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How Can Pricing Software Value Add to Your Business?

June 20th, 2023 | 12 min. read

By Vivek Gokhale

Most products are still priced according to what they cost to produce. But many companies are now employing an alternative approach, using the power of pricing software technology to help estimate how much value a product would provide to the buyer, then basing its price on that value. But how much can pricing software value add to your business and help you grow your revenue, profit margins and overall bottom line? 

With many years of combined experience in the pricing industry and helping companies to update and automate their pricing, Pricefx and Conet ISB are industry experts in assisting organizations to find value points in their pricing that they knew they had. 

In this article, we dive into firstly defining value in all its measures and follow up by examining the ways that pricing software can bring that value to your business in all its forms. 

What is Value? (In All its Forms) 

Value can be defined in various forms, and one of them is the operational efficiency that comes with pricing software. Many companies rely on Excel or different tools, but with an automated pricing software solution, efficiency and transparency are enhanced. Transparency is crucial in pricing because it provides access to effective strategies. In today’s competitive landscape, a well-crafted pricing strategy is paramount. Customers find satisfaction in stable and standardized pricing, which directly influences their overall experience. Ultimately, operational efficiency aligns with pricing strategy and customer experience, contributing to the profitability and success of businesses. 

In addition to operational efficiency, pricing software brings value by enabling proper pricing strategies. A company may have an excellent product, but if customers perceive the pricing as unaffordable or disconnected from the product’s value, it hinders profitability. Pricing software empowers businesses to optimize their pricing approach, whether it is customer-based pricing or value-based pricing. By analyzing data, market trends, and customer behavior, companies can set prices that resonate with their target audience, to drive sales and revenue. 

Of course, the underlying goal of companies is to generate profit, and pricing software plays a pivotal role in achieving this objective. By enhancing operational efficiency, enabling effective pricing strategies, and delivering a satisfactory customer experience, pricing software brings value to businesses.  

Pricing software streamlines processes, ensures fair and competitive pricing, and aligns pricing with customer expectations, resulting in increased profitability and long-term success.  

Embracing an automated pricing software solution unlocks opportunities to maximize value creation and drive sustainable growth.

 

How Pricing Software Adds Value to Profit Margins & Revenue 

Pricing software adds substantial value to profit margins and revenue by equipping businesses with powerful capabilities and insights. Key pathways to benefits include; 

  • Pricing analytics – Pricing analytics enables businesses to analyze transaction data and compare it with current pricing. This analysis empowers organizations to make informed decisions and implement real-time price adjustments. By monitoring competitor prices and defining rules and regulations, businesses can ensure their pricing remains competitive and optimized for maximum profitability. Pricing software automates these processes, saving time and enabling dynamic pricing strategies. 

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  • Facilitating Customer-Based Pricing – Another significant value-add of pricing software is customer-based pricing. With pricing software, businesses can determine the value customers associate with their products or pricing. By tailoring pricing strategies based on customer perceptions of value, businesses can attract and retain more customers. Additionally, pricing software facilitates dynamic pricing, allowing businesses to adapt prices based on market changes or shifts in customer perceptions to optimize their pricing. The software automates these adjustments, enabling businesses to respond swiftly and accurately to market dynamics, driving revenue growth. 

 

  • Customer Segmentation – Pricing software also empowers businesses through customer segmentation. Traditionally, customer segmentation was based on product groups or location. However, with pricing software, businesses can perform automated customer segmentation based on pricing. By leveraging pricing data and analytics, businesses can identify specific customer groups or regions that require tailored pricing strategies, maximizing customer satisfaction and revenue potential. Furthermore, pricing software facilitates effective promotions and discounts by providing insights into the impact and value generated by these strategies. Businesses can modify, enhance, or continue promotions based on real-time feedback and data, ensuring their promotional activities contribute positively to profit margins and revenue.  

 

  • Competitive Analytics Pricing software supports competitive analytics by gathering information on competitors’ pricing strategies, enabling businesses to optimize their own pricing and gain a competitive edge. 

These innovative features of pricing software enhance profitability and revenue by ensuring optimal pricing strategies, increased customer satisfaction, and improved competitiveness in the market.  

Embracing pricing software unlocks a multitude of value-adding opportunities for businesses aiming to maximize their profit margins and revenue growth.

 

How Does Pricing Software Bring Value to an Organization’s Operational Efficiency? 

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Pricing software brings significant value to an organization’s operational efficiency by addressing key areas of improvement.  

