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Pricing College Podcast

Pricing College Podcast

Di: Joanna Wells and Aidan Campbell
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 Get a free education when you attend Pricing College. Learn everything about pricing, value management, revenue management and how to build a pricing career. Join Joanna Wells and Aidan Campbell for entertaining and informative discussion every week.Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Economia Marketing Marketing e vendite
Episodi
  • Episode #0123 - Why Your Pricing Isn't Working — And It's Not Just Because of Your Sales or Pricing Teams

    Episode #0123 - Why Your Pricing Isn't Working — And It's Not Just Because of Your Sales or Pricing Teams
    Apr 24 2026
    Times-stamp Notes: [00:00] Introduction to developing pricing strategies [00:32] Developing pricing strategies amid rising complexity and cost pressures [01:34] Challenges in developing pricing strategies within current systems [03:57] Structural issues in developing pricing strategies [05:48] Example of misalignment when developing pricing strategies [08:47] Improving and developing pricing strategies through better design [10:18] Conclusion: Key takeaways on developing pricing strategies 00:00 Been a big week in Australia and in the world. Pricing is back in the spotlight. And in the news we're reading that major retailers are under scrutiny again for how they're applying discounts. The ACCC are questioning retailers for price transparency. And at the same time, many businesses are dealing with rising input costs driven by fuel, supply chain pressure and global instability fundamentally created by the war we find ourselves in. 00:32 Now, what this highlights to me is something deeper. Pricing is becoming harder and more complex, not easier, unfortunately. And that's not just a consumer issue. I'm seeing this same thing across B2B and trade businesses: inconsistent pricing, heavy discounting, growing pressure to justify decisions. And yet more reliance on short-term fixes. Things like surcharges and minimum order thresholds and now the new trend, just to recover costs. 01:13 Unfortunately, though, many are dropping strategic pricing in favour of these short-term fixes because they feel this will recover margin quicker, better, faster, etc. Which really does beg the question: Is your pricing system actually working for you or against you? 01:34 Hello and welcome to Pricing College podcast. My name is Joanna Wells and I'm the founder and director of Taylor Wells Advisory. And we help businesses improve margin through better pricing strategy. Now, this episode is going to be part of a series on pricing transformation. And the reason being is because many Australian B2B and trade businesses right now are under pressure. 02:04 Pricing just isn't under control and it's at a turning point. We've got legacy models that are struggling to keep up with cost changes, commercial teams who are relying more and more on exceptions to get deals done. And leaders who are asking for more control, more margin and more consistency and often at the same time and teams that can't deliver that. And that creates a huge disconnect. The pricing system says one thing but the business and the team and the culture behaves quite differently. So this series is about unpacking that gap. Not just what's going wrong but what's actually needs to change to make this better for everyone. 02:53 And we'll start with a common assumption: Is pricing isn't working, it must be because of the sales team or the pricing team. The default response is usually: "Let's tighten up the rules and then we'll see things improve quickly." More controls, more approvals, stricter compliance. But if your pricing only works when everyone behaves perfectly, is it really a strong model? 03:57 I see this all the time. A business will request and then roll out a new and improved pricing structure. It's got more refined segmentation, tighter discount bands to ensure margin recovery, clearer rules for the teams to follow. Everything's really well documented. And for a few months it looks really, really good. But then things start slowing down, momentum sort of dies out, bit underwhelming. Exceptions start to creep back in, sales teams start pushing the boundaries again and the system gets worked around yet again and you see increasing pricing records and configurations and complexity. New complexity starts to build upon old. Not because sales and pricing teams are trying to be difficult, no, not at all. It's because the model that they're working with doesn't actually reflect how the business actually sells and customers actually buy from you. This is the key shift. A lot of pricing problems are not merely execution issues. They're actually design structural issues. 04:45 Now, I just want to be clear about this: Sometimes, capability, team structure, organisational design and talent are a part of the issue. They are. And I'll look, I'll come back to that in the next episode. But in many cases, the bigger problem sits in the model itself. 05:09 At this point, it's usually the poor old sales team that gets the blame. "Oh, they're discounting too much, they don't follow process, they're going back to what they know, they're not following the rules. They're leaving margin on the table. They shouldn't have given away that deal at that price. They don't know how to sell on value." But take a look closer. Sales aren't ignoring pricing or the pricing system that you're trying to create, and you've spent a lot of money on. They're trying to make it work. 05:48 Let me give you an example. Okay, so there was this B2B business that I worked for. It was a B2B industrial ...
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    12 min
  • Episode #0122 - Cost Pass Through in Volatile Markets: What CEOs Need to Do Now

