Customer Reviews

The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Profitable Decision Making

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Written with great clarity, "The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing" is a phenomenal book. It begins with an explanation of strategic pricing, and proceeds to cover competition in the market place, segmentation of buyers, pricing and the marketing mix for industrial and consumer goods, as well as the psychology of pricing. Also covered are models for determining price sensitivity, implications of sales staff price setting and negotiation, and finally, legal aspects of pricing.

After reading this book, you will understand the pitfalls of pursuing market share at all costs and common mistakes businesses and sales people make when setting or negotiating price. You will view your current pricing structure and strategy in a new light, and be able to spot the weak spots. You'll have a better picture of how to attract the right buyers, those that can be served profitably.

The book indirectly touches on topics covered in Co-opetition, and Thinking Strategically, as well as elements of the Theory of Constraints (see Eli Goldratt's "The Goal" and "It's Not Luck" or "Management Dilemmas" by Eli Schragenheim)

I can't recommend this book highly enough. As for the other reader who states:

"After reading this book, I was able to talk circles around the $20,000 "marketing consultant" we were considering."

believe it, it's that valuable!

Too many firms in the world today have problems with pricing. The impact of those problems is that these companies lose millions of dollars of profit opportunity every day. We wrote this book to get people to realize that pricing is often the lightning rod and symptom of other problems in companies. The true problems often lie in other areas such as sales, finance, production, marketing and management.

To make matters worse, managers tinker with price rather than understanding and addressing the real problems. They do this because pricing is the easiest and fastest thing to fix (usually lowering it). Those price fixes often provide the least sustainable advantages for companies. For example, salespeople are often incented to use price as a tactic to close a sale rather than to use an in depth understanding of the product's value to convince the customer that the price is fair. Managers exacerbate the problem by a) giving salespeople the right to lower price and b) insisting that they never lose an order on price. Customers learn to take advantage of these tactics by always asking for lower prices. The more they use this tactic, the better they get at it and the more sellers think that they have no choice but to get beat up by customers. Game, point and match to the customers---but, they're not the problem!!!

Read this book and learn to ask more strategic questions around price. Learn to adopt compatable goals so that everyone in the organization works to a common one----profit!

Reed K. Holden, Co-Author, "The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing" - rholden@spgboston.com Strategic Pricing Group Inc., Marlborough, MA

Thomas Nagle and Reed Holden successfully demonstrate with practical examples that strategic pricers are diplomats rather than generals, contrary to common belief. Diplomats know that initiating price discounts can undermine the profitability of their business. Price cutting unduly focuses the attention of the customer base on their wallet rather than the value of the product offering to their life/business. Diplomats will carefully look not only at the short-term gain, but also at competitors' long-term reactions to measure the impact of such a move on the bottom line. Furthermore, diplomats do not share the misconception of generals that the ultimate winner must meet every challenge. Diplomats will integrate the product's relevant costs, the customer segments' price sensitivity and the behavior of the competition in their marketing plans. The analysis of those factors will then allow diplomats to weigh the costs and benefits of competition and only fight battles for which the likely benefits are greater than the likely costs. Nagle and Holden also stress the importance of establishing pricing policies consistent with the plans, especially when there is no fixed-price policy. Diplomats must give salespeople incentives to make profitable sales, not sales for their own sake. Salespeople will adapt their sales pitch to the different price sensitivity of price buyers, loyal buyers and value buyers. Nagle and Holden draw the attention of their readers to the fact that a product's price influences the market's perception of its features and benefits and those of other products with which it is sold, the effectiveness of its promotion, and the interest it generates in channels of distribution. They observe that the opposite is also true. Furthermore, Nagle and Holden look at the impact of the choice of an independent channel of distribution on corporate pricing policy. Diplomats must be attorneys specializing in legal pricing or at least hire one. They must consider not only what is profitable, but also what is legal and ethical in establishing pricing policies towards channels of distribution, end users, and competition. Pricing is such a legal minefield that both authors dedicate one chapter of their book to that delicate subject. Nagle and Holden also challenge another idea that many marketers share: The key to profitability is to achieve a dominant market share. Most companies in competitive markets try to be all things to all people rather than excel in serving the needs of particular customer segments. Both product differentiators and cost leaders have demonstrated that targeting a segment of customers and focusing on them pays off handsomely. A third edition of this book integrating the impact of the New Economy on pricing should be a welcome update to that masterpiece. To summarize, The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing is a must read for anyone involved or interested in pricing. The content is so rich that I am still discovering new aspects about pricing two years after I read the book for the first time.

Highly, highly recommended. After reading this book, I was able to talk circles around the $20,000 "marketing consultant" we were considering. Explains how to appeal both to price-sensitive and insensitive clients and shows how this is done all the time. Warns about pitfalls of letting salespeople set price. Even shows how to "manage the competition" when it comes to pricing. This is by far one of the most valuable books I've bought for business managment.

Very readable. Those who will go through it slowly can learn some solid techniques (algebraic, not calculus-based) as well as some practical advice about how to perform a strategic pricing analysis. Those who have been recently tasked with reviewing pricing will be able to skim through it and get some practical advice on how to approach the problem and what issues to focus on. This book will be a great resource for Marketing folks as well as Finance folks.

This book is so good, I've solidified complex consultant-client relationships by simply repeating things I'd read in the book. I've also endeared clients to me by just giving them a copy.

The authors took a wholistic approach towards pricing. A price is always relative - relative to the alternatives you (or the buyer) is considering. It's also relative to other products of the same company above or below the current price level. It's also relative to the reactions of your competitors and your own power.

So you might (or should) think of a price change like a chess move.. One wrong move now may come back on you tenfold.