On value, or on cost?
You would build a value-based pricing model once, maybe twice, in an entire career. That is why the last price increase went through on cost rather than on value, and why the discounting has crept up without anyone being able to say by how much. We build these most months.
Working with
How we price
PRICE ON WHAT THE CUSTOMER AVOIDS
Price follows the value your customer avoids losing, not your cost stack. That value has to be quantified in their units, per tonne, per hour of downtime, per rejected batch, or the conversation returns to cost within a week.
THE MODEL HAS TO OUTLIVE US
A pricing model that lives with the pricing team dies with it. We train the product line managers who will use it, and we leave the calculator behind.
WE DO NOT SET YOUR PRICES
We build the value model, test willingness to pay and hand it over. We do not sit in your customer negotiations. The number on the quote is yours.
The method, not the opinion
Four steps, in this order, every time
The first two decide where a value-based price can work at all. The third produces the number. The fourth is what makes it survive a sales conversation.
Segmentation
Which customers perceive high value, and which are buying on price whatever you do.
Product selection
Which products can carry a value-based price, and which should stay on cost-plus.
Value quantification
What the product saves or earns the customer, in their units, with the arithmetic shown.
Value communication
The argument and the calculator your product line manager takes into the negotiation.
Only the two outlined quadrants are worth a value-based price. Saying that in week four is what stops a pricing programme trying to convert a whole portfolio and stalling.
Who runs it
One senior analyst, two analysts, one pricing specialist
The standard sprint team is a senior analyst and two analysts for eight to ten weeks, with the outcome handed over at the end. On a pricing sprint they are joined for the full sprint by a pricing specialist with industrial B2B pricing experience, who brings sector pricing practice into the room.
The method is ours and does not change with the specialist. It has run in specialty chemicals and in healthcare technology, and it is the same four steps and the same three phases each time.
Where the weeks actually go
Bar widths are to scale. Three weeks of diagnosis before anything is designed.
Diagnose
Map how price is set today, agree which product lines can carry a value-based price, and what value means to those customers.
Scope and value drivers signed offBuild
Interviews across product, sales and commercial teams to size the value in the customer’s units, then willingness-to-pay testing.
35 interviews, 10 product lines, 4 regionsValidate
The value calculator, the pricing playbook, and the people trained to use both.
20 product managers trainedTwo hours of your team’s time a week. No workshop marathon.
What lands, week by week
Data request issued. Stakeholder map and interview guide agreed.
Transaction records cleaned to consistent product level. First interview round.
Diagnosis read-out. How price is really set today, and where it leaks.
Segmentation and product selection applied to your own portfolio.
Value quantified on one pilot product, in your customer’s units.
Draft price corridors or playbook, with the calculator behind them.
Validation with regional commercial leads. Feedback captured against each rule.
Refine, train the people who will use it, hand over the model and its documentation.
The sprint ends on three answers: which products move off cost-plus first, what the corridor is for each, and who owns the price decision once we have gone.
What we need from you to start
Six things. If the first two do not exist, tell us early and we shift the weight onto interviews. That is not a problem. Finding out in week two is.
Questions we have answered
Why does the same product sell at three different prices in three regions?
What is an hour of avoided downtime actually worth to our customer?
Which discounts are buying volume, and which are just habit?
Can a product manager defend a premium without escalating it to the pricing team?
What happens to the model after the people who built it leave?
Where is willingness to pay already higher than we are charging?
See What We Deliver
Needs-Based Customer Segmentation
Segment customers by needs and value drivers to lay the foundation for differentiated, outcome-linked pricing.
Competitor & Product Differentiation Assessment
Assess competitive positioning and your product’s unique value levers to identify opportunities for premium pricing.
Customer Value Model Development
Build detailed customer value models quantifying the economic value your solution delivers to each segment.
Value Calculator & Business Case Development
Co-create tools that quantify ROI and build customer-specific business cases to justify pricing with data.
Willingness-to-Pay Testing
Run structured WTP testing to determine the price points customers are willing to pay for perceived value.
Pricing Playbook Development
Develop a practical playbook codifying pricing logic, discounting rules, and value communication strategies for sales teams.
Sales Enablement & Value Communication
Train your commercial teams to articulate, defend, and deliver your value story confidently in negotiations.
Pricing Tools & Technology Integration
Implement pricing tools, CRM integrations, and dashboards to execute value-based pricing at scale.
Pricing Governance & KPI Monitoring
Establish pricing governance frameworks and dashboards to measure margin uplift, and ensure continuous improvement.
What pricing sprints have returned
A global manufacturer consolidating price lists across regions. Standardised price corridors and stronger governance to cut leakage, and a pricing cycle three times faster, from weeks to days.
A €3B global specialty chemicals company with ten product lines priced differently across four regions. 35 internal interviews, 3 workshops, and 20 product managers trained to run the model themselves.
A €30B global electrification and automation group that could not defend a premium on motor attributes. 7 competitors benchmarked across 8 markets to find untapped willingness to pay.
A €3B global chemical company serving every customer the same way. Service levels re-cut against what each segment is actually willing to pay, and 30% of service inefficiency removed.
A €2B European branded food company with no view of which promotions paid back. 1,500+ SKUs assessed across campaign timing, discount depth and investment allocation.
A €6B global machinery company with no clear view of what its maintenance customers would pay. Service catalogue designed and validated inside a single planning cycle, 60% faster to market.
Download Our Case Study
In a value-based pricing pilot on a new specialty polymer, a €3B chemical company identified a 15% improvement in product net margin.
Interested in the details of the case?
Hear from Our Customers
Quick reads
Pricing and commercial work we have published. Value quantification, willingness to pay, discounting and promotion, from the sprints themselves.
Capturing the Full Value: Why Industrial Firms Must Shift Away From Cost-plus Pricing
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Pricing Excellence Strategy Transformation
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Building a Global Pricing Framework
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Defining Product Value Proposition
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Aftermarket Services: Why OEMs Are Under-Capturing Installed Base Value
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Redesigning Customer Segmentation to Optimize Service
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Building a Unified Mill Services Catalogue
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Building Data-Driven Promotion Investment Guidelines
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The service you already deliver and never invoice.
Read it →Is your next price increase going through on value, or on cost?
If nobody in the building can show what the customer avoids losing, tell Rahul. If a sprint is the right way to find out, you will have a proposal within a week. If it is not, he will say so.
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