Impact Pricing

Mark Stiving, Ph.D.
Impact Pricing

The Impact Pricing Podcast will help you win more business at higher prices by teaching you about pricing and value. Once you understand how your buyers perceive the value of your product, you can build, market and sell products that win at higher prices. Pricing is really about creating, communicating and capturing value.

  1. The Secret to Confidently Raising Your Prices Without the Backlash with Vance Morris

    2 DAYS AGO

    The Secret to Confidently Raising Your Prices Without the Backlash with Vance Morris

    Vance Morris is a former Disney Leader turned entrepreneur, coach, speaker and author. He helps businesses deliver extraordinary customer experiences through workshops, boot camps, and training at Disney. In this episode, Vance shares practical strategies for implementing premium pricing by presenting options and building value through transparency and trust. He emphasizes the importance of creating emotional connections with customers to enhance loyalty and retention, even in B2B environments. Additionally, he advocates for confident implementation of price increases, highlighting that many pricing challenges stem from business owners' mindset rather than market resistance.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Learn how to confidently set premium prices and create packages that differentiate your business from competitors. Discover how emotional connections, rather than just logic, can drive customer loyalty and enhance sales, even in B2B settings. Get tips on overcoming common pricing hurdles and improving customer retention through simple yet effective strategies.   “People have enough information, they don't have enough implementation; just go do it. You could go out right now, raise your prices 10% and nobody's going to bat an eyelash.” - Vance Morris   Topics Covered: 01:45 - How he found himself in pricing 02:31 - Sustaining a cycle of value and profitability as inspired by Disney's pricing strategies 05:20 - How he justifies premium pricing in his upholstery cleaning business 08:46 - Demonstrating expertise and showcasing value  11:32 - Emphasizing the value of positioning as a premium service rather than competing on being the second cheapest 13:00 - Maintaining pricing integrity 14:21 - Adapting Disney-inspired strategies to differentiate your business making it incomparable to competitors 16:37 - How to differentiate your products or services, even in competitive markets like B2B software 17:57 - How to foster loyalty, enhance customer retention, and make price increases more acceptable 21:09 - Highlighting the value of small, thoughtful gestures to build a positive reputation and stand out in competition 22:42 - Offering premium pricing tiers in clear, non-salesy manner 24:57 - Vance’s best pricing advice   Key Takeaways: "Not so much to justify [premium pricing], as it is being able to offer a better experience, which then allows me to charge a higher price, which puts more money in my pocket." - Vance Morris "It's about creating a connection. It's people doing business with people. It's not people doing business with business and creating some kind of emotional connection with the purchasing manager, with whoever's doing the buying. And it just makes selling so much easier." - Vance Morris "When you have that connection, a price increase may not be overlooked, but is a lot more palatable than just hard excel spreadsheets flying around." - Vance Morris "There is no competitive advantage to being second cheapest; if you're not going to be the cheapest, you might as well go the other direction." - Vance Morris   People/Resources Mentioned: Disney: https://www.disney.com/ Ritz-Carlton: https://www.ritzcarlton.com/ Dunkin Donuts: https://www.dunkindonuts.com/en   Connect with Vance Morris: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vancemorris/ Website: https://deliverservicenow.com/   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

    27 min
  2. Pricing Transformation: Insights on Software, Segmentation, and Change Leadership with Stephan Liozu

    6 JAN

    Pricing Transformation: Insights on Software, Segmentation, and Change Leadership with Stephan Liozu

    Stephan Liozu is a business executive with deep knowledge in pricing strategy, value-based pricing, monetization, and transformations. He speaks the language of sales, pricing, finance, and the C-suite.  In this episode, Stephan highlights the need to combine value-based pricing with strong change management for successful transformations. He shares practical segmentation strategies tailored to diverse business needs. Reflecting on his move into pricing software, he explores its potential and the challenges of gaining C-suite support.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Delve into the nuances of value-based pricing and its implementation and practical advice for businesses aiming to maximize profitability while addressing internal and external challenges. Learn about a methodology for effective customer segmentation, practical steps, and real-world applications for targeted strategies. Discover the critical role of change management in successfully implementing pricing strategies and have a deeper understanding of organizational dynamics and leadership in pricing transformations.   "You cannot do advanced pricing without advanced change management and change leadership." - Stephan Liozu   Topics Covered: 01:10 - Significance of the Chief Value Officer (CVO) title 01:58 - The complexity of defining value within companies 02:52 - Contrasting his roles as a Chief Value Officer at Thales and Zilliant 04:35 - Reflecting on the challenges and uncertain future of the pricing profession with his article on LinkedIn 06:27 - Discussing the challenges of B2B pricing which hinders value-based pricing and the scalability of pricing strategies 12:11 - Advocating for internal pricing centers of excellence as cost-effective 14:01 - Explaining his approach to segmentation 17:26 - Stephan expressing excitement about his Zilliant role, exploring pricing software's potential and questioning its limited market growth 19:07 - The challenges of convincing the C-suite to invest in pricing solutions, suggesting on reframing pricing discussions under a new term  22:31 - Stephan's best pricing advice   Key Takeaways: “If you want to industrialize your processes in pricing and value, you have to use an engine, the heart of this engine is software. And be able to touch all the business if possible, at least a large amount of the business.” - Stephan Liozu “Pricing professionals should become certified change managers, it should not be an option.” - Stephan Liozu   People/Resources Mentioned: Thales: https://cpl.thalesgroup.com/software-monetization/software-packaging-pricing Zilliant: https://zilliant.com McKinsey: https://www.mckinsey.com   Connect with Stephan Liozu: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanliozu/ Website: https://www.stephanliozu.com/   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

