Value-based pricing is widely recognized as the most effective way to price a differentiated offer and is currently the reigning champion for B2B pricing. Why do so many companies struggle to implement value-based pricing/ There are many reasons, ranging from a lack of understanding of the basic concept to a struggle to communicate their value differentiation. But one of the underlying causes, one that we seldom talk about, is a lack of trust. Trust is the foundation of value-based pricing.

The shift to subscription pricing and SaaS business models has opened new financing models. One company leading this transformation is Timia Capital. We interview Mike Walkinshaw on the foundations of this approach and how Timia’s portfolio is performing under the Covid 19 pandemic.

Ibbaka is sharing a comprehensive set of value-based pricing decision guides and tools that you can use in your product and services management, marketing and sales and customer success work. Build your business on the value you deliver to your customers (V2C or Value to Customer). Let us know what pricing decisions you need to make and what tools will be of most value to you.

Customer success has emerged as the foundational discipline in the subscription economy. Delivering on its promise requires significant investments, and management teams sometimes struggle to understand and justify these investments. On the other hand, customers can balk at being asked to pay to achieve what has been promised to them. Here is a guide to how you should think through pricing customer success.

The economy will emerge from the pandemic at different times and speeds depending on sector and geography. This will be a tactical challenge for most pricing experts and it will be easy to make mistakes and get your timing wrong. A solution is indexed pricing. Demonstrate that you understand your customer’s business by usinng indexed pricing.

In The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing Sixth Edition, Tom Nagle and Georg Muller say “One of the major differences between tactical and strategic pricing is that tactical pricing assumes that price sensitivity is a constant.” Covid 19 has proven this assumption dramatically wrong. We all need to think strategically about pricing. Connecting pricing to scenario planning is critical to this. This is how you will find the leverage needed to shape willingness to pay.

Many companies provide learning resources to support the adoption of their technologies. Visionary companies and those engaged in category creation go beyond this to help people develop domain level expertise. Large, mature companies often support certificates and credentials. What does value-based pricing have to say about pricing strategies for learning resources?

Ibbaka spoke with pricing expert Mark Stiving about how he developed his expertise in pricing, what could be done to improve pricing education at business schools and the value capture gap. In Mark’s experience, the value capture gap is one of the most effective frames for engaging company leaders in a conversation on pricing.

In the enterprise cloud world, integrations are central to value creation and differentiation. How does one go about pricing these integrations? How should vendors see the emergence of platforms that can integrate many different applications. Value-based pricing shows us how to proceed.

Many companies are adding predictive analytics capabilities to their offers. We all want to know more about the future, there is more and more data available and deep learning style AIs have been described as prediction machines. How should this new functionality be priced? There is no one answer, but by following the basic value based pricing process one can get to an answer.

In a time of uncertainty one of the most powerful tools we have is scenario planning. This approach has been underutilized in pricing, but its power is now becoming apparent. There are three key ways to use pricing scenarios. Each of these is explored here.

Why Use Value-based pricing? Pricing can be extremely complex to many as it is a nuanced art but also a strange science. There are many different pricing models and strategies to choose from. It's hard to know where to even start. If your product has differentiated offers and you want the most flexible model that can support different pricing strategies, value-based pricing is for you. Pricing models might seem complicated but here we break down the structure to show the basics of value-based pricing.

Understanding your customers is critical for value-based pricing. Adam Lorant and Doug Lyons have a long and hugely successful track record in starting and coaching high growth companies. They are now taking those insights and putting them into the customer canvas. In this interview we learn about the customer canvas and explore its connections to pricing.

Willingness to Pay (WTP) is one of the most popular ideas in pricing. Many software packages or consultants will tell you that they can calculate your customer’s willingness to pay and use that to set prices. What happens when willingness to pay collides with ability to pay? Or when there is compelling community need that transcends either.

Ibbaka made the Ready to Rocket List for 2020. This list is in its its 18th year and celebrates the British Columbia’s high growth technology companies, those that are most likely to succeed. In this post we share Rocket Builders insights from the launch event.

Ibbaka has an ongoing research program in market segmentation, customer targeting and pricing. This connects to our other research in talent, competency and skill management. Market research is outside in. Skill research is inside out. This report is on pricing actions and pricing action portfolios.

Value drivers are generally stable over time. Once you understand them and have used them to segment your market you have a solid foundation for your pricing strategy. But when there is a severe supply or demand shock, and we currently have both, that can change. There are some standard patterns for how value drivers change. Understanding these is critical to planning your response to the COVID 19 crisis.

“Everyone has a plan until they are punched in the face.” Mike Tyson famously said. Many of us feel like we have been punched in the face and are scrambling to respond and not react, adjusting our pricing, applying discounts and changing terms of trade on the fly. Willingness to pay has been replaced by ability to pay or even interest in paying. Let’s share how each of us are responding.

Different scenarios offer insight into optimizing pricing for various conditions, including commodity markets, loyalty-driven demand shifts, & extreme demand scenarios. Segment customers based on market dynamics to adapt pricing strategies effectively.

Scenario planning is a powerful tool for managing uncertainty. It is a powerful way to frame pricing strategy and to prepare a portfolio of pricing actions. Planning is important to pricing agility.