Introduction to value-pricing
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Transcript of Introduction to value-pricing
VALUE–PRICING
Jakob Persson Leancept AB
www.leancept.com
As presented at the Stockholm Value-Pricing
Meetup on May 10, 2016.
What is value?
Why are diamonds valuable?
http://www.freeimages.com/photo/diamond-ring-1539860
1947
http://www.freeimages.com/photo/laptop-1242490 http://www.freeimages.com/photo/isolated-macbook-pro-1615424
$$ $$$$$
?
–Wikipedia
“The labor theory of value (LTV) is a heterodox economic theory of value that argues that the
economic value of a good or service is determined by the total amount of socially necessary labor
required to produce it, rather than by the use or pleasure its owner gets from it.”
RFP Analysis
Nah. Bad fit
Is this fo
r us?
Estimation
Nope. Too much complexity/risk
How much should
we charge?
Proposal
Too demanding considering chance of winning
What a
re th
ey
asking fo
r?
Bidding process
Loss to competing bidder
What i
s the
competit
ion offe
ring?
Win or loss
High customer acquisition cost that was almost never fully recovered
since we weren’t focused on building lasting relationships.
Our interests were largely in opposition to the
customer’s.
It was almost impossible to implement true agile and
story points.
Our KPI’s concerned team billability, not customer
value created.
People in the company adopted an inside–out
mindset.
Not knowing better?
http://www.freeimages.com/photo/face-dumbfounded-1438542
Laziness?
http://www.freeimages.com/photo/sleepy-lucy-1387909
Not wanting to understand our
customers?
http://www.freeimages.com/photo/the-wall-1221477
http://www.freeimages.com/photo/escort-car-inside-2-1425603
“Family pricing”
Click to read “The birthday gift”
Where would you have to pay the least for a bag of
garden soil mix?
Store A
Store B
Value-pricing joins genuine rela!onships with
marke!ng concepts
The purpose of any organization—from a governmental agency or nonprofit
foundation, to a corporation—exists to create results outside of itself.
Address customer pain points
http://www.freeimages.com/photo/frustrated-look-1474618
Find a problem-solution fit for the right
problems
Design offers for customers’ priorities
and values
http://www.freeimages.com/photo/children-playing-1172340
Forge stronger and more resilient
customer relationships
http://www.freeimages.com/photo/chains-1220833
Value-pricing isn’t a method
It’s a mindset and a set of principles
• Comprehend value to customers
• Create value for customers
• Communicate the value you create
• Convince customers they must pay for value
• Capture value with strategic pricing based on value, not costs and efforts
Customers want us to consider value
1. Make an impact on our business, don’t just be visible.
2. Do more things “on spec” (i.e., invest your time on preliminary work in new areas).
3. Spend more time helping us think, and helping us develop strategies.
4. Lead our thinking. Tell us what our business is going to look like five or ten years from now.
5. Jump on any new pieces of information we have, so you can stay up to date on what’s going on in our business. Use our data to give us an extra level of analysis. Ask for it; don’t wait for us to give it to you.
6. Schedule some offsite meetings together. Join us for brainstorming sessions about our business.
7. Make an extra effort to understand how our business works: sit in on our meetings.
Source: Implementing Value Pricing by R. J. Baker.
Becoming a value-pricer
It requires empathy
You need to have an active interest in other people
Being of service to others
A reward in itself
Gain appreciation of what is valuable to other people
Enriches your own life
Take an honest interest
“How can I be of service to you?”
Click to read “Be interested, not interesting”
Authentic relationship
Practice being present and a good listener
Recognize their humanity
You always deal with other people
Own your challenges
Don’t “outsource” things to your customer just because they’re hard to figure out
Smile curve for IT firmsDetermining value to
solve
Value to customer
Time
Scope development
Implementa!on
Go live
Ongoing support
Source: Implementing Value Pricing by R. J. Baker.
The airliner metaphor
Why will people pay 3x the coach class price only to arrive at exactly the same time?
Solve the right problems
Not all problems are worth solving, especially if margins are slim
Be confident
Believe that you add value and know its worth
Before you can charge a premium price, you first have to believe, internally, that you are
worth it. If you do not think you are worth multiples of your hourly rate, your customers
never will believe it either.
