In the search for an ideal pricing software solution, your company may be faced with a difficult decision as its current contract comes to a close: renew the contract with your existing vendor, or explore other options? With direct impact on your bottom line, a decision of this magnitude shouldn’t be rushed. Luckily, there are a few signs your company can suss out early that show it might be time to switch pricing software vendors.
Here at Pricefx, as a pricing software vendor ourselves, we’d like to preface by saying that we don’t claim to be the perfect pricing solution for every organization – this is wholly dependent on the problems it’s trying to solve. However, we do believe in serving as a resource to help companies make the right choice in the long term. With that, let’s examine 8 reliable signs it’s time to change pricing software vendors so your organization is equipped to make the right call when the time comes.
8 Signs You Should Change Pricing Software Vendors
The signs that a pricing software vendor isn’t right for you go beyond capabilities; factors like customer relationships, proactivity in maximizing usage, or responsiveness to market trends are equally important in a pricing software partnership (or any software partnership, really).
Before diving in, keep in mind that many of the issues mentioned can be fixed in time with clear communication – it’s a two-way street, as the saying goes! If any of these resonate with you, consider working with your vendor on a mutually beneficial plan to address your concerns in the new contract. With that, let’s jump into some telltale signs it may be time to switch pricing vendors.
1. No Scalability
A pricing software vendor with a non-scalable and inflexible architecture is a big red flag. Given the rate of change in today’s marketplace, you’ll need a vendor that can grow with you. And if the pricing solution only met your needs when your business had entirely different priorities, it’s likely time to move on.
Here are three things to consider when weeding out scalability concerns:
- Your pricing team always finds workarounds
- There is limited adoption by the extended organization
- The platform has simply become a repository of data, but no processes take place in it
2. Lack of Proactive Follow Up
If your pricing vendor’s customer service teams are MIA after you’ve achieved ROI, this shows a fundamental lack of concern for your long-term growth. Because who does anything just to recover the initial investment? A good vendor regularly checks in with customers to not only ensure they’re happy with the tool but also to provide customized guidance and resources to help you get the most use out of it. An excellent vendor will take it a step further and provide metrics so that you can find opportunities for adoption. Some metrics to ask about are adoption rate, usage, growth rate and more.
3. Inadequate Security Measures
Weak encryption methods, authentication mechanisms, or recovery options for data loss are clear indicators your pricing vendor is not addressing your company’s data security needs as seriously as it ought to. And as we come to rely entirely on data-driven operations, safeguarding sensitive information is non-negotiable. One thing you can do is learn about some data security metrics like mean time to detect (MTD), security incidents, intrusion attempts and more, and find out if the organization actually has a way to measure those. It’s one thing to have poor measures, it’s another to not have a way to track potential security issues.
4. Lack of Meaningful Relationships
Is your first point of contact someone whose primary concern is finding new customers, or is it someone who wants to see you succeed? If your relationship with your pricing software vendor feels shallow and transactional, it’s likely they lack the bandwidth to give you the attention you deserve after the contract’s been signed. This undoubtedly leads to missed opportunities for growth. At Pricefx, for example, our Account Executives might set up events where customers share what they’ve learned and any challenges they might have (note, that’s even after a deal has been closed).
5. Lack of Expected Value
If your current software isn’t delivering its expected value in terms of ROI or total cost of ownership, this is, of course, a major cause for concern. If your pricing software can’t even get you past the starting line, what does that say about its ability to support your long-term gains?
6. Lack of Innovation
Does your pricing software vendor place a premium on its Research and Development efforts and is in the right place financially to invest in them? Does the solution offer artificial intelligence and machine learning-driven capabilities that allow you to perform at pace with your competitors? A vendor that fails to adapt their software to align with market demands can substantially limit your company’s growth and competitiveness in the long term. A great vendor will take it a step further by involving you directly in the innovation process. After all, you know your challenges better than the vendor does.
7. Slow Responsiveness
Slow response times from your vendor when in need of support can be harmful, especially when the issue is too large to ignore. Even smaller ones can snowball into bigger ones when left unaddressed for too long. A good pricing software vendor should have a well-defined project management process. If not, comparing your wait times to those of your peers can help you understand what you should accept.
8. Limited User Adoption
What’s the point of investing in a tool that only a select few people in your organization can understand? This isn’t a good sign; it could suggest either the pricing software solution is overly complex for the value it offers, or the vendor lacks effective training programs. Regardless of the root issue, low user adoption shouldn’t be a trend that sticks.
Already Decided? Here’s What’s Next
We hope this article has helped in identifying some critical gaps in your pricing software relationship that warrant exploring new options, or, in the best-case scenario, has served as inspiration to kick-start productive conversations with your vendor.
If your company is seriously considering switching pricing software vendors due to any of the red flags mentioned, or any others we’ve left out, still consider providing timely feedback to your vendor so they have a chance to improve. You never know.
When searching for a new vendor, keep in mind there are more and less effective ways of evaluating pricing software. Don’t allow your company to miss out on the solution it was supposed to have and consider checking out our article, “The 3 Worst Ways to Choose Pricing Software”:
