Pricing, host Kevin Mitchell (President of PPS) sits down with Patience Mutiso, MBA, CPP, Partner in Strategy, Pricing, and Revenue Growth Management at Elladon Consulting Services and a member of the PPS Board of Advisors. With over 30 years of experience helping businesses “get value right,” Patience shares her insights on building sustainable pricing capabilities that drive transformation and growth.

🎙️ Key topics include:

• What it means to “get value right” and why it matters today

• The concept of Pricing (Revenue) Centers of Excellence and how they anchor profitable growth

• Practical steps and building blocks for establishing a PCoE

• The human side of pricing leadership: critical skills beyond analytics

• Lessons learned from guiding organizations through transformation

• How the discipline of pricing has evolved—and where it’s headed next

Patience will also be a keynote speaker at PPS profitABLE25 in Las Vegas, October 21–24, where she’ll present “Pricing (Revenue) Centers of Excellence: Building Growth and Profitability Cornerstones.”

👉 Don’t miss her keynote—register now at pricingsociety.com/ppslv25

In this episode of Let’s Talk Pricing, host Kevin Mitchell (President of PPS) is joined by Jeet Mukherjee, who will be speaking at this year’s Fall Conference. Jeet shares his vision for the “bionic pricing team”—where human judgment and AI-driven insights combine to unlock stronger performance, protect margins, and transform the way pricing teams partner across the business.

🎙️ Key topics include:

• What a “bionic” pricing team looks like in practice

• Where companies should start on their AI journey without overwhelming teams

• Practical examples of using AI agents to uncover insights and plug margin leaks

• How AI changes collaboration between pricing and sales

• The evolving skills every pricing professional needs to thrive in the next 5–10 years

• Steps leaders can take today to start building their own bionic teams

Don’t miss Jeet’s session at PPS profitABLE25 in Las Vegas, October 21–24, where he’ll go even deeper on these ideas and help you chart the path toward building the pricing team of the future.

👉 Learn more and register: pricingsociety.com/ppslv25