What if your pricing has been quietly leaking margin—and you simply haven't looked closely enough to find it? John Gilbo is Sales Director for North America, Australia, and New Zealand at QuickLizard, with pricing leadership experience at Kirkland's, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and Safeway. He has spent years working across pricing technology, retail pricing, markdowns, promotions, elasticity, and margin optimization. In this episode, John explains why pricing deserves a regular health check and how retailers can uncover hidden value by improving processes, reacting faster, and using smarter pricing models. Why You Have to Check Out Today's Podcast: Discover the pricing blind spots that can quietly drain margin, from outdated processes to slow reactions. Learn how smarter pricing can turn markdowns, tariffs, competition, and elasticity into opportunities instead of margin problems. See how AI and pricing models can help retailers react faster without losing sight of the strategy behind the numbers. "Pricing is a great thing to look at the health of what you're doing." — John Gilbo Topics Covered: 03:30 – Pricing as a Strategic Weapon. How better pricing can drive margin, revenue, and sustained value by reacting faster to costs, competition, tariffs, and elasticity. 05:00 – Understanding the Retailer's Pricing Reality. John breaks down how pricing changes depending on promotions, seasonality, markdowns, and go-to-market strategy. 06:30 – Stop Selling Pricing. Start Solving Problems. Why John starts by understanding a retailer's problems instead of immediately pitching a pricing solution. 08:30 – How to Make the ROI of Pricing Believable. John explains how using ROI ranges and break-even numbers can create a more credible pricing conversation. 11:30 – Why 25X ROI Is Possible in Retail Pricing. How small improvements in retail margins can create significant financial impact. 13:30 – The Secret to Sustained Pricing Value. Why pricing improvement isn't a one-time project and how retailers can keep finding the next opportunity. 15:30 – How to Protect Margin When Tariffs Hit. John explains why retailers shouldn't automatically pass the same cost increase across every product or customer. 18:30 – Where AI Actually Fits in Pricing. How elasticity, seasonality, inventory, competitive data, and AI models can help trigger smarter pricing decisions. 21:00 – Why Customer Segmentation Changes Pricing. How retailers can use customer behavior and loyalty data to make better pricing and merchandising decisions. 23:30 – The Pricing Health Check Every Company Needs. John's final advice: look at pricing with fresh eyes, uncover process gaps, and regularly review where pricing can create more value. Key Takeaways: "Sustained pricing value comes from continuously asking, "What should we solve next?" – John Gilbo "Don't automatically pass the same cost increase across every product." – John Gilbo Connect with John Gilbo: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-e-f-gilbo/ Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com
