

Impact Pricing
Mark Stiving, Ph.D.
The Impact Pricing Podcast will help you win more business at higher prices by teaching you about pricing and value.
Once you understand how your buyers perceive the value of your product, you can build, market and sell products that win at higher prices.
Pricing is really about creating, communicating and capturing value.
Once you understand how your buyers perceive the value of your product, you can build, market and sell products that win at higher prices.
Pricing is really about creating, communicating and capturing value.
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 27, 2024 • 29min
Dynamic Pricing Strategies for Sustainable Recurring Revenue with Amanda Northcutt
As a consultant, coach, and 6-time executive, Amanda Northcutt has launched, grown, and scaled online businesses with fantastic results on both the individual and organizational level, while creating extraordinary, frictionless, and successful journeys for their customers. In this episode, Amanda delves on the importance of focusing on customer retention and expansion to maximize recurring revenue. And leveraging foundational desires and social proof to enhance one's marketing efforts. She also highlights the value of dynamic and continuous pricing strategies and the need for personalized connections in sales and the impact of showing proven value to customers. Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Learn to prioritize expansion, not just acquiring and retaining customers, to maximize lifetime value Discover why it's crucial to avoid static pricing and the importance of regularly testing and adjusting your pricing Gain a deep understanding of your customers' core desires and master the art of leveraging social proof to create highly effective marketing strategies "Always be testing your pricing. Your pricing should not be static. That is such a rookie mistake to think that you've nailed it the first time, or at any time really." - Amanda Northcutt Topics Covered: 01:39 - An accidental entry into recurring revenue 03:20 - Talking about the time of Salesforce' rise in the SaaS industry 04:46 - Sharing her journey into the subscription-based business model 05:57 - The challenges and importance of marketing and delivering value in subscription-based businesses 08:25 - An added challenge for SaaS businesses of needing a product that continuously delivers value to retain customers 10:46 - The need to create expansion opportunities with tailored solutions and the need to leverage social proof to strengthen the value proposition to potential and existing customers 13:31 - Understanding and leveraging consumer psychology and desires to drive value perception and retention in both B2B and B2C contexts. 15:46 - Expanding on customer's foundational desires as effective marketing strategies 17:21 - Helping customers achieve their goals and meet their needs rather than simply trying to make a sale. 20:06 - Describing her current work and her pricing approach for her clients' customers. 25:52 - Amanda's best pricing advice 26:57 - What it means to be always testing your pricing Key Takeaways: "...the whole deal with recurring revenue: If your marketing sucks, one, people aren't going to sign up. Two, if you're not delivering value over and over and over and over and over again, people are going to churn." - Amanda Northcutt "If you truly actually care about someone and you want to help match them with a solution that is actually going to help them not only reach their foundational desires, but the real business needs that they have, that's where the most sales are going to be made." - Amanda Northcutt "Desperation is the enemy of all sales, ever." - Amanda Northcutt "Another element of closing the deal in an automated sales funnel is that guarantee is very, very, very important. It's right up there with social proof." - Amanda Northcutt People/Resources Mentioned: Texas A&M University: https://www.tamu.edu/ TexAgs.com: https://texags.com Marc Benioff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Benioff Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/ap/ Alan Weiss: https://alanweiss.com/about-alan-weiss/ Convertkit: https://convertkit.com Active Campaign: https://www.activecampaign.com/ Amazon Prime Video: https://www.primevideo.com/ Connect with Amanda Northcutt: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/northcuttamanda/ Email: amanda@welevelupcreators.com Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

May 24, 2024 • 3min
Blogcast: Expert-Approved Pricing Insights at Your Fingertips: Discover Our Custom Pricing GPT
This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on April 4, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/discover-our-custom-pricing-gpt/ If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

May 20, 2024 • 24min
Banking on Value: Pricing Strategies for Competitive Edge with Sundar Ramanathan
Sundar Ramanathan is a Banking Product and Pricing Executive with experience in exceeding/meeting growth, capital, liquidity, and profitability objectives through product and pricing levers. In this episode, Sundar emphasizes the importance of moving beyond product commoditization, instead, focusing on creating value through customer experiences, and pricing as the outcome of value creation. Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Discover the fascinating concept of the indifference curve in the context of pricing banking products Learn the art of developing a customer-centric approach to pricing banking products, taking into account essential factors for success Find out how you can implement value pricing strategies, even with commoditized banking products "On the retail banking side, we hear commoditization a lot. But I think there is an opportunity to go beyond that. I think products disappear and experiences emerge, and experience is what creates value. And value can be priced." - Sundar Ramanathan Topics Covered: 01:36 - How he found himself in pricing 02:47 - Talking about examples of banking products 04:39 - Is bank's pricing based on value or cost 09:15 - The importance of balancing cost and value and highlighting the indifference curve in pricing 11:55 - Determining the area of indifference in banking pricing 16:06 - How to let borrowers decide in your favor over your competitors 19:37 - Where you create value pricing in banking products 22:06 - Sundar's best pricing advice Key Takeaways: "The product structure and pricing might be commoditized, but where you create the value and enhance your pricing margin is the experience." - Sundar Ramanathan "You will never know the right pricing unless you are bold enough to make those decisions to test that elasticity and have a plan B." - Sundar Ramanathan "You can only create value by removing the friction as much as possible compared to competition.” - Sundar Ramanathan "You can never win by pricing." - Sundar Ramanathan Connect with Sundar Ramanathan: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sundar Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

