Thinking Big

Tough times like this require that we rethink many of our basic assumptions.  When you look at the world this way you realize that despite all of the anxiety and uncertainty that we face these times really are a gift.  Its not often that we as a society get “permission” to rethink foundational principles – and have so many others keeping us company along the way.

For us in the pricing profession it is clear that the skills we have been using over the last several years are necessary but totally insufficient if we wish to continue to add value for our organizations and to continue to grow personally and professionally.  So I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about skills that we as pricers have that apply well beyond the day-to-day of establishing price lists, pricing deals, and managing the price waterfall.

The two most valuable but often underutilized skills that great pricers possess are the ability to think strategically – that is to link disparate elements of our organizations’ strategy into a coherent whole – and the ability to clearly and concisely analyze business value.  These skills have very broad application.

When it comes to thinking strategically, great pricers understand that any flaws in strategy will ultimately lead to an accelerating loss of pricing power.  They are truly the canary in the coal mine when it comes to strategy.  We need to use these skills to insert ourselves more directly into the strategic planning process (or pushing to create one where it doesn’t exist) and the daily dialog around strategy and measures of success.  The measures of success?  When the executive team meets regularly to review pricing goals and when the team also weighs the impact on pricing of any major strategic decision.

The same is true with understanding business value.  This starts with the ability to research how offerings reduce costs and increase revenues for our customers but has the potential to go well beyond that.  The basic skills required to analyze value apply to business processes and systems as whole because they boil down to two things; identifying inefficiencies (cost drains) and opportunities to grow revenue.

Think for a minute about what this skill really amounts to.  It is really the ability to analyze profit models and how to improve them.  Professionals that do this well are pretty rare – and enormously versatile.  They can do everything from creating extraordinarily effective value propositions and sales tools to identifying new business opportunities.  As an example – did you know that 20% of the power consumed in the state of California is used to move water?  Now how easy is to calculate this business value in making a dent in that number?  For a well-trained pricer its like falling out of bed.

Which brings me full circle.  In uncertain times we have the unique opportunity to take stock in what we know, how we know it, and how our skills can be used in areas that we might not think about during the day to day rush of “good timess.”  Given this, I’m beginning to think that these are the good times.