Why Pricing Ops as a Function is inexistent? Any examples of companies with PriceOps?

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Original Post was posted by Martin Gallardo on Aug '24

One of the most puzzling questions I have as a management consultant on Strategy & Margin is the lack of PriceOps. We know research shows that companies that evaluate, adjust and change pricing often, grow several folds faster. We start to see RevenueOps adopted in some organizations (I created RevOps Transformations at PwC), but PricingOps is a very important part of RevOps. I think Pricing should be considered a core function of a business, and not a standalone project done when… well, we are running out of money or we are raising a new round. Any thoughts on this?

Ron Kugler • Aug '24

Really important discussion.

There is a related thread here, where I have commented, keen to get folk’s views (on this thread or the other): Operations/backend activities for a successful packaging & pricing project · PricingSaaS

Claire Wang • Aug '24

I think Pricing people are just terrible at effectively selling themselves and their services.

As a result, many organisations view Pricing as merely a support function rather than a strategic business partner.

I completely agree with you, but to change this, we need to shift the perception of Pricing. Too many still see it as just setting price points.

Martin Gallardo • Aug '24

Jerker Johansson

Great points! How do you see that playing for smaller companies like typical B2B SaaS, or mid-market? I think that s where the potential is to set up that top commitment

Martin Gallardo • Sep '24

Fareez Yusoff

Amazing! Would you be up for a call to explore more this topic? Thanks!

Fareez Yusoff • Sep '24

Martin Gallardo

Happy to share. Feel free to find me on Linkedin and we can start from there

Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt • Sep '24

Hard to unpack ‘why’.

  • Why don’t people eat right?
  • Why don’t people save more?
  • Why don’t companies leverage pricing?

The limiting beliefs I see most often are:

  • Packaging is just worthless wrapping and can’t affect value or value perception.
  • Pricing is just a number. The model is irrelevant.
  • Price levels are perfectly tied to conversion, so any ACV increase will just be offset by lower sales volume.

Some people just ‘get it’ naturally. Other people will only believe if they see it. Some just refuse to believe despite evidence.

Christine Carragee • Sep '24

In some companies (e.g PayPal 10 years ago) I saw Pricing Ops teams under bigger orgs to have sufficient systems people to implement and maintain the list pricing, discounting and analytics tools used by the strategic arm of the organization.

In spite of low code tooling there is still a big chasm between business savvy and IT people which creates inflexible systems that don’t align with the strategy or adapt with the business process changes required for growth.

Michał Narkiewicz • Sep '24 (edited)

I think the current zeitgiest boils down to the Uber uber-bet (they haven’t made any money yet):

If you are big enough, you can dictate prices.

Implications:

  • Users, market size and growth are the main metrics by which you value a company
  • Therefore, as long as you grow in users, there is always a bigger fish that will invest
  • Therefore EBITDA has little impact on your value
  • Therefore you will make more money with a big IPO exit than by creating a sustainable business model
  • Exponential revenue and profit … See more

Jerker Johansson • Oct '24

Another Observation: Corporate Pricing Functions (vs. Pricing Consultants)

While Pricing Professionals within corporate pricing functions spend their days working with value propositions and quantifying customer value (in addition to managing price lists), they often seem, compared to consultants, to be:

  • Less focused on articulating the value proposition of the pricing function or initiative itself.
  • Not sufficiently quantifying the financial impact delivered by their pricing efforts.

JJ