This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on November 10, 2025, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go.

Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/designing-hybrid-and-evolving-pricing-models-for-ai/

If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com.

Now, go make an impact.

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• Email: mark@impactpricing.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

Mike Wilkinson, founder of Axia Value Solutions, joins Mark Stiving to explore how AI is fundamentally changing buying behavior—and why this shift exposes weak value stories more than it threatens good sellers.

In this episode, Mike explains how AI has raised buyer expectations by enabling benchmarking, price testing, and faster comparisons—rewarding sellers who clearly communicate value and exposing those who don't. He and Mark show why AI creates mediocrity when used blindly, and why value clarity—not pricing tricks—determines who wins.

Why You Have to Check Out This Episode:

• Understand how AI is changing buyer expectations—and why buyers now demand clearer value justification before accepting price.
• Learn where AI helps sales—and where it hurts—including why copying AI outputs creates "AI mediocrity" instead of differentiation.
• Discover how value clarity and value literacy become your competitive moat in an AI-saturated selling environment.

"Whatever price you're charging or thinking of charging, make sure that it's supported by the value that you are communicating that you can deliver."

– Mike Wilkinson

Topics Covered:

02:17 – AI Is Changing How Buyers Buy. Buyers now show up informed with comparisons and benchmarks, shifting the focus from persuasion to value justification.

06:00 – How Buyers Use AI When Making Decisions. Why price-focused questions produce very different answers than value-focused ones.

09:08 – Using AI to Support Value Selling. Where AI helps sellers think through value—and where copying AI outputs makes everyone sound the same.

11:32 – The Real Problem: Most Salespeople Don't Understand Value. Why unclear definitions of value break value-based selling, with or without AI.

17:23 – AI as a Sales Assistant, Not a Replacement. How AI supports preparation and thinking, but can't replace real customer conversations.

19:25 – Practical Ways Salespeople Should Use AI. What actually helps sellers win—from research to prep—and what's just busywork.

22:55 – Researching Customers with AI Before the Call. How to use AI to understand the company, the market, and the buyer before the meeting.

27:17 – Pricing Advice: Value Has to Justify Price. Why prices fall apart when sellers can't clearly explain why they're worth it.

Key Takeaways:

"The people who truly understand and communicate value are the people who will rise above that mediocrity." – Mike Wilkinson

"For me, the question in the customer's mind is: if you're more expensive than a competitor, why should I make that additional investment? What do I get back in return? And if the answer is, 'I haven't a clue,' prepare to discount. If you've got some great reasons why you're worth more than competing alternatives, then you're into the conversation." – Mike Wilkinson

People & Resources Mentioned:

• Axia Value Solutions – Mike Wilkinson's consultancy focused on value-based selling and commercial excellence.
• Value-Based Selling – A sales approach centered on discovering, quantifying, and communicating customer-specific value rather than competing on price.
• AI in Sales Enablement – Used for research, preparation, and idea generation—not as a substitute for human judgment or relationship-building.
• Mentioned LinkedIn article in the episode: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-selling-ai-world-michael-wilkinson-5brme/

Connect with Mike Wilkinson:

• Website: https://axiavalue.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikewilkinson-thevalueexpert/
• Email: mw@axiavalue.com

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving
• Email: mark@impactpricing.com

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on November 3, 2025, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go.

Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/pricing-ai-evaluating-pricing-metrics/

If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com.

Now, go make an impact.

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• Email: mark@impactpricing.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

Steven Forth, Managing Partner at Ibbaka and co-creator of Value IQ, joins Mark Stiving to tackle a topic most pricing teams are avoiding: pricing governance in an AI-driven world.

This episode explores who owns pricing decisions when AI is involved, how companies should govern data and models, and why pricing leaders must step into a broader leadership role or risk having governance imposed on them by others.

If AI is touching your pricing process in any way, this conversation will change how you think about responsibility, risk, and trust.

Why You Have to Check Out This Episode:

• Understand what pricing governance actually means and why poor governance shows up as finger-pointing between sales, pricing, and finance.
• Learn the new governance questions AI introduces around data usage, bias, accountability, and mistakes.
• Discover why pricing leaders must own AI governance or risk losing control of pricing decisions altogether.