If the customer says your price is too high, what they are really saying is, “I don’t see the
value in your offering.”
It is not a ques!on of money; rather, it is lack of belief.
Most professionals underprice their intellectual capital
• “We do not have enough quality customers.”
• “Customers view what we do as a commodity.”
• “Customers do not understand the value we provide.”
• “Our people do not understand their worth.”
• “When customers engage in hardball negotiation tactics, we capitulate.”
• “Our profession has too much capacity, which drives prices down.”
• “We operate in what economists call “perfect competition,” where no one firm is a price maker; rather, we are all price takers.”
Source: Implementing Value Pricing by R. J. Baker.
Intangible factors✓ Specialist expertise or knowledge
✓ Unique social capital of the firm
✓ Brand and/or reputation of the firm
✓ Specialized proprietary technology not possessed by competitors
✓ Opportunity to achieve a unique result given time, circumstances, and specialized knowledge
✓ Reducing risk to the customer through business model innovations—offering fixed prices, payment terms, service and price guarantees, risk-sharing pricing strategies
✓ Minimizing risk to the customer on the engagement itself
✓ Providing education to the customer
✓ Knowledge elicitation—transferring specialized knowledge to the customer so they can develop their own in the future
✓ Decrease conflict, complaints, time, or effort
✓ Increase morale, image, customer service, or reputation,
✓ Nature of the relationship with the firm, including comfort, convenience, and peace of mind
✓ Developing customer strategy, business model innovation, product or service design, Total Quality Service
Source: Implementing Value Pricing by R. J. Baker.
Explore impacts
What desired outcomes motivate the project as an investment?
Why?
Who?
Who?
How?
How?
How?
How?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
Impact mapping
Time vs value
Why hourly billing is flawed
Hourly billing and flexible scope are often used as insurance against
unforeseen circumstances that are hard to plan for
but
Making the customer pay for you not knowing your job – is that fair?
Expensive insurance
Cost-plus pricing puts a cap on your profits
Salary cost
Pro
fit
Office rent and
perks
Support staff
Customer’s profit
Price
Capturing value
Costs
Price
Value captured
Value created
What you’re missing!
Value-pricing projects
Do the researchUnderstand challenges common to the
customer’s field
Aim to understand
Listen twice as much as you talk
Qualify the customer
Not every customer is worth having
Price buyers are simply looking for the lowest price, with li"le concern for marginal value and low firm loyalty.
Value buyers are willing to pay more for marginal value and tend to be loyal to various brands or firms they perceive as offering more value for the same dollar, but only a$er doing extensive homework on compe!ng offerings.
Convenience buyers are not very loyal but are more willing to pay a higher price for exactly what they want, when they want it.
Rela!onship buyers place a high value on firm brand and are willing to pay for perceived value, as well as incremental value offerings.
Price buyers Value buyers
Convenience buyers
Rela!onship buyers
Value of firmP
rice
sen
siti
vity
Low
Low
High
Hig
h
Source: Implementing Value Pricing by R. J. Baker.
Use the right languageIf you don’t discuss value, you’ll be discussing
costs and it’s a debate the customer always wins
✓ What do you expect from us?
✓ What is your business model? How do you make profit?
✓ What are your company’s critical success factors and Key Predictive Indicators (KPIs)
✓ How will the services we provide add value to your customers?
✓ Which of our firm’s offerings is of the highest value to you?
✓ Who is the next best alternative (competitor) to our firm?
✓ What is your current pain?
✓ How do you see us helping you address these challenges and opportunities?
✓ What growth plans do you have?
✓ If price were not an issue, what role would you want us to play in your business?
✓ How important is our service and price guarantee to you?
✓ How important is rapid response on questions? What do you consider rapid response?
✓ Why are you changing firms? What did you not like about your former firm that you do not want us to repeat?
✓ Do you envision any other changes in your needs?
✓ How do you suggest we best learn about your business so we can relate your operations to the financial information and so we can be more proactive in helping you maximize your business success?
✓ What trade journals do you read? What seminars and trade shows do you regularly attend? Would it be possible for us to attend these with you?
