How do you roll out pricing and packaging for a new product launch?

We roll out new pricing and packaging in conjunction with our seasonal launch cadence. (See context in question below). There are 4 milestones in every seasonal launch: Product Readiness Cross-functional Readiness Internal Enablement External Promotion There are two parts that touch Pricing & Packaging. First, getting pricing and packaging ready is part of #2 Cross-Functional Readiness.  This is when multiple groups come together to propose, align, and decide on a pricing/packaging strategy. ...Read More

We aspire to do this with absolute excellence -- with rapid A/B testing and optimization. Come join our team!! That being said, here are some observations (I polled folks on my team to contribute based on what they've seen in their careers as well). Bottom line, pricing projects are hard--and can be messy! Pricing is all about balancing tensions. You might have the most perfect spreadsheet pricing model in the world. It might even be the best deal for your customers. But if it’s too much work to ...Read More

I've answered some of this in previous questions, but here are some thoughts... 1) Understand your buyers needs, budgeting/buying process, problem you are solving for them (and/or their users) and the relative value of solving that problem 2) Look at competitive solutions or alternatives to solving the problem and look at how they are pricing/packaging their solution 3) What's the cost of not solving the problem 4) Form a hypothesis on the price for the new product 5) Talk to existing or potenti ...Read More

Let's assume that you've got the pricing set, the feature packaging defined, and the product technically built. What happens next? Enablement! My laundry list of things to do includes: Work with the CPQ/Systems team to build out the commercial workflow of what a SKU looks like, how discount approvals and escalations flow, product special terms, and configuration policies Build a training deck for different audiences (Sales, CSMs, Implementation, Support, Deal Desk) that describes what the produc ...Read More

Usually, your existing customers are the most impacted by pricing and packaging changes – so you may need to focus on communicating any updates clearly to your users. If all the changes are positive (e.g. they get more for the same) your job is much easier. If there are negative impacts, you need to diligently segment all your cohorts and identify how each group will be impacted, and then create a comms strategy from there. A blog explaining the changes and customized emails to each group is how ...Read More

The roll-out should happen at the same time you train your internal teams about the messaging & positioning, product value, use cases etc. But, the work with pricing & packaging has to start much early. Ideally you have some idea of the products and features that are going to be released a few months before and can bring it into your pricing & packaging process.  I would think about the features based on tier - Tier 1, 2 or 3, and use that to determine if it needs P&P support. Ti ...Read More

Pricing is both a science and art -- which means in many cases, it is hard to predict if you have hit the right price (high enough to capture maximum value but low enough that you can scale it to a broad customer base). Because of that, it can sometimes feel like pricing is based on the wind, but in reality, it is a careful process! Here’s a step-by-step that has worked for us: Research - Dig into competitive pricing (how are similar products priced, what would the alternatives cost?) and identi ...Read More

Rolling out pricing and packaging for a new product launch requires a well-planned execution plan that informs multiple audiences as to "what you are selling," "how you deliver value," and "why you are better than alternatives" in your product launch. The plan should include critical phases for enabling internal audiences, educating customers and partners, and collecting feedback from internal and external sources to optimize the rollout process. Key audiences to consider in your planning: Inter ...Read More

Step 1: Get access to biz ops data to understand business performance (clients per pricing plan, discounting per pricing plan, size of the company per pricing plan) Step 2: Analyze the business opportunity to build a business case for a new product or pricing launch. Step 3: Speak to sales to understand why we win or lose deals. Speak to Customer Success to understand what customers are requesting and why. Step 4: Align with Product on what to build based on business and customer goals. Step 5: ...Read More

I see Pricing and Packaging as both a science and an art. What do I mean by that? It’s a science in the sense that you have to run a lot of business simulations and crunch the numbers to do the revenue projections. That is the science aspect of it. Yet there's also an emotional aspect to your product price, which in my mind also makes it an art. And because of the art aspect of it, you have to do a lot of testing. You have to test your assumptions in terms of charge versus include. Test with you ...Read More