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AMA: Demandbase VP Product and Industry Marketing, Jackie Palmer on Pricing and Packaging

January 24 @ 9:00AM PST

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Demandbase VP Product and Industry Marketing, Jackie Palmer on Pricing and Packaging

Top Questions

What are good ways to get buy-in from your sales team on a proposed new pricing model? Alternatively, how does feedback from your sales reps on the pricing model impact your future pricing / packaging changes?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

I've always found that the sales team is a huge partner for you on pricing and packaging. Both in terms of knowledge (competitor prices, what the market will bear, direct feedback from deals etc) as well as being good supporters as you start to roll out pricing changes. A few things I've found th......Read More

473 Views

2 requests

We have traditionally been focused on SMB / Mid-Market and are now trying to go to market to the Enterprise. What questions do you recommend we ask internally to get to product market fit with our new Enterprise pricing and packaging?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

As mentioned before, taking an existing product into a new market should always include pricing and packaging research. Research methods include competitor websites, review websites, marketplaces, industry analysts, independent research/survey firms, your existing customers or prospects, your exi......Read More

422 Views

1 request

How do you make an internal business case for product marketing to own pricing?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

If Product Marketing doesn't own pricing in your organization today, here are some things you can include in a proposal to get it moved: * Competitor knowledge - PMM is often closest to the competitors and can bring this knowledge into the pricing conversation. While you should never price a......Read More

352 Views

2 requests

how do you think about the relationship between product positioning and pricing?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

You may not think that product positioning and pricing are necessarily related. However, something you should definitely consider as you look at pricing a product is how you are going to position it. If you are targeting different segments with the same product, either enterprise/mid-market, diff......Read More

294 Views

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When you make the decision to lower the price of a product, how do you address that change with existing customers (those who have paid the higher price)?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

I've always taken the approach that you don't touch existing customers until at least renewal time. So if you lower your pricing there is no need to address your current customers until they come up for renewal. When they do come up for renewal, you may have to minimize your year over year price ......Read More

282 Views

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Do you have any frameworks for discerning pricing and packaging of single vs bundled solutions? What about consideration around early adoption pricing, seasonal discount, and/or trial to purchase conversion incentives?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

I've usually taken the approach that a product bundle should have at least a slight discount as an incentive to purchase the bundle. Many times people want most but not all of the products in the bundle so it is usually nice to give them some small discount, like 5% or 10% off the unbundled price......Read More

302 Views

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What are some resources you refer to when thinking about pricing & packaging? It's a new area for me and I'm not sure how to get started.

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

There are lots of resources to leverage when thinking about pricing and packaging. Here are some that I've found most useful: * Competitor websites (hopefully you'll be lucky and they'll publish their pricing!). Know that whatever you find here is likely to be higher than actual selling p......Read More

378 Views

2 requests

How do I decide whether to publish pricing on my company's website?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

This is a tough question as it causes a lot of fear especially for salespeople who think it will limit their ability to maintain their current average selling prices but in fact studies have shown that buyers want to see pricing and that vendors who pit pricing on their website actually engender ......Read More

275 Views

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My VP Sales thinks that increasing pricing is not possible and any increase will lessen her ability to hit her number. How should we think about changing pricing?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

I would approach this similarly to how I approach any re-pricing exercise. It is a best practice to evaluate your prices at least once a year for most products. Your VP of Sales should understand that things change. If you can prove some of those changes, either internal or external, then you'll ......Read More

261 Views

1 request

My company wants to go upmarket and increase the average sale price of its products. How do we do this?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

Taking an existing product into a new market should always include pricing and packaging research. First, I would begin with some of the research methods that I've mentioned before. These would include competitor websites, review websites, marketplaces, industry analysts, independent research/sur......Read More

298 Views

1 request

How many price points and packages should I offer customers?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

If you have a relatively simple product, you don't have to offer a lot of packages. But if you have the ability to do different packages because you have enough features to merit them, then I would recommend going with three packages. Most customers will look at the three options and say, well I ......Read More

337 Views

1 request

How product marketing can initiate pricing and packaging conversations cross-functionally? Who all should be involved in a council to discuss and sign off?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

In my experience, a pricing committee is the most important team you can have for pricing and packaging. Maybe if your company is super small, you can get away without one. But really, once you start having a decent number of customers and deals, you should have a formal process in place and a cr......Read More

451 Views

2 requests

For the first time we want to approach monetization in a structured way. So we're planning to run our first ever pricing project. How do we structure such a project?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

I would definitely advise building out a pricing committee even if it was just a temporary one for this specific project only. In previous answers, I've outlined the teams needed in a pricing committee but just to repeat, here's who should be involved: * Product Marketing - proposes pricing and......Read More

485 Views

1 request

Who should own pricing? Product marketing or product management? What is the ideal role of either?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

I've been in both product marketing and product management and in both cases I have owned pricing so I can see it both ways for sure. But (and I admit I might be biased!) I strongly believe that product marketing should own pricing as PMM is often the most cross-functional team and also closest t......Read More

310 Views

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What are some best practices when implementing a price increase rollout?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

The first thing I do when considering a price increase rollout is research. Some of the key pieces of information you need to gather are: * Past average selling price (for an existing product or similar product) - you can get this from your RevOps/Sales Ops team if you don't have access to i......Read More

468 Views

3 requests

How do you approach competitive intel for pricing?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

As mentioned before, competitive intel is important to at least understand when thinking about pricing and packaging. You certainly shouldn't price a particular way just because your competitors do but you should always at least understand what the competitive landscape looks like. Here are some ......Read More

295 Views

1 request

How do you plan for and adjust pricing/packaging when product teams deploy weekly/monthly?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

Product deployments should really not affect pricing significantly especially weekly changes. Really you should only focus on pricing and packaging changes for big feature additions which are probably at least in your monthly releases or maybe even only some of those monthly releases. So I would ......Read More

310 Views

1 request

When re-pricing what all one must consider in order to stay competitive in the market ?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

I've found that it is a best practice to evaluate your prices at least once a year for most products. If your market changes very rapidly, you may consider bi-annual or quarterly pricing reviews but for most annually is great. You need to consider both outside conditions, like inflation, global/l......Read More

881 Views

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What advice would you offer a PMM who would love to get started on learning about and owning pricing at an early-stage company?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

Definitely check out some of the research resources I've mentioned in previous answers. I would also interview people at your company, salespeople, your CEO, finance, etc and also see if you can get any time with board members to get their viewpoints. And then there are also a few companies like ......Read More

784 Views

1 request

How do we capture competitor pricing in a sales-led enterprise business?

Jackie Palmer

Pendo.io VP Product Marketing • January 24

Similar to other questions above, there are lots of resources to leverage when thinking about pricing and packaging including competitor pricing. Here are some that I've found most useful: * Competitor websites (hopefully you'll be lucky and they'll publish their pricing!). Know that whateve......Read More

739 Views

1 request