Deep in the process of pricing, in the midst of the miasma of spreadsheets, whiteboards, and scenario development, the pricing master will teeter on the edge of sanity. Combinations of customer situations, past corporate agreements, and product development plans will swirl and form into transient clusters of pricing policy and licensing metrics that must be analyzed and evaluated.
Let’s talk about that for a second because it sounds like I’m out of my mind. But we’ve been there… the vortex of information that surrounds pricing can overwhelm the senses and make good ideas indistinguishable from disastrous ones.
While I do believe that to know pricing is to know madness at times, pricing will always drive you to that point if you forget this simple rule:
Let sales people do their job.
Sales can be your ally, but you have to involve them in a specific way in order to bring about the best results for you, the company, and their commission.