As I prepare to head out to the Fall Conference of the Professional Pricing Society, I’m wondering what do people consider the big issues pricing? Looking at the conference agenda, there has been a clear shift over the past several years from “software as a silver bullet” to more practical, multi-faceted approaches to pricing.
Some of the hot-button issues on my mind include the role of pricing in the organization (where is it most effective? where is it most effective for the company? centralized vs. product- or regionally-aligned? how should we compensate pricing people?) and providing analytical support to people making pricing decisions, which is a much broader audience than “pricing people.”
What are your thoughts?
4 Comments
Anonymous
I was at the conference, and here’s a nice pricing story:
The conference ended at 2, so I asked for late checkout, so I could leave my bags in my room. They gave me extended checkout until 1, then said that for $119, I could stay until 6. No thank you!
Anonymous
I’d like to find out more about how the wisdom of crowds can be applied to help with pricing decisions. FreshBooks is doing something like this for freelancers, but it would be interesting to see how this could work for larger companies.
Reuben Swartz
The wisdom of crowds already sets prices in commodities markets (and any market which sellers allow the buyers to define as a commodity). The less differentiated and more easily substitutable an offering is, the more downward price pressure the vendor will feel.
In some other markets, content aggregators such as AC Neilson collect sales data and resell it to providers, who then get a broader view of the market than their own sales data can provide.
I’m not sure if either of these areas address your concern, however. Feel free to post a follow-up question.
Jon
I think if you compare the way GM developed its pricing for the Corvette in 1953, to the way Lee Iacocca determined the pricing for the Ford Mustang in the early 1960’s you’ll find a wonderful example of the application of ‘The Wisdom of Crowds’ to the art of pricing (my, that was a long sentence. sorry about that).
Jon