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Akshay Kerkar

AMA: Atlassian Former Head of Marketing, Cloud Enterprise and Platform, Akshay Kerkar on Pricing and Packaging

August 4 @ 10:00AM PST
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Atlassian Former Head of Marketing, Cloud Enterprise and Platform, Akshay Kerkar on Pricing and Packaging
Top Questions
What have been your key learnings from any "Pricing/Re-pricing launch" that you have led/seen within your company?
Please share your experiences from successful efforts and also the launches that didn't go well. Any tools/templates that worked for your teams?
Akshay Kerkar
Akshay Kerkar
Stripe Head of Product Marketing, Emerging Products • August 5
Great question! Pricing is something that's never done, since you'll have to keep updating it over time (as your products evolve, the market evolves, or due to competitive moves). A few key things I find useful when working on a pricing change: * Setting up your approach to how you will develop......Read More
729 Views
4 requests
What should I include in my product marketing budget?
I already have things like Customer Visits, a Sales Enablement / Content Management tool, SKO, pricing model consulting.
Akshay Kerkar
Akshay Kerkar
Stripe Head of Product Marketing, Emerging Products • August 5
A few other things to consider: * Your team's research needs (qual and/or quant)  * Any analyst-related spent (either for research reports or to engage w/ analysts) * Content-related needs -- always a good idea to work with a good content agency to flex your capacity when needed * And ......Read More
2110 Views
1 request
Pricing is tough. My questions are 1. How do you know that you have the right price/package structure pre-launch. 2. And how do you know that the price/packaging is still the best post launch.
Akshay Kerkar
Akshay Kerkar
Stripe Head of Product Marketing, Emerging Products • August 5
Pricing is both tough and is not one-and-done - it has to be refreshed over time. While you can use research to figure out initial pricing for launch (see one of my other answers for details on figuring out willingness-to-pay (WTP)), you will need to reevaluate pricing over time to see how it nee......Read More
799 Views
1 request
We're rolling out a new pricing model. How do you drive adoption from your existing customers when pricing variables change?
Akshay Kerkar
Akshay Kerkar
Stripe Head of Product Marketing, Emerging Products • August 5
Few things to consider: 1] Your customer comms plan - when are you letting your customers know? Are you giving them a head's up? Are you letting them know why pricing is changing - e.g. new functionality that's drvcing additional value 2] Your internal enablement plan - for all teams that will ......Read More
775 Views
1 request
How do you think about pricing and packaging as it relates to competitive positioning?
Akshay Kerkar
Akshay Kerkar
Stripe Head of Product Marketing, Emerging Products • August 5
Your pricing inherently reflects the value of your products, and since competitive comparisons will inevitably come up in deals, you have to translate all your competitive research and market understanding into a compelling set of content and enablement for your Sales team so they can sell the "v......Read More
996 Views
2 requests
Who owns pricing? Product Marketing or Product Management? If both, how do you divide the responsibilities?
Akshay Kerkar
Akshay Kerkar
Stripe Head of Product Marketing, Emerging Products • August 5
The answer really varies by company - I have seen instances of Product Marketing, Product Management, Finance, Biz Ops, and Sales Strategy teams own pricing. In an ideal world, the team that's both tasked with understand your products/market/customers and works closely w/ Sales is the best pla......Read More
1975 Views
1 request
How do you think about pricing when going from a single product to a multi-product platform?
Akshay Kerkar
Akshay Kerkar
Stripe Head of Product Marketing, Emerging Products • August 5
Single product pricing is (relatively) straightforward. When you go to multiple products, or multiple SKUs of the same product (e.g. a Standard Edition vs. Premium vs. Enterprise), the complexity explodes across multiple fronts - Ops/quoting, your website/customer comms, sales enablement, and rep......Read More
695 Views
1 request
When thinking about pricing, do you base it on competitive alternatives or the value you deliver to customers? And what are the marketing trade-offs when choosing either option?
Akshay Kerkar
Akshay Kerkar
Stripe Head of Product Marketing, Emerging Products • August 5
Hands down the value you deliver. In an ideal world, you figure out the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for your product in the market, and set your price close to the WTP line (and above your costs). WTP is usually figured out through research, both qual conversations with customers, partners, and k......Read More
676 Views
2 requests
In your role working as Product Manager & Go-To-Market or working with PE/VC/pricing consulting firms on company valuation & market assessment, whats your go-to resource with frameworks & examples to conduct B2B pricing power assessment for a product?
Akshay Kerkar
Akshay Kerkar
Stripe Head of Product Marketing, Emerging Products • August 5
Figuring out the willingness-to-pay (WTP) by conducting research for your product with your target market/buyers is an effective approach. I've mentioned more details in a previous response. There are lots of good articles on WTP research (including HBR). Also checkout the Profitwell/PriceInte......Read More
732 Views
1 request