Let's Talk Pricing Podcast

A discussion covers what was received and experienced at our a workshop, spear-headed by Hillary Gretton, that took place during our 2023 Spring pricing and workshop conference. Curiosity allows us to look beyond our current situation and ask "What else could or should we be doing?" Too often we get stuck in routines or become so myopically focused on tomorrow's deliverables that we don't take the time to question our strategies or if they're still accomplishing what we set out to do as a company or department. So how do we break out of our assumptions and get curious about what could, or should be? “Hillary Gretton is Associate Director, Access & Contract Analytics with Jazz Pharmaceuticals. She has extensive experience with both the “hows” and “whys” of best pricing practices, and values the importance of managing both the data/technology as well as the people and communication aspects. Hillary is a proud CPP alumna and earned her MBA from the University of Redlands.”

Scott Sinning has a passion for pricing and learned about leading pricing projects during his years of experience as VP of Pricing Strategy for Graybar Electric, a $10B wholesale distributor.  Like many of you listening, he’s sat in the pricing leader hot seat.  He now runs his own consulting firm focused on helping companies and their pricing leaders achieve success faster.  Scott has also been a frequent speaker at PPS conferences and is a Certified Pricing Professional.

Michael Compton is Director of Firm Strategy and Leader of the new Pricing function at Edward Jones. He has 16 years’ experience in the Full Service Financial Advisory industry in various product profitability, pricing and analytics roles. He specializes in translating business strategies into pricing recommendations and helping define pricing capabilities. He recently started his journey towards earning the CPP in 2022 and he has an MBA from the University of Georgia.

The podcast discusses the importance of aligning pricing and sales teams for effective price realization. They address challenges such as lack of alignment, volatile market pricing, and communicating price increases. Strategies include using 'give gets' and involving sales early in the pricing process. Collaboration between pricing and sales teams in B2B industries is also emphasized.

Curiosity allows us to look beyond our current situation and ask "What else could or should we be doing?" Too often we get stuck in routines or become so myopically focused on tomorrow's deliverables that we don't take the time to question our strategies or if they're still accomplishing what we set out to do as a company or department. So how do we break out of our assumptions and get curious about what could, or should be? “Hillary Gretton is Associate Director, Access & Contract Analytics with Jazz Pharmaceuticals. She has extensive experience with both the “hows” and “whys” of best pricing practices, and values the importance of managing both the data/technology as well as the people and communication aspects. Hillary is a proud CPP alumna and earned her MBA from the University of Redlands.”

The guest on this podcast is Kiran, CEO and founder at Rapid Pricer. They discuss the impact of AI in B2B pricing and how individuals without programming expertise can leverage it. They also explore the future of AI in pricing and building an organizational structure for AI solutions. Finally, they highlight the expanding utilization of AI in B2B pricing and offer a workshop on the topic.

With inflation, costs are going up, margins are being squeezed, companies need to raise prices, but many are scared.  They may have already had a price increase and are afraid of another.  What should they do? Mark Stiving is an educator at heart and a pricing enthusiast by education and experience. He has led, coached, and taught businesses about value-based pricing for 30 years. Mark has driven company-wide pricing initiatives worth hundreds of millions of dollars in incremental profit. He started and sold three companies and has written three books on pricing and value:  Impact Pricing; Win Keep Grow; and Selling Value. His biggest thrill is helping clients have Aha moments.

As the economic outlook continues to be murky, plenty of companies are making cuts. But you can’t cut your way to prosperity. There are often-overlooked opportunities to grow the top line — a lot and fast, even in the face of a down market. Jason McDannold and Yale Kwon lead the private equity commercial transformation practice at AlixPartners and would like to discuss several key tactical opportunities on how to sustain growth in a downturn economy. AlixPartners is a results-driven global consulting firm that specializes in helping businesses respond quickly and decisively to their most critical challenges—from urgent performance improvement to complex restructuring, from risk mitigation to accelerated transformation.

Beating Inflation explores how inflation affects all aspects of a business. This is not a pricing book, but it dives into all areas of the operations of a business and how they need to respond differently to inflation. Adam Echter is a Partner and Head of the Silicon Valley office at Simon-Kucher. For 17 years, Adam’s career has focused on value-based sales. He gained 12 months of focused sales training at The Timken Company and then worked in outside industrial sales for the next five years. During his time in industry, Adam developed his sales skills from outside sales to restructuring, engaging, and empowering sales teams for industrial companies of various sizes, ranging from 100 million dollars to several billion. He has helped design pricing and sales organizations on three continents, installed enterprise-level pricing software for several Fortune 100 companies, and supported sales engagement for thousands of sales professionals around the World. Adam joined Simon-Kucher in 2012 and his consulting activities have focused on sales excellence, value definition and communication, business model transformation, and pricing. He is a regular speaker at the Professional Pricing Society, industry-specific events and lectures at several universities on the topic of pricing. A native of Upstate New York, Adam earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University at Buffalo and his MBA in finance from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business.

SaaS companies have historically overlooked pricing as a lever for growth, focusing instead on customer acquisition. But with many customers tightening their belts and investment capital harder to access, the fundamentals are more important than before. New pricing strategies such as Usage Based Pricing are coming into the spotlight. Experimenting with and implementing metering and hybrid pricing strategies in 2023 can not only help SaaS companies retain customers and survive, but an innovative new strategy could even unlock previously untapped avenues for growth.