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.

Question

Hila Segal · Accepted Answer

1. Deeply understand the business of your company - who buys, why they buy, how your product delivers value (not just the top level cost savings, lower risk, more topline but what are the driver metrics that are impacted by your product).
 2. Learn the monetization models of your competitors or similar type companies to you
 3. Educate yourself on pricing & packaging models, learn from other companies in your industry or best-in-class Saas
 4. Attend webinars, courses or other PMM communities that talk about pricing and lean on peers
 5. Consider bringing an outside consultant if you’re trying to drive a major pivot in your pricing model and structure

Jackie Palmer · Answer

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 price as it is not usually inclusive of discounts or promotions
 * Review websites like G2 and TrustRadius. Often people will comment on the price they pay or paid
 * Marketplaces like the Salesforce AppExchange, HubSpot Marketplace, Microsoft AppSource etc. These marketplaces often require vendors to list a "starting" price. Again, this will likely be higher than actual selling price
 * Industry analysts like Gartner, Forrester etc. They will be able to talk about average market selling prices and average discounting practices but they won't give you an exact price.
 * Independent research/survey firms. If you have the budget you can hire a company for market analysis. Many times these companies have people on contract who are practitioners and may know the market from either working at a vendor or buying from other vendors. This is often very useful but costly.
 * Your existing customers or prospects. If you have a customer community you can leverage, don't be afraid to ask. Your happy customers are often willing to give you their opinion on pricing and packaging both of your own products or any competitive products they may have experience will
 * Your existing partners. If you work with implementation or resell partners, often they will have knowledge of market pricing. Like the industry analysts, they may be unwilling to give you exact prices but could advise on the market or give suggestions on packaging.
 * Your sales team. Maybe someone worked for a competitor or knows the general market. Or at the very least, your sales team will know how prospects and customers have reacted to pricing in the past
 * Your friends and neighbors. I'm only half joking! You never know who might have knowledge of your industry's pricing and packaging. Don't be afraid to ask!

Christy Roach · Answer

A lot of great content in the market, specifically on Sharebird and PMM groups. I’ve also learned a lot by meeting up and talking pricing with folks across product, PMM, and finance who work on pricing to swap stories and get their insight. Do a lot of digging online about how your competitors and products in your industry price their offerings so you can understand how your product fits in. If you’re looking for a book, I don’t have a ton but the book Predictably Irrational by Dr. Dan Ariely is an interesting look at how we make decisions that helped me start to put together a real POV on pricing and customer decision making. Good luck!

Tamara Grominsky · Answer

Pricing and packaging is such an exciting area of product marketing, I'm thrilled to hear you're going to dig into it!

Here are some of my favourite resources:

* Price Intelligently/Profitwell blog - https://www.profitwell.com/recur/all/tag/pricing
 * Handbook on the Psychology of Pricing by Markus Husemann-Kopetzky
 * Confessions of the Pricing Man by Hermann Simon
 * Monetizing Innovation by Madhavan Ramanujam

Related Ask Me Anything Sessions

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