At PROS, we take tremendous pride in delivering the fastest time to value for our clients. In our outperform culture, we focus on driving continuous improvements in every aspect of our work lives. It’s a challenge I really enjoy and appreciate. It keeps us on our toes, always with our customers front and center in our…
… but Superman does not use avionics, why should I? It can be said that a pilot flying without avionics is similar to aftermarket service part companies trying to achieve pricing excellence without pricing software. It’s just something you don’t do! After attending the webinar, The Case for Pricing Software in the Service Parts Industry…
Before compact discs, iPods and the Zune, Pandora and Spotify, vinyl records were the way to play music. And to any “real” music lover, over the past two decades we experienced a slow painful death of vinyl, only to see a resurgence during the last five years with the music industry taking a step back…
This is the first of a two-part series on pricing for the service parts industry. Question: Is it important to consider a part’s lifecycle when pricing the part? Answer: Lifecycle has to do with a part’s stage of life. In my opinion, it really isn’t a clear concept. The term is derived from a consumer…
Last week, I had the privilege of guest lecturing at my alma mater in its graduate Business Forecasting & Data Mining class. The class was taught by my microeconomics professor from many years ago – the same individual who first introduced me to the concepts of price elasticity before I knew I would make a career…
Price realization is a technique used by finance, marketing and pricing professionals at manufacturing companies to measure the change in customer pricing over time. In recent years and with increasing competition, it’s become an important indicator of price erosion as buyers have gained far greater power in the purchasing process. Through the use of information…
Someone once told me “you can say anything to anyone if you say it appropriately.” It’s become one of my oft-repeated phrases. But how well does this theory hold when you’re communicating a price increase? Consider further that the rate is for an on-going service for which customers become accustomed and familiar with paying a…
Summary Today’s distributors face ever-present challenges, marked by an extremely competitive market place. This text discusses their pricing challenges, and provides a view into industry best practices to overcome the obstacles. Introduction Legendary dynasties like Germany’s Fugger family built their fortunes in trade. They organised themselves in guilds like the “Hanse” of Northern Germany, whose…
Over the past few years, you have often heard me mention the concept of mindfulness. I purposefully use this word in the context of an emerging theory on organizational mindfulness that is researched more and more in organizations. I actually conducted a research inquiry on the topic, and I hope to continue the exploration on…
It is often a challenge to get your customer to share with you what they’re looking for. Sure, there are a lot of specific questions you can ask depending on the type of customer, but do you want to know what I consider the 4 secret questions to ask a customer? Here goes: Why? Can…
Nicolene Barnard says:
100% agree. Marco Bertini, Professor at London Business School will...
Marcel van Harrewijen says:
Totally agree! There are a lot of product managers who mistakenly...
Steve Sassi says:
Strongly agree! You cannot avoid the commodity trap unless you understand,...
Reno Koepp says:
A great article with many interesting examples of alternative and innovative...
What customers are looking for | kundennutzen says:
[...] often complain because their price is too high. But, according...
