It takes a village to build a great pricing model. I always advise avoiding the “hero in a red cape” syndrome and tackling pricing as a team sport. And like any team sport, nominate a strong captain.
One thing is sure – companies who approach pricing with the right team of stakeholders do a much better job selling and capturing value.
So who should be involved with pricing?
Naturally, it will differ based on company size and stage. If you’re considering starting or solidifying your pricing team, include these six roles, and go from there.
But who should take the lead?
We surveyed 200 companies and found that for smaller ventures, the founder/CEO still calls the shots. For bigger companies, Product Management was the top answer (25% of responses), but other groups like RevOps, Marketing, and Finance were also good homes for pricing.
You’ve got your rockstar team in place – now what?
It’s time for your teams first meeting! But what should they talk about in this meeting? Let me shed some light on an agenda for running an effective pricing committee meeting.
First, here are three traps to avoid at the onset:
- Avoid rehashing deals during the meeting – save that for deal desk (more about the deal desk in a future post).
- Resist the temptation to dive into a rabbit hole of anecdotes.
- Don’t skimp on the data and revert to a war of opinions or the loudest voice in the room.
Now, here are tips we gathered from a few high-performing pricing teams on what they cover in pricing committee meetings:
- Measure how pricing performs across the customer lifecycle.
- Always bring the voice of the customer into the room.
- Circulate the agenda and pre-read the updates.
An impactful pricing committee meeting will steer your pricing model like a skipper navigating a ship. See the sample agenda below for a head start or level up your existing pricing meeting agenda:
The whistle blows and now it’s game time – how do you get started and set up your pricing discipline for success?
Inspired by one of my favorite quotes, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail,” follow these steps to get off the ground:
- Assign an owner, or nothing will happen.
- Agree on representation – mid to senior-level management on a rotation basis tends to work well.
- Set the tone – keep it strategic and focused.
- Pick a cadence – every other month or once a quarter is standard.
- Plan the work, then work the plan.
I’ve included for you below a real-life example of how one company planned out its pricing committee to set up for success. Use it for inspiration!
I hope these quick tips have nudged you one step closer to building your in-house pricing muscle.
After all, you work hard to create value; now is the time to capture it.