"The big issue for me is how, as pricing people, do we develop the knowledge that we need to be accountable for AI pricing governance? It's not something any of us were taught."

– Steven Forth

Topics Covered:

01:51 - Pricing Governance and Accountability. What pricing governance really means and why accountability breaks down when roles are unclear.

05:04 - Pricing and Customer Value Alignment. Why pricing teams sit at the center of aligning sales, product, finance, and customer value.

08:01 - AI Challenges in Pricing Governance. How AI introduces new risks around data usage, ownership, and responsibility in pricing decisions.

12:45 - AI Pricing Governance Challenges. Who is accountable when AI makes mistakes and how strict rules can slow innovation.

16:35 - AI Governance in Pricing. Why pricing leaders must take ownership of AI governance or risk losing control to other functions.

22:13 - AI Transparency in Pricing. The importance of explainable pricing models and why transparency matters to both sellers and buyers.

26:49 - AI in the Buying Process. How buyers are using AI to evaluate vendors and why transparency will shape future pricing outcomes.

28:08 - Connecting on LinkedIn. How to continue the conversation and connect with Steven Forth directly.

Key Takeaways:

"Governance is an area of pricing that we don't spend enough time thinking about and talking about because it's not sexy and it does not immediately tie to results." – Steven Forth

"If pricing leaders don't take ownership of AI governance, someone else will." – Steven Forth

"It's the fact that the AIs are not deterministic that allows them to be, dare I say it, creative and to find new things." – Steven Forth

"AI generally does a better job of explaining how it got to its answers than most humans can." – Steven Forth

People & Resources Mentioned:

• Tom Nagle – Referenced as Steven's mentor and a foundational thinker in pricing governance
• Michael Mansard – Mentioned for prior work and thinking on pricing governance
• Tim Smith – Referenced for contributions to pricing governance discussions
• Karen Chiang - Co-founder of Ibbaka
• Stephan Liozu – Mentioned for advocating the Chief Value Officer role
• Anthropic – Research on bias and AI self-evaluation
• OpenAI – Data usage and model governance considerations
• Deal Desks – Scaling pricing guidance with AI support

Connect with Steven Forth:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenforth/
• Email: steven@ibbaka.com

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving
• Email: mark@impactpricing.com

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on October 27, 2025, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go.

Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/what-pe-firms-miss-in-pricing-due-diligence/

If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com.

Now, go make an impact.

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• Email: mark@impactpricing.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

Michael Mansard, Principal Director of Subscription Strategy at Zuora, joins Mark Stiving to challenge one of pricing's most accepted conventions: the order of good, better, best.

In this episode, Michael shares original research showing how simply changing the display order to best, better, good can significantly increase purchase intent and revenue. Drawing on behavioral economics, loss aversion, and real-world testing, he explains why buyers react differently when the most expensive option is presented first.

Why You Have to Check Out This Episode:

• Learn how reversing plan order increased top-tier selection by 15 points in controlled testing.
• Understand how loss aversion works against you in traditional pricing pages and how to flip it.
• Discover when best, better, good works and when it can hurt retention and Net Revenue Retention (NRR).

"By simply changing the order of plans, we increased revenue by nearly 11% without changing price or features."

– Michael Mansard

Topics Covered:

01:16 - Best, Better, Good vs. Plan Order. Why the order of pricing plans matters and how flipping it can change buyer decisions.

06:23 - The Compromise Effect in Decision-Making. Why buyers gravitate toward the middle option and how loss aversion shapes that behavior.

08:11 - How Plan Order Impacts Choice. What happens when the most expensive plan is shown first and why it reframes value.

11:39 - Pricing Strategy and Consumer Behavior. How buyers justify decisions emotionally versus rationally when evaluating plans.

15:10 - Rethinking Good, Better, Best. Why traditional pricing layouts may limit revenue and when best-first works better.

18:11 - Customer Satisfaction and Pricing Strategy. Risks to churn and net retention and why right-selling matters more than upselling.

22:53 - How to Test Monetization Strategies. Why A/B testing, qualitative feedback, and small-scale experiments are essential.

