Initial Price Assessment

The first step in assembling a price plan is to conduct a pricing assessment. A pricing assessment is a list of questions asking each individual involved in a company’s pricing process what their specific analytical processes are in developing recommendations for their area of price involvement. This assessment provides visibility to the degree of value add process and analysis that currently exists in a company’s procedures for setting a price. For example, in estimating a product’s maximum-value net price (the desired price the company would like the customer to pay), the company would need to understand what a competitor’s similar products are priced at in the marketplace. If the company has a competitive intelligence team, understanding competitive dynamics would fall to this team. Potential questions for the competitive intelligence team might be: Where do you obtain competitive pricing information? What process do you utilize to compare key features of the company’s products versus competitive offerings, and so on.