    24 min
  3. Exploring the Future of AI: Prompt Management and Generative Thinking with Steven Forth

    30/12/2024

    Exploring the Future of AI: Prompt Management and Generative Thinking with Steven Forth

    Steven Forth is Ibbaka’s Co-Founder, CEO, and Partner. Ibbaka is a strategic pricing advisory firm. In this episode, Steven discusses how AI, particularly transformer models, is revolutionizing business strategies by automating complex tasks like value modeling and scenario planning, making them more efficient. He emphasizes the importance of leveraging AI to explore frameworks and generate innovative solutions, such as using AI to better understand industry problems. Steven also highlights the ongoing development of prompt orchestration tools, which will soon become essential for managing AI workflows and optimizing the use of multiple models.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Discover how AI is transforming traditional frameworks like value modeling, scenario planning, and pricing, making complex processes faster and more efficient. Gain insights on how AI can help you better understand problems and create innovative solutions, ultimately improving your decision-making process. Dive into emerging concepts like prompt orchestration and how AI is evolving, giving you the tools to enhance your AI workflows for maximum effectiveness.   “Create a series of prompts, create a series of context documents that you can reuse and explore the framework in ways that you never could before and find ways of applying it.” - Steven Forth   Topics Covered: 02:10 - How no single AI model can meet all needs, thus,  advocating for multiple model for diverse perspectives and specialized capabilities 03:11 - Distinguishing between diffusion models and transformer models 05:46 - How does a transformer model work 07:28 - Understanding the [LQMs] Large Quantitative Models, [RAG] Retrieval Augmented Generation and challenges faced by companies like Pros in leveraging customer-owned data  11:39 - How Wolfram/Alpha uses mathematical reasoning to validate and simplify equations and highlighting the emergence of reasoning models for complex problem-solving 15:34 - Steven reflecting on his increasing reliance on AI tools, how they are transforming his thinking, and the need to embrace these technologies as vital partners in enhancing exploration, communication, and decision-making 17:17 - How generative AI enables more dynamic and efficient approaches to scenario planning 23:29 - Emphasizing how leveraging AI with established frameworks accelerates complex tasks like building value models 25:13 - Learning 'prompt orchestration’ to optimize prompt sequences and responses 26:52 - Explaining Perplexity's limitations in generating complete outputs   Key Takeaways: “It used to take Ibbaka between 40 and 60 hours of work by a highly trained person to build a value model. It now takes us less than two hours to build a better value model than we could have done before.” - Steven Forth   People / Resources Mentioned: Geoffrey Hinton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Hinton Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/asia Attention is All You Need paper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_Is_All_You_Need Sam Altman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman Karen Chiang: https://impactpricing.com/podcast/467-minimize-churn-and-boost-your-net-dollar-retention-with-karen-chiang/ Porter's 5 Forces: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter%27s_five_forces_analysis Clayton Christensen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_Christensen William Gibson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson Perplexity AI: https://www.perplexity.ai ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com You.com: https://you.com Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co   Connect with Steven Forth: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenforth/ Email: steven@ibbaka.com   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

    31 min
  4. Balancing Academic Insights and Real-World Pricing Strategies with Russ Winer

