HOW TO MASTER THE 1001 FACETS OF A PRICE?

In terms of results, raising prices is often more effective than trying to cut costs or increase sales. The question of setting the best price for a product or service therefore becomes crucial for companies.

What pricing process should be put in place? How to best respond to the different challenges of the Sales, Marketing and Finance Departments?

Pricing and its components are becoming increasingly complex. Why is this?

1/ The challenges to which pricing policy must respond are sometimes contradictory:

  • Profitability objective with the attainment of a target margin or increase in market share by increasing sales volume,
  • Attractiveness to the customer, i.e. defining what price the customer is prepared to pay, what are the attractive offers and the positioning of the price in relation to the competition,
  • Challenge the sales staff with a remuneration package aligned with the sales strategy,
  • Optimisation of the supply chain through, for example, the disposal of stocks,
  • Compliance with regulations in certain sectors, for example with price ceilings.
  • 2/ The number of offers is increasing. They are volatile in time in many sectors (to be reactive to the market, to be visible) or stable in others. They also tend to be personalised to the customer (welcome offer, loyalty offer, etc.)

3/ There are many players involved in the price setting process, at a local or Group level: Marketing, Sales, Management Control, Finance and possibly Compliance for regulated markets.

4/ In the era of Big Data, the volume and type of data available for analysis is increasing, giving rise to pricing simulation sets: cross-functional internal company data (financial, commercial, logistics, etc.), partner data (sell-out / depletions), market data (competitors, prospects, etc.), product or customer data (structural or behavioural information on customers).

What are the best practices?

Il devient donc indispensable de : 

  • définir clairement un processus de princing et un workflow de validation par les différentes parties prenantes,  
  • d’établir des critères et règles de fixation des tarifs explicites, 
  • et de pouvoir les outiller par une solution performante s’assurant que le prix et ses composantes associées soit établis au plus juste.  

Evitons ainsi les écueils d’un pilotage par les prix facturés au lieu des prix nets encaissés, supprimons les allers-retours incessants entre acteurs, cessons l’octroi de remises injustifiées. GAGNONS en réactivité et en efficacité. Travaillons ENSEMBLE.