    Episode #0122 - Cost Pass Through in Volatile Markets: What CEOs Need to Do Now
    Mar 26 2026
    TIME-STAMP NOTES: [00:00] Introduction: CEOs Under Cost Pass Through Pressure [01:44] Cost Pass Through in Highly Volatile Markets [04:04] Cost Pass Through Must Be Disciplined, Not Reactive [08:20] Cost Pass Through Without Losing Customers [10:48] Conclusion: Pricing Is a Team Effort [00:00] Across Australia this week, fuel prices have jumped up sharply again. In Sydney and Melbourne, for instance, we've seen increases of 30 to 50 cents per litre in just a few days. And outside the capitals, the gap is even wider. In regional areas, for instance, prices are like two to six cents higher on average, and in some remote locations, 30 to 50 cents more again. [00:30] And it's not just price; we're now seeing supply disruption on a huge scale. Shipments are delayed; stations are running low in some areas. I drove past a station in the metro area; it was closed, pumps empty. This isn't a normal price cycle; it's a supply shock. And for many businesses in Australia, this isn't just a headline story; it's a real cost that's hitting the P&L immediately. But most companies are still pricing like the market is stable. Many are just still debating whether they should do something about this additional cost. And that gap, that gap right there, is where margin is being lost. [01:21] Hello and welcome. I'm Joanna Wells, founder of Taylor Wells Advisory, and we focus on helping organisations improve margin through better pricing strategy. Now, in today's session, this isn't going to be about long-term strategy. No, it's going to be about what CEOs need to do this week. [01:44] Now, today, we've learned that Iran has refused the 15-point ceasefire plan from the US. This has created even more instability in the global stock markets, and we're seeing global disruption flowing directly across the world, and that's impacting Australian businesses as well. Now the conflict in the Middle East has disrupted key shipping routes, including the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a significant portion of the world's fuel. And that's flowing through quickly; fuel prices are rising, shipments are being delayed or redirected, and Australia is particularly exposed. We import most of our refined fuel, and many businesses are being bought in US dollars and euros. So even when nothing changes operationally, costs still move on, and they're not moving gradually; they're moving in steps, and faster than most pricing processes can respond. [02:46] But here's what's really interesting: most leadership teams in Australia are still asking the same question: "What price increase should we take?" But is that the right question to ask in this environment? I think it's the wrong question. The real issue here isn't the price increase itself; it's how that decision is being made. In many businesses, cost structures aren't current, FX isn't fully reflected in cost structures, commodities aren't tracked closely or even at all, and decisions are based on fundamentally internal costs and historical data. In some cases, cost inputs are seven to nine months old before a business takes an increase. But as we already know, in that time, costs have already moved on, especially today. So what happens? The increase is set too low, and it's implemented way too late. So even when prices go up, margin doesn't recover. [04:04] I'm seeing that right now in the waste industry. One of our clients operates a high-capex business: large fleet, high fuel exposure, and tight margins. As fuel prices have moved recently, their costs have shifted almost day by day, and their pricing really wasn't set up to move that way. It was set up for more stable markets. So what's happening now? They're absorbing more of that cost increase. At first, it didn't seem to be a big issue; it looked manageable. People thought, "Oh well, you know, the crisis will end, things will change, there will be peace." But that's not happening. So what's happening financially? Costs are compounding, margin's declining, and now at an accelerated rate. And the issue really isn't margin anymore; it's become a question of sustainability. And this is the shift most companies haven't made. They are still pricing on a schedule. They still think they are in a stable market. They are not. There are annual reviews, annual reviews! When costs are increasing this quickly: Planned increases, long lead times, but costs are no longer moving on a schedule like this. They're moving continuously, day by day. And most B2B businesses still adjust pricing annually, or now I'm hearing maybe we'll do it twice a year, as if that's a big breakthrough. Well, let's think about this: your costs are moving monthly, weekly, and I've just explained daily when it comes to fuel. So there's a gap; costs are moving quickly, prices are moving slowly, and that gap is where your margin is fundamentally disappearing. [05:58] So here's the question for leaders: Are you setting prices based on how the market used to move or how it's moving ...
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    11 min
  • Episode #0121 - Margin Management: Why Revenue Growth Isn't Enough