May 17, 2024 • 2min
Blogcast: Show Me The Value!
This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on March 28, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/show-me-the-value/ If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

May 13, 2024 • 27min
Navigating the Complexities of Pricing with AI and Data Science with Vivek Anand
Vivek Anand leads a team of data scientists, statisticians and operations research professionals that apply Data Science and Operations Research techniques to build production ready solutions for problems related to Price Optimization, Inventory Management, and Fulfillment Optimization for a Fortune Fashion retailer. In this episode, Vivek delves into the strength of combining science and machine learning to make informed pricing decisions. He emphasizes the importance of starting small and continuously enhancing strategies through data-driven approaches. It also explores the differences in B2C and B2B pricing, the impact of AI on supporting salespeople, and the challenges of misaligned incentives in achieving business success. Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Understand the need for compensation structures and incentives to align with business objectives that support desired outcomes Discover how AI is impacting the way salespeople handle pricing and negotiation Learn how to leverage both science and machine learning to make more informed pricing decisions "If you're new to the journey, start small. You don't have to go and build a transformer network on day one. Even a simple EDA, Exploratory Data Analysis, can give you a ton of insights than just a guesswork." - Vivek Anand Topics Covered: 01:19 - What paved his way into pricing 03:26 - How credit risk and interest risk influence pricing derivatives 04:37 - Thoughts on quantifying risks 05:36 - Data science in relation to AI advancement 07:39 - AI capabilities in capturing contextual and temporal information and other pricing techniques using AI 11:30 - Talking about AI and extrapolation 12:47 - B2C pricing versus B2B pricing and the significant difference in data availability between the two 18:38 - How AI can be utilized in the B2B world to assist salespeople in pricing and negotiation 23:57 - Vivek's one best pricing advice Key Takeaways: "B2C is mostly, pricing is a lever to generate demand. Whereas in B2B, it's more of a lever to gauge the willingness to pay from the customer's standpoint.” - Vivek Anand "I think data science is a big tent, and AI is a part of it." - Vivek Anand “The way I think about AI is like, instead of making it heuristics, it learns from the data or it just comes up with a mechanism that just translates input to the output, more systemic, faster learning and can be deployed at scale.” - Vivek Anand Connect with Vivek Anand: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/va2260/ Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

May 10, 2024 • 3min
Blogcast: A Value Perception Gap
This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on March 21, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/a-value-perception-gap/ If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

