Street Pricing with Marcos Rivera

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Johnny Cheng, Senior Director of Pricing and Packaging from ClickUp.

Johnny talks about his beginnings at Marketo as Head of Pricing and Packaging. (3:10) Johnny took a look into the packaging and rebuilt it to better serve the customers. Selling the right value, to the right customer, in the right way. Johnny discusses how he overcame two major hurdles. (7:15) Those two hurdles were building a market site and changing the model and framework. Creating the right tools for sales was helpful for this. He talks about his proudest moment at Marketo, where he launched the new model at the same time as the old model was still available. (12:00)

Marcos and Johnny talk about the results for the new model launch. (16:12) The custom-made plans helped with conversion rates. Johnny discusses his first interaction with Marcos and how he received a ‘5 out of 5’ assessment. (17:53)

Marcoa and Johnny talk about why Johnny came to ClickUp and how it is the fastest growing PLG company. (19:37) They discuss the “secret sauce” of the company, combining hard feature pay walls with usage pay walls. (23:44) Marcos tells listeners with “taste of toggle” means.

Johnny talks about his hopes for the future of pricing and packaging at ClickUp. (26:38)

Marcos and Johnny close out the show by discussing Johnny’s favorite song growing up “Gangsta’s Paradise” By Coolio or anything from Tupac.  

Street Pricing streams live on OC TALK RADIO, Orange County's only online business channel, every Friday at 9:00 AM PT and is available for download on all major podcast platforms.

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at [email protected]

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Srinivas Somayajula, GM of Data at Tropic. Srinivas overseas all the data solutions and wants to bring transparency to SaaS pricing.

Srinivas talks about his time with Calendly, he suggested they look at the pricing around March 2020, and that maybe they were giving away too much value for their current pricing. (2:40) He looked into the data and spoke with customers and decided on two principles that would work for the company; everything has to be as frictionless as possible, and they had to do no harm to the customers. Existing customers needed a packaging and pricing model to migrate to and new customers were coming to Calendly with the pandemic happening. (7:40)

Marcos and Srinivas emphasize how the actual execution of price changes can be a big problem for companies, and how thoughtful planning and tests are key. (8:52) Srinivas wanted to make the product easy to sell, using the website, marketing, and building sales teams to communicate the value to the customers. (10:00) The important questions that companies need to answer are Who are we? What do we stand for? What do we want for the company? Who do we serve? (11:00)

Srinivas listened to the customers by doing multiple rounds of interviews and surveys and also did internal voting with the sales team. (16:15) He thought the internal viewpoint would give signals to understanding but could also give biased opinions as well. Both things partnered together can give a balanced perspective. Srinivas also suggested looking into support requests and using AI to analyze the billing data.

They discuss what Srinivas is hoping for in the future of pricing, hiring a senior pricing manager, and his current position at Tropic. (24:04)

Marcos and Srinivas close out the show by discussing Srinivas’ favorite song growing up was “Momma Said Knock You Out” By LL Cool J and “Money Ain’t a Thing” By Jermaine Dupri and Jay Z.

Street Pricing streams live on OC TALK RADIO, Orange County's only online business channel, every Friday at 9:00 AM PT and is available for download on all major podcast platforms.

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at [email protected]

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Emeric Ernoult, CEO and Co-Founder at Agorapulse. Agorapulse is a social media management media software, launched in 2011.

Emeric talks about his start in pricing and how he realized his pricing was too low and eventually doubled it. (3:20) Marcos and Emeric discuss how when many business owners start out, they tend to discount themselves and end up pricing lower. Your pricing plays a big role in who you attract. (8:25)

“You want to attract the right companies, the right users, the right customers for you, the price you are going to put in there, is going to be telling that story” - Emeric Ernoult

Marcus and Emeric discuss how price increases can also have a negative impact, you need to make informed decisions, and you can’t raise just because. Emeric gives some rules for possible increases. (12:27)

Emeric shares his cautionary tale about changing too many things at the same time. (14:48) Changing one thing at a time will let you focus on what the change is doing, and it will let you revert if it is not working. If you change too many things at once, you won’t know what isn’t working.

