OC TALK RADIO

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-62eqa-14fc285

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Hamzah Hafesji who is Group Product Manager at Advanced.

Hamzah talks about a talent management product that was started in 2017. (3:23) The challenge he faced was going from a start-up strategy to scaling up and having the right pricing for the packages. They needed to look at the pricing and packaging and they did mystery shop exercises on the competition. (6:26) Using all the information they collected they went to a “Good, Better, Best” model.

Hamzah tells Marcos how they went and did their mystery shopping exercise. (12:27) They used an employee who had given his notice to leave the company. That person went and inquired about pricing, packages, and other companies’ different strategies. They had a lot of data.

They wanted to position themselves as the premier product. (14:41) Hamzah talks about his biggest challenge, which was talking with the sales team about the new pricing. Hamzah felt that with any change initiative, the go-to-market execution is super important. His one takeaway from this is “selling value is not just the price point, you’ve got to think about the entire piece of your value change.” (18:09)

Advanced published their pricing and completely focused on value articulation. (18:55) Hamzah discusses many teams in the company were nervous about publishing their pricing but was a great success.

Hamzah talks about his hopes for the future at Advanced, specifically product-led growth. (22:10)

Marcos and Hamzah close out the show by discussing Hamzah’s favorite song growing up “Can I Kick It?” by A Tribe Called Quest.

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at info@pricingio.com

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-dy3nx-14fc1cf

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Alyssa Higgins, who has been with CipherHealth for almost 10 years and currently works as their Vice President of Operations and Enablement.

Alyssa discusses how pricing at CipherHealth pre-COVID was very US-centric and how they realized things needed to change. (2:47) They wanted to make pricing more flexible to be able to help better serve their customers. The pricing didn’t align with who they wanted to be as a company and wanted to move to a more customer-centric pricing. They noticed there were issues when it took more than two weeks to price a deal. (5:51)

They were offering many types of packages and features, which was making the pricing take a while. (7:35) Alyssa tells Marcos about how they needed to simplify the process and talk to the customers to better understand how to serve them better. Alyssa led the project and partnered with Marcos’ team to change the pricing and went from a program-based model to a usage-based model. (12:05) A pricing committee was started at CipherHealth to keep moving and pricing the right model. (18:44) Marcos and Alyssa talk about how important it is to keep the pricing committee consistent in order to continue the success. (20:55)

Alyssa talks about the hopes for the future of pricing and packaging at CipherHealth and continuing to evolve and incorporate AI. (24:19)

Marcos and Alyssa close out the show by discussing Alyssa’s favorite 90s Hip-Hop song “Mathematics” By Mos Def.

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at info@pricingio.com

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-uk9uc-14fc22b

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Jose Miguel Dergal, who is Head of Product Growth at Canva. Miguel has worked at PayPal, Bill.com, Chime, and Invoice2go.

Miguel discusses his time at Invoice2go, and how he discovered problems with the pricing and features.

(4:33) He wanted to move to the ‘Good, Better, Best’ model. Miguel and Marcos how you can discover if you are giving too much or “too much in the free.”

(10:16) The two major parts to realizing this is:

1. Is it fair for this to be a premium feature?
2. Are people upgrading to another plan?

Miguel tells Marcos about a twist that happened in the pricing model. (14:52) From this surprising twist they created their ‘Pro Plan’ and ‘Unlimited Plan.’

He talks about the recent pricing challenges at Canva. (23:41) They realized they were giving a lot more away for the free version of Canva to get people on board. They wanted to better serve different team sizes in their pricing and have some new and exciting things to come!

Miguel talks about his hopes for the future, specifically usage-based pricing evolving more. (27:21)

Marcos and Miguel close out the show by discussing Miguel’s favorite song today is “Dance Monkey.”  

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at info@pricingio.com

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-gauwg-14f18d2

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Johnny Cheng, Senior Director of Pricing and Packaging from ClickUp.

Johnny talks about his beginnings at Marketo as Head of Pricing and Packaging. (3:10) Johnny took a look into the packaging and rebuilt it to better serve the customers. Selling the right value, to the right customer, in the right way. Johnny discusses how he overcame two major hurdles. (7:15) Those two hurdles were building a market site and changing the model and framework. Creating the right tools for sales was helpful for this. He talks about his proudest moment at Marketo, where he launched the new model at the same time as the old model was still available. (12:00)

Marcos and Johnny talk about the results for the new model launch. (16:12) The custom-made plans helped with conversion rates. Johnny discusses his first interaction with Marcos and how he received a ‘5 out of 5’ assessment. (17:53)

Marcoa and Johnny talk about why Johnny came to ClickUp and how it is the fastest growing PLG company. (19:37) They discuss the “secret sauce” of the company, combining hard feature pay walls with usage pay walls. (23:44) Marcos tells listeners with “taste of toggle” means.

Johnny talks about his hopes for the future of pricing and packaging at ClickUp. (26:38)

Marcos and Johnny close out the show by discussing Johnny’s favorite song growing up “Gangsta’s Paradise” By Coolio or anything from Tupac.  

Street Pricing streams live on OC TALK RADIO, Orange County’s only online business channel, every Friday at 9:00 AM PT and is available for download on all major podcast platforms.