✓ What will the success of this engagement look like?
✓ What is your budget for this type of service?
Source: Implementing Value Pricing by R. J. Baker.
Learn to ask the right questions and be comfortable
not having all the answers.
Design proposals around benefits
Feature - Advantage - Benefit
Feature Facts and characteristics
The drill bit is diamond-tipped
Advantage What it doesIt makes holes in metal
in seconds
Benefit What it will do for the customer
It saves you time
FAB example
Included in the project Makes it possible for you to Which gives you the benefits
!Mobile-friendly (responsive) website that works on computers, tablets and smartphones.
"
Gain increased visibility and likelihood to be found on te web, regardless of whether the user has a computer or smartphone.
"
More visitors can use the website and contact you which creates more business.
This is actual value
Don’t work for customers you don’t like
You need to genuinely care
✓ Amount of annual revenue
✓ Prompt payment history
✓ Potential for growth
✓ Potential for future referrals
✓ Actual referrals
✓ Profitability of customer
✓ Risk of having customer in portfolio
✓ Timing of work (fiscal or calendar year)
✓ Reasonable expectations
✓ Willing to take advice
✓ Profitable and not undercapitalized
✓ In business for at least three years.
✓ Pleasant, outgoing personality.
✓ Technically competent.
✓ Business is not chronically undercapitalized.
✓ Business is not dominated by a small number of customers or suppliers.
✓ Clearly established demand for the product or service.
✓ Business has a scope for product or service differentiation through innovative marketing.
✓ Business has a strategic plan.
Source: Implementing Value Pricing by R. J. Baker.
Price the customer
There’s no such thing as a “standard price”
✓ What is the customer’s cost of not solving this problem in dollars?
✓ What is the economic benefit to the customer if they solve this problem?
✓ How do we help the customer grow their business and be more profitable?
✓ How do we help make their business more valuable?
✓ How do we help the customer achieve their preferred vision of the future?
✓ How do we remove surprises for the customer?
Source: Implementing Value Pricing by R. J. Baker.
• Reserva!on price—a price that will provide a normal profit to the firm relative to the risk it is assuming.
• Hope For price—a price that will return a supernormal profit to the firm relative to the risk it is assuming.
• Pump Fist price—a price that will return a windfall profit to the firm relative to the risk it is assuming.
Source: Implementing Value Pricing by R. J. Baker.
Develop options
Give the customer a choice
Complete Medium Small
Custom design and development of a website ✔ Template-based Template-based
Mobile friendly responsive website that works on smartphones, tablets and computers ✔ ✔ ✔
Visitor analysis and tracking ✔
Front page featuring a flagship product and a strong text pitch ✔ ✔ ✔
- Prepared for photos and content for featuring technology and product benefits ✔ ✔
- Form to signup to receive information as it becomes available ✔
Products page ✔ ✔ ✔
- Prepared for content about the products and product lines ✔ ✔ ✔
Newsfeed/blog page ✔
- Prepared for a list of news and press content ✔
- Form to signup to receive news by email ✔
Press center ✔ ✔ ✔
- Prepared for downloads of photos, logos and press releases ✔ ✔ ✔
Career page ✔ ✔
- Prepared for career opportunities and positions available ✔ ✔
- Application form to send in resume or request more information ✔
Contact page ✔ ✔ ✔
- Prepared for address, phone numbers and contact form ✔ ✔ ✔
Price 75,000 SEK 45,000 SEK 35,000 SEK
Remember, after showing or stating your price, shut up. The
ball is now in the customer’s court.
Handle risk by breaking work down
Work with manageable chunks
Estimate with hourly flexible scope
P1: Document existing system
P4: QAP3:
Write backend
P2: Design and write frontend portion of new system
Scope variance
€100K
Break it down into phases, price each phase
€??? €??? €???
Beware of contingent pricing
Percentages sow dissent
20 %
80 %
€25,000 vs.
Contact us for training, mentoring and consulting services in value-pricing and customer intimacy.
www.leancept.com
Twitter: @leancept
www.leancept.com
Twitter: @leancept
Simply be"er business We help make firms and agencies more valuable,
their customers happier and their teams more effec!ve