PricingBrew

Insights & Tips

Already a subscriber? Login

Become a subscriber and unlock an information arsenal focused on making your pricing efforts more effective.

Proving Pricing’s Value…Again and Again

In a PricingBrew Journal subscriber-only training seminar, Proving the Value of Pricing, a subscriber asked a very telling question:

Do we really have to keep proving the value of pricing?

Of course, there’s probably a silent “over and over…and over again” at the end of the question. It seems that a lot of pricing groups find themselves stuck in the proving ground stage, where they feel like they have to continually prove the value of active price management and justify their existence.

But is this really the case? Is there really a quarterly question as to whether or not there’s value in active price management? Very often, the answer is “no”—but the pricing team just doesn’t realize it.

In many cases, a pricing function is something relatively new to the company. And truth be told, the rest of the organization may not know how such a function should be measured over time. So, when the pricing group makes its justification argument—quarter after quarter, like clockwork—it’s easy to conclude that’s how it’s supposed to be.

Sure, every other department and function in the company may be being treated differently, but who’s going to argue? It’s always nice to see what you’re getting, right? And if the pricing team insists on justifying their existence and proving their value each and every quarter, then that must be what everyone else is doing, too.

It becomes a self-feeding cycle—the pricing team assumes everyone else still needs proof, and as a result, everyone else begins to expect the pricing team to keep providing that proof.

In sales, there’s an old saying about knowing when it’s time to stop selling and just take the order already. It’s the same with a pricing function. To break the cycle, you have to decide for yourself that the proving ground stage is over and that the value of active price management has been sufficiently demonstrated to warrant ongoing commitment.

Then you have to figure out what’s next and just get on with it already.

Get Immediate Access To Everything In The PricingBrew Journal

Related Resources

  • Proving the Value of the Pricing Function

    Executives understand the value of functions like sales, marketing, and finance---but pricing often has to justify their very existence, over and over again. In this recorded training seminar, learn how to demonstrate the results and metrics that can earn you a seat at the big table.

    View This Webinar
  • Communicating Value Over Price

    How do you know whether your value messaging is good, bad, weak, or strong? And how do you ensure that the value of your offerings is being communicated as effectively as it really could and should be?

    View This Webinar
  • The Anatomy of a Successful B2B Pricing Analyst

    What key competencies are most important for a B2B pricing analyst to have? This guide covers PricingBrew Network research into the 21 most important attributes, skills, and capabilities for B2B pricing analysts to develop or possess.

    View This Guide
  • Getting the Most Out of Price Segmentation

    The process of building or improving a price segmentation model can seem like a daunting task. In this on-demand training seminar, we discuss best practices and straightforward techniques for improving the quality and accuracy of your price segmentation model.

    View This Webinar