Key Takeaways:

"A very basic tweak, changing the order from good, better, best to best, better, good, can lead to significant revenue uplift." – Michael Mansard

"Best, better, good reframes the buying question from 'Is it worth paying more?' to 'Why wouldn't I choose the best?'" – Michael Mansard

"Loss aversion means the feeling of losing is much stronger than the feeling of gaining." – Michael Mansard

"Pricing pages should make trade-offs clearer, not more confusing." – Michael Mansard

People & Resources Mentioned:

• INSEAD – Where the research originated through executive education
• Loss Aversion Theory – Behavioral principle driving buyer choice
• Goldilocks / Compromise Effect – Why buyers avoid extremes
• Disney+, Wix, Apple – Examples of best-better-good pricing
• SurveyMonkey – Example of plan order varying by segment

Connect with Michael Mansard:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmansard/
• Article: It's Time to Flip Good, Better, Best on Its Head (published on LinkedIn)

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving
• Email: mark@impactpricing.com

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on October 20, 2025, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go.

Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/how-to-define-powerful-market-segments/

If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com.

Now, go make an impact.

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• Email: mark@impactpricing.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

Dan Layfield, founder of the Subscription Index, joins Mark Stiving to unpack the less-visible pricing and monetization levers that drive real growth in subscription businesses. With experience scaling Codecademy from $10M to $50M in revenue and leading product teams at Uber and Diligent, Dan brings a product-led, ROI-first perspective on pricing.

This episode culminates in one of the most actionable subscription pricing tactics you'll hear: how to price annual plans based on actual monthly retention, not industry norms.

If you work in SaaS, consumer subscriptions, or any recurring-revenue business, this episode offers practical insights you can test immediately.

Why You Have to Check Out Today's Podcast:

• Learn the annual pricing tactic that dramatically increases LTV and cash flow by aligning plan discounts to real retention behavior.
• Understand why subscription growth is constrained more by monetization systems than acquisition and where hidden revenue leaks live.
• Discover how product, pricing, and payment mechanics quietly shape retention long after customers click "Subscribe".

"If you know your average retention rate within monthly plans, and most of your users are in monthly plans, you price your annual plan to be like one or two months more than your monthly retention rate."
– Dan Layfield

Topics Covered:

00:45 - How Dan Got Into Pricing. Dan shares how pricing became a key growth lever while scaling Codecademy and why monetization matters more as products mature.

01:10 - Scaling Subscription-Based Businesses. Dan shares lessons from scaling Codecademy's subscription business and why pricing becomes critical as companies grow.

05:12 - Subscription Pricing and Retention Strategies. How pricing decisions influence retention length and why subscription pricing must reflect real user behavior.

09:11 - Retention Challenges in Subscription Businesses. The difference between short-term and long-term retention products and why under-12-month subscriptions require different strategies.

11:32 - Subscription Product Strategies. Time to value versus time to success, and how product design affects lifecycle length and churn.

17:02 - Monetization Strategies in Subscription Businesses. What monetization really includes beyond price, from paywalls to upsells, renewals, and payment recovery systems.

19:45 - Checkout Flow Optimization Strategies. Why small checkout improvements deliver outsized ROI and how minor friction quietly suppresses revenue.

23:22] AI's Impact on Consumer Products. Why AI adoption is slower in consumer subscriptions than B2B SaaS and where future disruption may emerge.

26:30 - Annual Plan Pricing Strategy. Dan explains the monthly-to-annual pricing approach that boosts LTV, improves cash flow, and increases commitment.

29:31 - Key Subscription Product Insights. Final reflections on retention, monetization levers, and where subscription companies should focus first for growth.

Key Takeaways:

"This is one of the few tides that lifts all boats in subscription products. It makes payment processing easier. You collect cash up front. Those users psychologically commit to the product more." – Dan Layfield

"If you're retaining users for four months on average, change your annual plan discount rate to be 50%. So they're paying for six months up front." – Dan Layfield

"...if you look at any of the big consumer products that discount more than 10 to 20% annual plans, you can kind of guess their monthly retention rate." – Dan Layfield

People & Resources Mentioned:

• Codecademy – Subscription growth case study
• Uber Eats – Marketplace product experience
• Subscription Index – Dan's subscription monetization resource
• Stripe / App Store Billing – Payment and dunning challenges in subscriptions

Connect with Dan Layfield:

• Website: https://subscriptionindex.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/layfield/

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving
• Email: mark@impactpricing.com