Emeric talks about what is working for him right now and what he sees for the future. (16:25) In December 2022, Agorapulse changed their pricing to be based on how many users and the number of social media profiles. Emeric suggests if you include “too much and the kitchen sink” in your plan, go to an entry-level with add-on options and be flexible. Marcos and Emeric talk about pricing the deal. (18:30)

They discuss what Emeric is hoping for in the future of pricing. (22:33)

Marcos and Emeric close out the show by discussing Emeric’s favorite DJs: Cirez D and Boris Brejcha.

Street Pricing streams live on OC TALK RADIO, Orange County's only online business channel, every Friday at 10:00 AM PT and is available for download on all major podcast platforms.

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at [email protected]

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Arnab Mishra, Chief Operating Officer at Xactly. Arnab is a seasoned cloud software executive with an extensive history of leading and collaborating with all departments to drive corporate strategy and execution.

Marcos and Arnab discuss Arnab’s beginnings in pricing. (3:40) Arnab talks about a study that he came across that said, “A 1% improvement in pricing, can deliver a 12% improvement in operating profit.”

Arnab gives his three core principles and objectives that he adheres to: (7:35)

1. The goal of pricing is to reduce the friction between the customer and our sellers.

They talk about how important good “Win-Loss Data” and “Opportunity Data” is for SaaS companies and how Arnab was able to convince companies to give the green light on pricing. (12:23) Marcos and Arnab ‘get street’ with the one-size-fits-none approach that a lot of companies have. (18:00) Customer needs can change over time, so pricing and packaging will also need to change to accommodate new features. Arnab uses a ‘Good, Better and Best’ packaging approach.

With the correct systems implemented, Arnab saw a 50% increase in unit pricing, a 20% decrease in discounting, and win rates increased. (23:35) He talks about his internal working group, ‘Pricing Counsel.’ (25:32) This group meets twice a quarter to review all the data that has been collected and talk about certain things they are thinking about implementing, this has created a great forum to discuss.  Arnab talks about ROI-based selling, where companies are super focused on efficiency. (27:02) He also relays his hopes for the future of pricing. (28:40)

Marcos and Arnab close out the show by discussing Arnab’s favorite hip-hop artists: Tribe Called Quest and Eminem.

Street Pricing streams live on OC TALK RADIO, Orange County's only online business channel, every Friday at 10:00 AM PT and is available for download on all major podcast platforms.

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at [email protected]

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting! From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

For the first episode of Street Pricing, Marcos talks about his beginnings in the Bronx, raised by a single mom, and his love of technology and figuring things out. (2:14) He took his mindset of ‘I make things happen’ and made it to the summit of the tech world as an expert on SaaS pricing. After his mother passed away, he moved to San Diego with his grandmother. (10:30)

He received a degree in Management Science from the University of California San Diego. Out of college, Marcos worked as a Financial Analyst and eventually worked for a bank pricing interest rates for auto loans. (15:10) Marcos learned there was a need for expert pricing and understanding the psychology of the consumer and product is a crucial part of pricing. (19:37)

Marcos’ experience in spotting the pricing mistakes and fixing them, led him to open his company Pricing I/O, where he helps companies shift pricing from guesswork to framework. (24:25) He talks about his pricing strategy and psychology of numbers and how he “gets street” with companies to get their products to the right price. (28:07) In 2022, Marcos took his knowledge to print and published Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS. (32:16)

Marcos talks about the future of the Street Pricing Podcast and the exciting things to come! "Couldn’t be a more relevant topic for today’s world, as everything is a subscription," says OC TALK RADIO station manager Paul Roberts.  Street Pricing streams live on OC TALK RADIO, Orange County's only online business channel, every Friday at 10:00 AM PT.

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at [email protected]