May 6, 2024 • 30min
The Pricing Landscape: Insights from the Professional Pricing Society Conference with Steven Forth
Steven Forth is Ibbaka’s Co-Founder, CEO, and Partner. Ibbaka is a strategic pricing advisory firm. He was CEO of LeveragePoint Innovations Inc., a SaaS business. In this episode, Steven delves into the dynamic world of pricing strategies as revealed through the lens of the Professional Pricing Society event. He talks about the latest developments, innovative practices, and thought-provoking discussions emerging from these events of pricing professionals. From uncovering cutting-edge pricing technologies to dissecting evolving pricing trends that offer valuable insights to help you in navigating the ever-changing landscape of pricing strategies especially where AI is concerned. Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Discover what's in store for this year's Professional Pricing Society conferences Find out the significant and engaging topics discussed in the PPS event Look forward to Steven's valuable insights and key points on pricing trends and innovations, particularly in relation to AI "The other problem or challenge, I think, that one can have with AI-based approaches to pricing is the sort of black box nature. And generative AI, gives something of a path forward for that." - Steven Forth Topics Covered: 01:46 - Steven highlighting how the Professional Pricing Society [PPS] listens to Impact Pricing podcast 03:29 - Professional Pricing Society's calendar of events this year 04:39 - What's coming up for this year's event: Return of the book store 06:25 - Featured and notable books available at the event 09:54 - Other interesting things coming up for PPS' event 11:28 - Steven's important thoughts on pricing sustainability and some examples on point 15:41 - What differentiates a value model from a sustainability model as far as Ibbaka's concerned 17:26 - What he thinks of these big pricing vendors approach to AI 18:46 - Talking about pricing industry frustration and the black box nature of AI and the shift to generative AI 21:19 - Discussing the application of generative AI in a dynamically configuring software and its implications on the pricing strategies 24:56 - Sharing about the scale and complexity of traditional value model as well as the potential of generative AI to quickly adapt to different pricing and value configurations 28:39 - Watch out for an upcoming webinar on May 23rd 29:08 - What he thinks of people's reception to his presentation at the Professional Pricing Society's conference Key Takeaways: "Feel good metrics or social responsibility, none of those things are really going to get people to buy and pay for sustainable solutions. It has to be tied to value, and you have to be able to show that your green solution provides more value than the competing solutions." - Steven Forth "I think the secret here, at least from a pricing and modeling approach, is to find those variables that get used across the different models. And by having the same variable used in different models you can pull sustainability together with value together with pricing." - Steven Forth People/Resources Mentioned: Arnab Sinha Impact Pricing Episode 564: https://impactpricing.com/podcast/564-exploring-game-changing-pricing-dynamics-for-different-industries-with-arnab-sinha/ Game Changer: How Strategic Pricing Shapes Businesses, Markets, and Society by Jean-Manuel Izaret and Arnab Sinha: https://www.amazon.com/Game-Changer-Strategic-Pricing-Business/dp/1394190581 Stephan Liozu Impact Pricing Episode 582: https://impactpricing.com/?s=stephan+liozu Nick Nalepa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-nalepa/ Stop Racing In A Blindfold!: Big Data + Pricing Science Drive Bigger Profits by Jim Vaughn: https://www.amazon.com/Stop-Racing-Blindfold-Pricing-Science/dp/099068380X Michelin: https://www.michelinman.com Hydropoint: https://www.hydropoint.com Vendavo: https://www.vendavo.com Pros: https://pros.com PriceFX: https://www.pricefx.com Totogi: https://www.totogi.com/ Resilience: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/resilient-pricing-for-uncertain-world Connect with Steven Forth: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenforth/ Email: steven@ibbaka.com Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

May 3, 2024 • 4min
Blogcast: Using Value to Break Down Silos
This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on March 14, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/using-value-to-break-down-silos/ If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

Apr 29, 2024 • 25min
Navigating Retail Pricing: Walmart's Pricing Strategy Explored with Rishi Bhatia
Rishi Bhatia is an experienced analytics consultant, data expert and market research professional with domain expertise in retail, technology, telecom, apparel, manufacturing, and insurance domain. In this episode, Rishi shares about Walmart's lower pricing strategy. He emphasizes the importance of prioritizing the customer when determining pricing strategies. He also highlights the significance of leveraging data and analytics to inform pricing decisions. And also the importance of adopting AI-driven models to streamline operations and remain competitive in the market. Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Learn how Walmart maximizes profitability while maintaining its everyday low prices Discover how AI revolutionizes the retail industry by enabling retailers to make informed pricing decisions, rather than just providing pricing insights Explore the impact of retail pricing on customer loyalty and retention "Put your customer first. Rather than going for the traditional route, learn from the data as much as you can. And then, improve your models constantly based on how can you get the prices right." - Rishi Bhatia Topics Covered: 01:01 - How he found himself in pricing 02:46 - Why everyday low price policy for Walmart and how do they maximize revenue with this strategy 03:46 - Pricing and how it affects loyalty and retention 05:18 - What makes Walmart's margins high other than lower prices 06:48 - How AI in pricing optimization has evolved from basic insights generation to sophisticated model-driven recommendations 08:41 - Is AI a blackbox and how the process works in achieving pricing decision 11:31 - Walmart's primary focus regarding pricing decisions and how AI ensures timely transitions between product cycles and maintaining profitability 13:47 - How algorithms and recommendations ensures consistency and optimization across the retail chain 14:44 - Discussion around Wendy's dynamic pricing 19:49 - Rishi's response to Mark's advice for retailers and also talking about Walmart Plus 21:15 - Rishi's best pricing advice 23:12 - How do you measure value in retail products Key Takeaways: "Value pricing, what does your customer want, at what price your customer will be more loyal to you and what will they... because pricing is one component that everyone wants low price." - Rishi Bhatia "When you're putting the product, rather than going for the traditional route, learn from the data as much as you can and improve your models constantly based on that, how can you get the prices right." - Rishi Bhatia "If you're able to improve on that and the customer, your overall complaints are also going down. And that is one value you can measure from that perspective as well. It's not always in the monetary term, it's always on the customer satisfaction side as well." - Rishi Bhatia People/ Resources Mentioned: Walmart: https://www.walmart.com Uber: https://www.uber.com Connect with Rishi Bhatia: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishi-bhatia-5480577/ Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

Apr 26, 2024 • 3min
Blogcast: To Fee or Not To Fee? That is the Question
This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on March 7, 2024, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/to-fee-or-not-to-fee-that-is-the-question/ If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/