Automation 

First and foremost, pricing automates the entire pricing process, from purchase prices to gross prices, discounts, and end customer prices. This automation streamlines pricing operations and allows for real-time adaptation to market changes, ensuring immediate adjustments in response to fluctuating costs or pricing strategies. Additionally, pricing software enables simulations to assess customer buying behavior based on specific prices, providing valuable insights for decision-making and enhancing pricing analytics. 

Collaboration and Communication – Streamlining Pricing 

Pricing software facilitates improved collaboration and communication among different departments involved in pricing, such as purchasing, sales, and product management. The software provides transparent visibility into pricing impacts and changes across all departments, fostering a cohesive and efficient decision-making process. With increased transparency, organizations can achieve efficient price execution, making data-driven decisions rather than relying solely on intuition or feelings. Real-time data empowers organizations to implement prices quickly and accurately, driving operational efficiency and agility. 

Transparent Audit & Compliance  

Pricing software adds value by supporting the establishment of a comprehensive audit and compliance concept. Organizations can define rules and regulations based on margin thresholds or specific criteria, ensuring compliance, and facilitating targeted pricing strategies for customers or regions. This robust framework allows for efficient monitoring and control, ensuring pricing operations align with organizational objectives and regulatory requirements. 

Price Optimization and Scenario Analysis 

Pricing software enables businesses to conduct price optimization and scenario analysis to evaluate the impact of different pricing strategies. It allows businesses to simulate pricing scenarios, analyze their potential outcomes, and select the most effective pricing strategy based on business goals and market conditions. This eliminates guesswork and enables informed decision-making. 

Efficient Price Execution 

Pricing software integrates with other systems, such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or e-commerce platforms, to ensure seamless and efficient price execution. Prices can be automatically pushed to relevant systems and channels, eliminating the need for manual data entry, and reducing the risk of errors. This improves the speed and accuracy of price implementation.

 

How Does Pricing Software Add Value to Enhance the Customer Experience? 

 

Pricing software can add significant value to the customer experience of any organization by leveraging:

Willingness-to-Pay & Customized Pricing  

Pricing software adds significant value in enhancing the customer experience by addressing key aspects related to pricing perception and transparency. Customers always associate the price of a service or product with its value, and if the price does not align with their expectations, their willingness to acquire the offering diminishes. Pricing software enables organizations to implement value-based pricing strategies, considering various parameters like customer buying behavior, shopping basket analysis, and purchase history. This customer-centric approach allows for customized pricing and discounting logic, aligning prices with customer perception and increasing the likelihood of customer acquisition. By leveraging pricing software, companies can replicate the success of major players like Amazon, tailoring prices to individual customers based on their location and shopping patterns. 

Transparency 

Transparency is another critical factor in enhancing the customer experience, and pricing software plays a crucial role in achieving it. Customers desire visibility into discounts, special offers, and pricing structures. Pricing software enables organizations to display transparent pricing information and communicate the available discounts effectively, fostering customer confidence and trust. Establishing transparency builds strong customer relationships and instills the belief that the company is trustworthy, positively impacting the overall customer experience. By leveraging pricing software, organizations can create a transparent pricing environment that enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty.

 

Pricing in Real-Time = Optimal Pricing Conditions  

Pricing software enables organizations to adapt to market shifts and customer expectations by implementing dynamic pricing strategies and real-time adjustments. As market conditions change, customers anticipate corresponding changes in pricing.  

With pricing software, organizations can swiftly respond to market dynamics by planning promotions, discounts, and real-time price adjustments. These capabilities allow companies to meet customer demands, offer competitive pricing, and continuously provide value, thereby enriching the customer experience. 

Promotions and Discounts Management 

Pricing software facilitates the management of promotions, discounts, and special offers. Businesses can design and deploy targeted promotions to specific customer segments, enhancing their experience by providing them with exclusive pricing incentives. The software automates the application of discounts and promotions, ensuring accuracy and consistency in pricing across different channels. 

Pricing Experiments and A/B Testing 

Pricing software enables businesses to conduct pricing experiments and A/B testing to evaluate the impact of different pricing strategies on customer behavior and outcomes. By testing different pricing approaches, businesses can gather data and insights on customer responses and preferences. This knowledge allows them to refine their pricing strategies to better align with customer expectations and enhance the overall customer experience. 

Integration with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems 

Pricing software can integrate with CRM systems, enabling businesses to have a comprehensive view of customer interactions, preferences, and purchase history. This integration helps businesses understand individual customer needs, tailor pricing strategies accordingly, and provide a personalized and seamless customer experience across different touch points. 

