3 Strategic challenges pricing consultants can help with
Pricing strategy isn’t just about setting a number—it’s a powerful lever for growth. Yet many companies overlook its role in tackling some of their biggest business challenges. That’s where pricing consultants come in.
Whether you’re launching a new product, refining your market position, or rethinking your pricing model, working with a pricing consultant can help you make smarter, more profitable decisions. Let’s dive in.
1. Pricing consultants can bring vital insight to New Product Development (NPD)
As any pricing consultant will tell you, NPD should always go hand in hand with pricing. Why? When you’re building any new product or service it’s critical to understand what you can charge for it before you spend a fortune on research and development. That way you’ll know what customers will pay, and can design and launch accordingly.
Example
For one client, an online healthcare provider, our pricing research played a crucial role in shaping their product positioning strategy.
First, we uncovered that their existing offering was perceived as a low-budget option. The new product research revealed an opportunity to introduce their new products as a premium alternative—one that customers would be willing to pay more for.
With this insight, we developed a strategy to position the new products at a higher price point while simultaneously strengthening the brand’s overall market perception. By identifying which products resonated most with key customer segments, the client was also able to prioritise the right launches, ensuring maximum impact and profitability.
Learning
Design and validate your pricing strategy early. By shaping your product with a deep understanding of what customers are willing to pay for, you safeguard profitability and ensure there’s enough headroom to see a strong return on investment. See how a pricing consultant can help you design your product around the price.
2. Pricing consultants can guide you to strengthen your market position
Do you truly understand your market position? Do you know which competitors your customers compare you to—and why? Are you confident in how your pricing reflects your brand’s value? Without this information, you could make a costly mistake. That’s where pricing consultants come in.
While internal marketing teams typically lead market research and brand positioning, they often overlook a critical element—pricing. A pricing consultant brings a unique perspective, combining market insights with data on willingness to pay and perceived value. This deeper understanding reveals your true competitive position, helping you make strategic pricing decisions that strengthen both profitability and brand perception.
Example
We started working with a leading high-performance sports brand known globally for its innovative and specialist products. However, a pattern of heavy and complex discounting had started to undermine their brand position. So, how could a pricing consultant help win back their premium position in the eyes of consumers? We used a combination of tools.
Firstly, by analysing their product portfolio through the lens of gross margin, the client was able to enhance visibility on high-margin products, optimise pricing for underperforming items, and reassess the low-margin selections.
Further analysis of their existing data enabled us to refine product segmentation, allowing for a more strategic approach to pricing. This led to targeted pricing adjustments to improve the performance of high-visibility, low-conversion products, while promotions were used to clear stock and reassess low-visibility, low-conversion items.
In addition, competitive benchmarking enabled us to identify the right market position and align on what competitors to focus on, giving the team the confidence to make pricing decisions that balance profitability with brand positioning.
We helped our client break the pattern and reevaluate what heavy discounting says about their brand. Most importantly, as expert pricing consultants, we worked with them to build a pricing strategy that would reassert their position at the top of the performance sports market long term.
Learning
It’s important to be aware of what your pricing decisions say about your brand and its position in the market. If your prices don’t reflect that position – often by failing to increase prices regularly or by over-discounting – it’s easy to lose credibility with customers. Do the research to understand how your product ranges stack up, what place you hold in peoples’ minds and how you compare to the competition. As your pricing consultant will tell you, it never pays to make assumptions.
3. Thinking about changing your pricing model? Ask a pricing consultant for help.
The decision to shift pricing models—whether from one-off purchases to subscriptions or another structure entirely—is a significant challenge. While a new model might seem like a great idea on paper, making the transition successfully requires careful planning, as one of our clients recently discovered. This is especially true when changing models with the intent of chasing the ever-elusive Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). Customers must clearly see the enduring value in your offering to commit to an ongoing cost.
Example
With a digital platform used by the top Fortune 100 companies, shifting to a subscription model seemed like the right move to build sustainable revenue and drive ongoing engagement. However, making that transition successfully required more than just a pricing change—it needed a deep understanding of customer behaviour and perceived value.
As experienced pricing consultants for SaaS businesses, we anticipated potential challenges and guided the project forward. A key priority was engaging customers early in the process. Through one-to-one conversations, we gathered the insights needed to answer two critical questions:
- Are we ready for a new pricing model
- What will it take to launch?
After listening to customers, we learned the product didn’t yet align with the pricing model the client hoped to launch. While their customers loved the ability to purchase access to the platform on-demand, the perceived value of the product wasn’t high enough to keep the same set of users coming back on predictable a monthly basis. Instead, we worked together with the client to create a roadmap from which to build their readiness to launch a new model in the future. Discover more about establishing a SaaS model in our recent article.
Learning
Sometimes big strategic questions need an objective third party to help with the tough conversations that can be easily ignored.
A pricing consultant provides that perspective, helping internal teams step back and see the bigger picture. They also play a crucial role in uncovering honest customer insights that can drive smarter decisions. Set aside internal biases, ask for the help of a pricing consultant, and your future business will thank you for it.
Big strategic questions? Call in the pricing consultants.
From breaking into new markets to pricing your company for exit, there are many other strategic business challenges that call for the help of a pricing consultant. If you’re facing a business challenge but aren’t sure if pricing is the answer, we’re always happy to chat.
Try our 90-minute Springboard to help see your challenge through a pricing lens. We’ll be able to give you our expert insight into what you should do next, why and how…