    23/12/2024

    Balancing Academic Insights and Real-World Pricing Strategies with Russ Winer

    Russ Winer is a William H. Joyce Professor of Marketing, Stern School of Business, New York University. His specialties include pricing, new technologies, consumer choice models, and advertising. In this podcast, Russ discusses the critical role of understanding consumer behavior in pricing decisions, emphasizing the importance of considering how customers will react to price changes. He explains the difference between academic theories and practical applications in marketing and also highlights the growing shift of research from academia to industry, particularly in data-driven fields like marketing, and stresses the need for businesses to stay competitive while balancing consumer protection and profitability.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Gain practical advice on how businesses can align their pricing strategies with consumer behavior for maximum impact. Discover the unique perspectives on how academic research shapes real-world marketing practices and why general theories can be a game-changer for business strategies. Learn about the challenges and opportunities in both B2B and B2C markets, including data availability, decision-making processes, and competitive pressures.   "Don't forget the consumer, or customer, if it's B2B, when you're thinking about the price. How is the customer or consumer going to react when you take this particular action?" - Russ Winer   Topics Covered: 01:48 - One accomplishment that brings Russ great pride 02:13 - Describing his entry into pricing 03:56 - Clarifying that he did not introduce the concept of reference price, though he was the first to incorporate it into empirical models 04:45 - Distinguishing reference pricing from behavioral economics 06:40 - How context influences reference prices, highlighting the relevance of acquisition and transaction utility in pricing 08:08 - Explaining the psychology behind 99-cent pricing 09:50 - Discussing deceptive pricing, highlighting practices like false markdowns in both brick-and-mortar stores and online retail 11:59 - Comparing deceptive pricing to deceptive advertising 14:33 - Differentiating between academics and practice in marketing 17:23 - The data availability challenges between B2C and B2B research 20:20 - Reflecting on the shift of research dominance from academia to industry 25:44 -  How marketers' strategies to influence reference prices are not inherently harmful to consumers  28:14 - Russ's one best pricing advice   Key Takeaways: “It's not just the firm side that's important when we think about pricing, it's also the consumer side, how they react to the prices that we're putting in the marketplace.” - Russ Winer   People/Resources Mentioned: Bob Lucas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lucas_Jr. Richard Thaler: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Thaler Dan Kahneman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kahneman Amos Tversky: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Tversky Facebook: https://www.facebook.com Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com Google: https://www.google.com/ Campbells: https://www.campbells.com/   Connect with Russ Winer: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-winer-4b69b7/ Email: rwiner@stern.nyu.edu   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

    30 min
  5. Mastering Value-Based Selling: Five Steps to Winning and Retaining Customers with Mike Wilkinson

    16/12/2024

    Mastering Value-Based Selling: Five Steps to Winning and Retaining Customers with Mike Wilkinson

    Mike Wilkinson is referred to as The Value Sales Expert whose focus is on value and value selling.  In this episode, Mike shares what is involved in a successful value-based selling to enable tailored solutions that address specific challenges of your customers. He emphasizes the importance of measuring and reinforcing delivered value while developing ongoing relationships to uncover new opportunities and ensure long-term success.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Learn about a five-step value-based selling framework to help you master value-based selling and deepen customer relationships. Gain Insights from real-world perspectives, practical advice, and candid reflections on overcoming common sales challenges. Discover how to shift from a product-first to a customer-first mindset and transform your sales approach.   "The most important thing from a seller's point of view is be confident in your price. And the way to be confident in your pricing is to make sure that you know, you're absolutely certain, that the value that you are delivering is more than a match for the price you're going to be charging." - Mike Wilkinson   Topics Covered: 02:21 - Mike describing what he does 02:52 - Elaborating on the concept of value 07:33 - Highlighting the 'Value Triad' as it relates to the value drivers 11:08 - Mike's approach to teaching value-based selling 14:46 - Outdated sales practices that focus on pushing products rather than solving customer problems 16:48 - Thoughts on Zig Ziglar's sales principles and the importance of value discovery in the sales process 21:48 - How to ask impact-driven questions 24:07 - Detailing an effective value discovery and value demonstration to ensure a successful conclusion 26:51 - What value delivery means 28:07 - Value development and what it encompasses and the importance of regular reviews 29:33 - Mike's best pricing advice   Key Takeaways: “Until we understand how our customers are defining value for them, then to all intents and purposes, value is a mystery. And as sellers in particular, our job is to solve that value mystery.” - Mike Wilkinson “It’s your customer that defines value, not you.” - Mike Wilkinson “Until you've understood what the issues are from the customer's point of view, you do not have a solution.” - Mike Wilkinson   People/Resources Mentioned: McKinsey: https://www.mckinsey.com Zig Ziglar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zig_Ziglar Seth Godin: https://www.sethgodin.com   Connect with Mike Wilkinson: Website: https://axiavalue.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikewilkinson-thevalueexpert/ Email: mw@axiavalue.com   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

    32 min

About

The Impact Pricing Podcast will help you win more business at higher prices by teaching you about pricing and value. Once you understand how your buyers perceive the value of your product, you can build, market and sell products that win at higher prices. Pricing is really about creating, communicating and capturing value.

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