I’m heading to San Diego today to do a workshop on Measuring the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Pricing. Believe it or not, this will be a fun 2 days for me and the other participants. One of things that is most challenging about pricing is that it’s so hard to measure. Which is why I like this concept: pricing is hard than quantum mechanics. Sound absurd? Compare:
| Quantum Mechanics | Pricing |
| Not good for conversation at cocktail parties. | Not good for conversation at cocktail parties. |
| The act of measurement itself affects the result. | The act of measurement itself affects the result. |
| Spend years and millions of dollars designing elaborate experiments with sensitive equipment and analyzing data with a staff of PhD’s. | Have until 4PM this afternoon to figure out the right price for a $10M contract with a half-populated spreadsheet. |
| If it goes smoothly, you have “confirmed existing predictions.” | If it goes smoothly, sales will get a commission and no one yells at you. |
| If it doesn’t, you could win the Nobel Prize. | If it doesn’t, you get blamed for losing the sale. |
One thing that makes pricing easier is that the theoretical underpinnings are pretty simple and don’t require years of studying math involving imaginary numbers and other counter-intuitive concepts. I, for one, don’t have the math skills for quantum physics, so I’m stuck with the hard subject.
I look forward to seeing some of you in San Diego. (For other folks who would like to learn more about pricing workshops, visit our website.)