Shaker Pricing Strategy Group
Capture the maximum value with transformative pricing strategy and tactics
Apply real-world experience to deliver real profit improvement
Build an industry price change strategy
Use fact-based cost, supply and demand data and competitive intelligence to create your price change strategy.
We’ll build tools so you can determine when to take action, what actions to take, and in what markets and regions of the world.
Uncover price increase opportunities
Get a clear understanding of price and margin attainment for various customer/product segments. Identify high discount/low price customers for price adjustments.
Tie Sales compensation plans to price attainment.
Establish market-relevant pricing
You’ll fully understand the value of your new products or services and how they stack up against competitors.
You’ll identify your customers’ value drivers through marketplace and competitor analysis.
Access fractional pricing leadership
Tap into pricing subject matter expertise when you need it.
From discussion facilitation to team building, we’ll help you work through your pricing challenges, big or small.
Services
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We develop a roadmap of where you should take your pricing organization—which includes a prioritized list of opportunities, actions and project plans.
We’ll get there by benchmarking your pricing processes and organization in terms of pricing maturity and in a framework from “firefighting” to “world class”
We’ll conduct In-depth interviews with all relevant pricing stakeholders, from analysts to executives, to get a full understanding of your pricing practice
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Design and implement pricing analytics that give you the power to improve your top and bottom line performance, with a fast payback
Identify the opportunities to raise prices—stop leaving money on the table
Use fact-based cost, supply and demand data and competitive intelligence to create your price change strategy
Build tools so you can determine when to take action, what actions to take, and in what markets and regions of the world
Identify customer pocket share leakage and create a plan to bring customers back in line
Identify organic areas for growth with existing customers
Measure average selling price to monitor price erosion, by products, customers and sales reps
Create price, volume and mix analytics to see what is impacting your sales
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Create new product and service pricing that is market-relevant
Understand and document market size, competitors and opportunity
Conduct conjoint analysis to quantify the value customers assign to each of your offering’s features and benefits
Understand competitor offerings and market position (value ma)ping)
Calculate economic value to customers vis a vis competitors
Understand next best competitive alternatives and any barriers to entry
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Define and launch promotional programs that motivate both sales reps and customers
Growth rebates
Share shift incentives
Targeted product sales incentives
New product adoption incentives
Rewards programs
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Tap into pricing subject matter expertise when you need it
From discussion facilitation to team building, we’ll help you work through your pricing issues
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Build a world-class pricing team with the knowledge and skills you need to maximize effectiveness
We help you determine the pricing organizational structure that will be most effective for your business
We identify the particular experience, knowledge and skills that are necessary to succeed
We can help in the recruiting process to ensure candidates are meeting the desired requirements
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We ensure successful design and implementation of pricing software
For pricing optimization applications, we work with you to develop software requirements to ensure all essential elements are included in your system design
Once you’ve made a decision on a third party pricing software provider, we can facilitate the arrangement, working as a liaison between your business and the SaaS organization from concept to implementation
Results
$5M profit improvement through Market Segmentation Pricing
At a large industrial distributor, I created and implemented a market segmentation pricing strategy that enabled a significant increase in margins while having a minimal “shock value” on the sales force and existing customers.
Using twelve months of transactional sales data, I created and implemented a market segmentation pricing strategy for the company’s top 26 industries. Analytics from the data allowed me to create market/customer/product clusters, and price elasticity models, which then allowed me to make meaningful price changes based on real analytics, not anecdotal evidence.
I modeled the new pricing for customers in each sales region, and worked closely with product and market managers to review and validate the potential changes. I also allowed sales teams two months to review the potential changes, challenge the changes, and plan for implementation. Once approved by Sales, every existing customer was then assigned to the appropriate pricing schedule in the system. As part of the change management process, I provided extensive education to both inside and outside sales associates on why the changes were necessary and how they were derived. The implementation went very smoothly. Feedback received was that the changes were well accepted by customers and that the new pricing structure made it easy to price customers. The result was a much more structured pricing environment, creating an annual profit improvement of $5M.
Get sales on board with price changes
Arm your sales team with an effective price change message—based on data. Using information driven by tools that track major cost driver trends, such as changes in raw materials, labor and freight allows for proactive price increase planning that makes sense. In addition, evaluating the health of key customer markets and economic health in various geographic regions allows for an effective gauge on where price increases will be most accepted. Use these to get your sales team on board.
Pricing adjustments that won back market share
Increased share by $50M
At a large industrial manufacturer I used survey techniques, combined with price point research to understand the position of major products versus competitor’s products on the price/benefit curve called a Value Map. This enabled us to adjust product line pricing to ensure they were getting the optimal balance of share and profitability.
With one product line in particular, the company had lost significant market share. Competitors’ products were meeting minimum quality requirements but were priced significantly lower, causing customers to migrate away. When surveyed, customers said they preferred the company’s quality and service but just couldn’t justify the price difference, especially in their competitive environment. Research verified that competitors were priced significantly below the company, putting them in a value disadvantaged position.
The course was clear—pricing needed to be reduced to get back into alignment on the price/benefit curve. However, instead of an across the board price reduction, I recommended a targeted approach. Working closely with the product manager and sales leaders, we segmented products into three groups—from highly elastic to highly inelastic, lowering the price of the elastic SKUs and raising the price of the inelastic SKUs. In addition, I created and implemented a customer loyalty rebate program, rewarding customers that switched back. The result was a significant increase in market share, while discounting only a fraction of the product line, resulting in a $50M increase in share, with a corresponding profit dollar increase of over $20M.
Increased sales $100M+ with pricing and marketing programs
At an industrial manufacturer, I discovered the company was missing out on most large OEM opportunities and most construction projects because customers were clustered around a much lower part of the price/benefit curve. I was able to develop and implement several pricing programs to give the distributor sales channel the ability to compete in those markets, helping drive increased annual sales of over $100M.
Our Leadership
Shaker Pricing Strategy Group was founded by Jeff Boecker, a seasoned pricing and business professional with over 25 years of experience driving profitable growth through pricing improvement in high tech and industrial manufacturing, industrial distribution, healthcare markets, and as a consultant with price optimization company Zilliant.
Finding creative ways to solve growth and profitability issues has been the hallmark of Jeff’s career. His collaborative approach to understanding business issues and uncovering opportunities has driven significant growth and profit improvement for large public companies, smaller private companies, and global organizations. Major achievements include the following:
Drove over $450M in top line sales growth by developing and implementing Strategic Pricing Programs designed to:
· Retain and grow existing business
· Convert competitive accounts
· Capture business in new markets
Generated over $325M in estimated price improvement by:
· Broad industry price increases using fact-based cost, supply and demand data and competitive intelligence.
· Building effective price increase communications to both sales and customers.
· Targeted price increases specific to under-performing customers strategically by product line and region.
Managed the impact of price changes by working closely with all stakeholders, creating a unified company-wide approach.
Drove thought leadership for executive teams on strategic issues including OEM pricing programs, sales channel compensation strategies, branding strategies and capacity utilization strategies.
Built multiple company pricing practices, creating structure to maximize performance through product pricing expertise, data analytics and price change execution.
Jeff holds a BSBA in Economics and Finance from The Ohio State University and resides in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio. Jeff and his wife are also avid cyclists.