For most people, throughout most of human existence, scarcity was paramount.** Now we live in an age of not just abundance, but superabundance. The agricultural revolution created abundance– not by today’s standards– in food. The industrial revolution created abundance in manufactured goods. The information revolution not only created an abundance of communication and information, it [...]
Join us for a webinar on June 16, 2009, 12:00 Noon EDT Register For many companies, discounts represent the largest spending category– but they’re not even in the budget. This strange omission leads to inefficient and ineffective use of discounting money. Fortunately, this leaves many companies with a lot of low-hanging fruit that can yield [...]
Pricing is a process, not an event. This mantra is important for companies who think pricing is something they do annually, when they update price books, or in special circumstances when they add a fuel surcharge. But pricing is happening all the time, whether or not you are participating in it, because pricing is the [...]
If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If your offering has value that customers don’t perceive, can you charge for it? Price is limited by perceived differential value. So if you are busy creating value through market research, design, R&D, better customer service, or some [...]
Few decisions in business or in life are without risk. The outcomes we expect from our decisions depend in some part on a set of assumptions about the world around us. For big decisions with a large impact, we often attempt to gauge the risk involved. This can give us not a single expected outcome, [...]
Wired recently ran a story on Experimental Economists, who model complex scenarios and attempt to optimize outcomes for large companies and government agencies. My reaction to the story was “wow– that’s what Mimiran does all the time, we just didn’t have such a cool name for it.” Now let’s walk through how many companies make [...]
When you buy in bulk, you typically get a better deal. On a per-unit basis, it’s cheaper to buy a 32-pack of Coca Cola at Costco than a single can in a convenience store. The same concept applies in industrial manufacturing, software licensing, and other industries. Sometimes, however, the buying more will cost you more, [...]
Have you been part of a discussion where everyone at your company believed that their offering provided more value than a competitor’s, but the customers just don’t see it? The marketing team often thinks sales doesn’t know how to sell the value. The sales team thinks that marketing is clueless. And the pricing team is [...]
Outside of work, when people learn what I do for a living, I tend to get one of two responses. Most likely, people nod politely while looking for exits. Or, they tell me “we sell widgets, and I know we’re not pricing it right, but we don’t know how. What do you think the right [...]
Courtesy of Seth Godin, who asks you to think about real estate agents charging 6% of a transaction, and facing mounting price pressure. The challenge is… what if you had to charge 7%. What if you had to charge more when everyone else was charging less? What would you do? How could you make it [...]