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at info@pricingio.com

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-7pxgq-14ea591

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Srinivas Somayajula, GM of Data at Tropic. Srinivas overseas all the data solutions and wants to bring transparency to SaaS pricing.

Srinivas talks about his time with Calendly, he suggested they look at the pricing around March 2020, and that maybe they were giving away too much value for their current pricing. (2:40) He looked into the data and spoke with customers and decided on two principles that would work for the company; everything has to be as frictionless as possible, and they had to do no harm to the customers. Existing customers needed a packaging and pricing model to migrate to and new customers were coming to Calendly with the pandemic happening. (7:40)

Marcos and Srinivas emphasize how the actual execution of price changes can be a big problem for companies, and how thoughtful planning and tests are key. (8:52) Srinivas wanted to make the product easy to sell, using the website, marketing, and building sales teams to communicate the value to the customers. (10:00) The important questions that companies need to answer are Who are we? What do we stand for? What do we want for the company? Who do we serve? (11:00)

Srinivas listened to the customers by doing multiple rounds of interviews and surveys and also did internal voting with the sales team. (16:15) He thought the internal viewpoint would give signals to understanding but could also give biased opinions as well. Both things partnered together can give a balanced perspective. Srinivas also suggested looking into support requests and using AI to analyze the billing data.

They discuss what Srinivas is hoping for in the future of pricing, hiring a senior pricing manager, and his current position at Tropic. (24:04)

Marcos and Srinivas close out the show by discussing Srinivas’ favorite song growing up was “Momma Said Knock You Out” By LL Cool J and “Money Ain’t a Thing” By Jermaine Dupri and Jay Z.

Street Pricing streams live on OC TALK RADIO, Orange County’s only online business channel, every Friday at 9:00 AM PT and is available for download on all major podcast platforms.

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at info@pricingio.com

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-pxepg-14cedd1

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Emeric Ernoult, CEO and Co-Founder of Chief Operating Officer at Agorapulse. Agorapulse is a social media management media software, launched in 2011.

Emeric talks about his start in pricing and how he realized his pricing was too low and eventually doubled it. (3:20) Marcos and Emeric discuss how when many business owners start out, they tend to discount themselves and end up pricing lower. Your pricing plays a big role in who you attract. (8:25)

“You want to attract the right companies, the right users, the right customers for you, the price you are going to put in there, is going to be telling that story” – Emeric Ernoult

Marcus and Emeric discuss how price increases can also have a negative impact, you need to make informed decisions, and you can’t raise just because. Emeric gives some rules for possible increases. (12:27)

Emeric shares his cautionary tale about changing too many things at the same time. (14:48) Changing one thing at a time will let you focus on what the change is doing, and it will let you revert if it is not working. If you change too many things at once, you won’t know what isn’t working.

Emeric talks about what is working for him right now and what he sees for the future. (16:25) In December 2022, Agorapulse changed their pricing to be based on how many users and the number of social media profiles. Emeric suggests if you include “too much and the kitchen sink” in your plan, go to an entry-level with add-on options and be flexible. Marcos and Emeric talk about pricing the deal. (18:30)

They discuss what Emeric is hoping for in the future of pricing. (22:33)

Marcos and Emeric close out the show by discussing Emeric’s favorite DJs: Cirez D and Boris Brejcha.

Street Pricing streams live on OC TALK RADIO, Orange County’s only online business channel, every Friday at 10:00 AM PT and is available for download on all major podcast platforms.

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at info@pricingio.com

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-krb8k-14ce9d2

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Arnab Mishra, Chief Operating Officer at Xactly. Arnab is a seasoned cloud software executive with an extensive history of leading and collaborating with all departments to drive corporate strategy and execution.

Marcos and Arnab discuss Arnab’s beginnings in pricing. (3:40) Arnab talks about a study that he came across that said, “A 1% improvement in pricing, can deliver a 12% improvement in operating profit.”

Arnab gives his three core principles and objectives that he adheres to: (7:35)

1. The goal of pricing is to reduce the friction between the customer and our sellers.
2. Make sure that you are thoughtfully monetizing the features and products that we are delivering.
3. Recognizing that pricing is not a one-and-done activity, it is a continuous activity.

They talk about how important good “Win-Loss Data” and “Opportunity Data” is for SaaS companies and how Arnab was able to convince companies to give the green light on pricing. (12:23) Marcos and Arnab ‘get street’ with the one-size-fits-none approach that a lot of companies have. (18:00) Customer needs can change over time, so pricing and packaging will also need to change to accommodate new features. Arnab uses a ‘Good, Better and Best’ packaging approach.

With the correct systems implemented, Arnab saw a 50% increase in unit pricing, a 20% decrease in discounting, and win rates increased. (23:35) He talks about his internal working group, ‘Pricing Counsel.’ (25:32) This group meets twice a quarter to review all the data that has been collected and talk about certain things they are thinking about implementing, this has created a great forum to discuss.  Arnab talks about ROI-based selling, where companies are super focused on efficiency. (27:02) He also relays his hopes for the future of pricing. (28:40)

Marcos and Arnab close out the show by discussing Arnab’s favorite hip-hop artists: Tribe Called Quest and Eminem.

Street Pricing streams live on OC TALK RADIO, Orange County’s only online business channel, every Friday at 10:00 AM PT and is available for download on all major podcast platforms.

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at info@pricingio.com