    Episode #0121 - Margin Management: Why Revenue Growth Isn't Enough
    Mar 20 2026
    TIME-STAMPED NOTES: [00:00] Intro: Why Margin Management Is Harder Than Revenue Growth [02:22] Why Pricing Strategy Fails Without a Margin Management System [06:16] When Pricing Strategy Breaks Down: Rebates, Costs, and Margin Protection Risks [11:44] Margin Management in Action: Building a Strong Pricing and Margin System [14:39] Conclusion: Margin Protection Requires Discipline, Not Just Growth Running a business is not easy. Growing revenue, making money is really, really difficult. Winning new customers takes a lot of time, often lots of stakeholders involved. Sales cycles are getting longer, competition is heating up. So when companies grow revenue, I know that's a real achievement, but there's another challenge that often gets much less attention and that's margin. Because if revenue is hard to make, margin is even harder to protect. Hello and welcome. I'm Joanna Wells, founder of Taylor Wells Advisory, and we focus on improving margin through better pricing strategy. Now in this podcast, I just want to share some of my experiences and some practical insights on pricing margin and commercial strategy for CEOs, executive teams, and pricing teams. And today I want to talk about something very simple, but very important, how revenue is difficult to make, but margin much harder to protect. In Australia, businesses are dealing with ongoing change and disruption. Almost daily wars are affecting energy and commodity markets. Supply chains have been unstable, not just for a year or so, but for several years, and input costs remain unpredictable. At the same time, many Australian businesses are buying products in the US dollar or Euros. FX changes are, are becoming a real headache for businesses, and that just creates another layer of pressure and complexity. When the Australian dollar weakens those same products suddenly cost much, much more, even if nothing has changed with the supplier. Costs can still move quickly and often without much warning. And at the same time, what else do we have? Interest rates have just risen the other day. Customers are under pressure. Small businesses, large businesses, you name it, families, consumers, all under pressure and demand in some sectors is becoming less uncertain by the day. Why Pricing Strategy Fails Without a Margin Management System [02:22] So while revenue remains important. Margin here has become far more exposed than ever before, and this is where the pricing and margin system becomes critical. Actually, coming to think of it, there's something really quite interesting and strange about margin. Most leaders and teams believe they are managing it, but in reality, when you really look at your business. Are you really managing margin or are you actually only managing parts of it? Sales manage discounts, finance, manage costs, operation managers, fic efficiencies, marketing, focus on growth. Very few businesses actually step back and manage the entire end-to-end pricing and margin system together. And that system is what I call the pricing and margin system. Now, every business has one. Even if you don't think you have, you have one. And even if it wasn't designed deliberately, it's the set of decisions that determine how much profit your business is going to keep. For example, how prices are set, how discounts are managed, how rebates are used, how costs increase are handled during costs, pass through processes, and which customers the business focuses on and why. A few years ago I met a business owner. He owned a B2B manufacturing business. Anyway, we were talking and we got onto the subject of pricing, and he strongly believed that his business's pricing was really strong, that they defined, you know, value, they understood their customer's perceptions of value, that they knew that they thought their list prices were highly competitive. Et cetera, et cetera. And anyway, that he was going on to tell me that, um, they regularly introduced price increases and if we could come in and just have a, a look at the, the detail to ensure things were, you know, running as smoothly as, as he thought that would be great. So we did, we took on that invitation, um, and we analyzed their invoices. And what we found was that the customer's prices were actually much, much lower than the belief in the business. That, that, that actually, that he had, um, what we had to reveal to him and somewhat awkward discussions was that his sales force. We're fundamentally creating hundreds, if not thousands, of different pricing arrangements through small negotiations, what we call in the pricing world as price exceptions. And that essentially discounts we're building up over time outside of the official. Discount matrix in in the the ERP and that ultimately different customers were on different arrangements. They weren't on a neat listless arrangement that he thought they were on. And what we have here then is on paper, in in systems, a great pricing and ...
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    16 min
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