Pricing I/O

Director of Pricing Analytics

Jenny Craig

Director of Pricing Strategy

Illumina

Staff Pricing Manager

Senior Pricing Analyst

Dexcom

Senior Commercial Pricing Analyst

American Airlines

Corporate Pricing Strategy Team Lead

Premium Pricing Team Lead Revenue Management 

Pricing Analyst Revenue Management

Hot Take: Outcome-based pricing isn't the holy grail...

I've been pressure-testing outcome-based pricing lately, and I'm not sold. Take AI in customer support: if you charge on "cases resolved," the better you get, the fewer cases there are....hello, shrinking snowball. The job to be done isn't "resolve a ticket," it's "deliver great service," which includes prevention, CSAT, and revenue knock-ons that a single outcome metric doesn't capture. 

In most situations, I'd rather see a hybrid: a platform/coverage fee (think "insurance for the customer base") plus a smart scalar based on outcome or usage, with clear rules for reopens/escalations. That keeps incentives aligned without creating decaying revenue or surprise invoices. 

Outcome-based can work, but for the majority, multi-axis hybrids are the smoother path forward. 

I'd love to hear what the pricing community has to say. Am I totally off-base?

Emily Sanz

Experienced Pricing leader in B2B and B2C industries

I always share with clients during the sales process that this is what makes us special. My favorite part of my week is the Monday meeting to hear what the strategists have come up with and poke holes in my own thinking.

CEO of Pricing I/O • Award-Winning Author • Sought after Slayer of Bad Pricing

Here's what I've learned after 400+ client engagements:
The best pricing strategies aren't created in isolation.

Every week, my team roasts each other's pricing strategies, and it's the best thing we do.
Here's how it works ↓

One of our pricing strategists, Peter, Emily, or someone else on the delivery team, presents a pricing recommendation for a client they're working with.

Then the rest of the team tears it apart.

"Why did you choose that value metric?"
"Have you pressure-tested this with their sales team?"
"What happens to expansion revenue if we do this?"
"I disagree with this segmentation approach, here's why."

It's not personal. It's rigorous.

And honestly? 
Some of our best content comes from these debates.

Because when smart people disagree about pricing strategy, that's where the real insights live.

Last week, Peter and I had a 20-minute debate about whether a client should move to usage-based pricing or stick with tiered seats. We didn't see eye to eye at first.

But by the end of the call, we'd pressure-tested both approaches, modeled the revenue impact, and landed on a hybrid model that neither of us had considered at the start.

That's the point.

At Pricing I/O, we don't have "the answer." 
We have a process for finding the right answer for each client.

And that process requires debate. Disagreement. Intellectual honesty.

They're created when you put smart people in a room (or on a Zoom) and force them to defend their thinking.

When you ask hard questions
When you challenge assumptions
When you're willing to be wrong

That's how you avoid the "drop decks and disappear" trap that most consultants fall into.

Because if we can't defend a pricing strategy to our own team, how can we expect a client to defend it to their board?

So yeah, we roast each other every week.

And our clients are better for it.

Do you have a process for pressure-testing big decisions in your business? 
Or are you making them in isolation?

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