In our latest PricingPulse study, we seem to have found the biggest challenge that those involved in B2B pricing face:
Influencing others outside of their own department.
It makes sense. Pricing is a role that requires others to “turn their key” to make things happen. Fair enough–that’s a struggle for many business functions, right? But in pricing, maybe more than any other role, there’s a natural resistance from those other departments to actually listen to pricing guidance and turn their keys.
Sales, marketing, finance…they all need to be willing to play ball for someone in a pricing role to be truly effective–and sometimes, they can believe they have something to lose if they listen to pricing recommendations.
Those in pricing often have lots of compelling data and insight to provide, but they rarely have much of a stick to swing to force change or adoption. It doesn’t mean a pricing role can’t be a successful one–far from it. But it often means you need to be creative in finding ways to get other departments to take action.
There’s never a silver bullet to overcome this challenge, but hearing how others have managed to do it can help. That’s one of the reasons we created PricingBrew–to share the hurdles that those in the community have faced and how they overcame them. It’s a topic we’ve covered frequently in the PricingBrew Journal. So if you’re struggling to get others outside of your department to take action, take a look at some of these solutions that others have found:
Getting Beyond Pricing to Make a Real Impact
Step Out of Your “Box” and Influence the Upstream Decisions That Can Ultimately Make or Break Your Pricing Efforts
How to Explain Price Segmentation to Others
Simplifying the Concepts to Help People Outside of Pricing Understand the Importance of Price Segmentation
Five Steps to Get More Aligned with Sales
How to Align More Closely with Your Sales Group and Generate Improved Results with Far Fewer Conflicts
Four Ways to Be More Strategic in Pricing
Understanding Four Areas of Focus That Can Help You Become a Much More Strategic Pricing Professional
Answering Three Questions to Enable Change
Learn a More Effective Approach for Championing New Solutions in B2B Environments
Leveraging Peer Pressure to Improve Pricing
An Effective Game Plan for Motivating Your Sales Team To Close More Deals at Their Target Prices