How Does Pricing Software Help My Business Value Price & Stay Competitive? 

 

Pricing software provides valuable assistance to businesses in value pricing and maintaining competitiveness in the market. One key benefit is the ability to integrate and manage vast amounts of competitive information effectively. Pricing software enables companies to gather data on competitor pricing, market performance, currency fluctuations, and other factors that influence pricing decisions.  

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By consolidating this information, businesses can develop a pricing logic that ensures they always offer competitive and optimized prices. This helps businesses stay relevant in the market and attract customers by providing optimal pricing based on a comprehensive understanding of the competitive landscape. 

Another advantage of pricing software is the ability to establish well-defined promotions and discounts. Analyzing competitor offerings and promotional strategies allows businesses to design compelling discounting mechanisms.  

By understanding what competitors are offering, businesses can tailor their own promotions to differentiate themselves and attract customers effectively. Pricing software enables companies to monitor the market in real-time, run price impact simulations, implement dynamic pricing strategies, and stay aligned with customer expectations and the competition. This ensures that businesses can adjust prices promptly and maintain a competitive edge in the market. 

How Can Your Business Measure the Return-on-Investment of Pricing Software? 

 

Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of pricing software can be approached in several ways: 

Cost-savings: Comparing the time and effort required to manually perform pricing tasks or manage data using Excel sheets with the automated capabilities of pricing software reveals the cost-saving potential. By quantifying the resources saved, businesses can determine the monetary value of using the software. 

Revenue and Profitability Impacts: Revenue and profitability impacts are clear indicators of ROI. Once the software is implemented and prices are in effect, businesses can monitor metrics such as increased quantity sold, improved profit margins, and overall revenue growth. These tangible outcomes demonstrate the software’s contribution to boosting financial performance. 

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Customer Feedback: Customer Feedback serves as a valuable indicator of the ROI of pricing software. Gathering input through surveys or discussions with customers allows businesses to gauge how pricing is perceived by their target audience. Positive feedback indicating that customers find the pricing reasonable and value the product/service establishes the software’s effectiveness in supporting the business’s brand perception and customer satisfaction. 

What’s more, defining key performance indicators (KPIs) specific to pricing can provide a quantifiable means of assessing the ROI. Metrics such as pricing accuracy, sales volume, profit per product, new customer acquisition, overall profitability, and turnover can be established as KPIs. 

By regularly evaluating these indicators, businesses can measure the software’s performance and its impact on financial and operational aspects. 

 

Why Pricing Software is the Best Value Investment You Can Make 

 

In today’s rapidly changing and uncertain business landscape, investing in robust pricing software is undoubtedly the best value investment any organization can make. The impact of events like the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the dynamic and unstable nature of the market. In such challenging times, reliable pricing software becomes invaluable, providing essential analytics, automated pricing capabilities, and immediate lead simulations. These features enable businesses to navigate market fluctuations effectively and make informed decisions about their pricing strategies. 

By investing in robust pricing software like Pricefx and configuring it to manage the entire pricing process, organizations can gain a competitive edge. The software empowers them to leverage data-driven insights, streamline pricing operations, and respond swiftly to market changes. This level of agility and responsiveness is crucial for sustaining profitability and maximizing revenue, especially during economic downturns or periods of high volatility. 

To learn more on how pricing software can bring value to your company even when stormy economic conditions approach, check out this handy article:

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If your company on the lookout for pricing software with a strong partnership focus across a range of industries and specialty areas of expertise like implementation and ongoing customer support, then you will want to learn more about the Pricefx Advantage Partner Network and Conet ISB, one of the key partners.  

On the flip side, if you have already completed your company’s research, talk to one of the Pricefx pricing experts now to begin your pricing software journey. 

Happy Pricing! 

Vivek Gokhale

Senior Expert Consulting - Pricing , Conet ISB

Vivek Gokhale is a highly qualified professional with a strong background in pricing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain management. He holds an MSc degree in Procurement, Logistics, and Supply Chain from the University of Salford. Currently, Vivek is employed as a Senior Expert Consultant in the Pricing team at CONET ISB, a leading implementation partner for Price FX software. In his role, he takes on various responsibilities including Business Analyst (BA), Product Owner (PO), and Solution Architect (SA). With his comprehensive skill set and experience, Vivek is well-versed in implementing Price FX solutions for leading customers. His ability to analyze business needs, act as a product owner, and provide innovative pricing solutions makes him a valuable asset in the field of pricing and consultancy.