Danilo Zatta is the author of The Pricing Model Revolution, The 10 Rules of Highly Effective Pricing, and the new book Revenue Growth Management. He is recognized as one of LinkedIn's Top 5 Pricing Thought Leaders and brings decades of consulting experience from Accenture, Simon-Kucher, and BCG. His work is anchored in one simple insight: pricing is the "sunny side" of consulting.

He shares real examples of companies that increased profit by cutting ineffective promotions and by detecting thousands of spare-part pricing outliers with AI.

This episode explores pricing leadership, the CEO's role, the difference between pricing truth and framework preference, and why democratized pricing knowledge makes talent the true competitive advantage.

Why You Have to Check Out This Episode:

• Learn how AI spots hidden pricing outliers across hundreds of thousands of SKUs and turns them into instant profit.
• Discover why FMCG companies burn cash on promotions and how smart RGM frameworks finally fix it.
• Understand the real "truth" behind pricing frameworks and why people, not methodology, drive pricing success.

"Start the AI pricing journey—not by boiling the ocean—but by finding a use case that works, proves value, and then expand it."

– Danilo Zatta

Topics Covered:

01:27 - How Dan Got Into Pricing. His shift from cost-cutting to pricing and why he calls it the "sunny side" of consulting.

06:57 - Freedom in Consulting Choices. Comparing Accenture, Simon-Kucher, and BCG—and why team chemistry matters most.

09:11 - Revenue Growth Management. How FMCG brands optimize trade terms, promos, and price architecture for profit.

11:55 - FMCG as B2B. Why FMCG selling to retailers is a pure B2B relationship with limited price control.

17:22 - Implicit Collusion in Airlines. How industries use public price signaling to influence competitor behavior.

19:13 - AI in Spare Parts Pricing. How AI identified major pricing outliers and delivered over €1M in quick wins.

24:42 - Why AI Beats Excel. AI's advantage in scale, complexity, and instant alerts across massive SKU sets.

27:15 - Starting Your AI Pricing Journey. Begin with one use case, prove it works, then expand—no perfect data needed.

Key Takeaways:

"Pricing used to be specialized knowledge. Today it's democratized—so what differentiates you is the team, not the tools." – Danilo Zatta

"If you're the market leader, you must act first. Smaller players can't reduce promotions until you do." – Danilo Zatta

"Pricing is never boring because every industry has its own logic, levers, and constraints." – Danilo Zatta

Books by Danilo Zatta:

• The Pricing Model Revolution: https://www.amazon.it/Pricing-revolution-pricing-cambier%C3%A0-comprare/dp/8836010547/
• The 10 Rules of Highly Effective Pricing: https://www.amazon.com/Rules-Highly-Effective-Pricing-Management/dp/1394195761
• Revenue Growth Management: https://www.amazon.it/Revenue-Management-Manufacturing-Application-Industry/dp/3319807595/

Connect with Danilo Zatta:

• Website: https://www.danilozatta.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danilo-zatta
• Books: https://www.danilozatta.com/books/

Connect with Mark Stiving:

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