Communicating Your Value through Pricing with Chris Barth

Chris Barth is currently the Vice-President of Pricing at Pitney Bowes Commerce Services. He used to be the Vice President of Finance Operations at Newgistics. In this episode, Chris talks about how to sell on value, matching the markets’ needs with a solution and tying it up with an appropriate and justifiable price.   Why you have to check out today’s podcast: Learn how to bring salespeople to sell on value and at price points that make sense in the market Find out how to articulate value and translate it to price Find out a commission algorithm that makes salespeople earn more when selling on value but earns lower when selling below the target price   “Really understanding what you're trying to do as a business has many functions of what they're working on, what's on their roadmap. And ultimately, how is that translating into the pricing and that story that you're trying to communicate to your customers through your sales team.”  - Chris Barth   Increase Your Pricing Knowledge: Become a Champions of Value INSIDER! To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com   Topics Covered: 01:18 - How his pricing career started with Dell 03:05 - What does special pricing mean? 03:39 - What contributed to his status as VP of Pricing 06:14 - Matching up value with price 08:00 - The time in his career when he pivoted his thinking on pricing and considering the value components 12:14 - The challenges of making salespeople sell on value instead of price 15:34 - Putting yourself in your customers’ shoes when trying to set up price 17:47 - Structuring commission plans for salespeople to sell on value rather than just giving discounts 21:48 - Coming up with an algorithm that incentivizes bigger commission those that sell on the sweet spot and higher 24:51 - Chris’ best pricing advice that has a great impact on your business   Key Takeaways: “You're always thinking about how can I hold the line on price. It's really trying to match what are the needs of the customers with the solution that you're offering and what is the appropriate price?” - Chris Barth “We didn't have this grand network; we didn't have assets. And here, we had to sell value and convince retailers to pay for our solution. And then, in turn, we had to coach our customers on how to position it with their consumers.” - Chris Barth “All the things that go into what you're trying to do as a business have got to translate into your positioning in the market and what you're trying to do. So, when I say that, it’s just understanding your business strategy.” - Chris Barth “When you're trying to set value, then, put yourself in the customer's shoes. Would you buy this product? Would you pay for the solution? What need or problem are you trying to solve in the market? And what is it worth?” - Chris Barth “What you want are sales folks, really being able to articulate the value, matching that value to a customer's needs and being able to capture the highest possible price that can tie to the value and optimizing your profit as a company.”  - Chris Barth   Resources / People Mentioned: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt   Connect with Chris Barth: LinkedIn E: [email protected]   Connect with Mark Stiving:  Email: [email protected] LinkedIn