"Price is not based on cost"

"I believe it is important to share that price is the number one driver of profitability in almost any business. AT Kearney and McKinsey have both done studies which demonstrate that a one percent increase in price across the board yields a seven to 11 percent increase to profit. This compares to a one to three percent increase to profit from a one percent reduction in fixed cost, a three to four percent increase due to an additional revenue, and a five to seven percent increase due to a reduction of fixed cost (i.e., efficiency gains) usually considered the Holy Grail of business acumen.[Moi ici: Como não recuar a 2008]

...
If I could send executives to the Bart Simpson chalkboard of life, I would have to write, “Price is not based on cost,” over and over again. Notice, this is not to say that costs are not factor in pricing, they can be, but far too many brilliant people believe that prices are determined by a formula that begins and ends with cost.
...
Prices are determined by understanding the perceived value of the prospective customer. This value is subjective and can vary from prospect to prospect over time.
...
The reality is that price, rather than being derived from costs, should justify the future expenditure of cost. The logic chains like this: Value → Price →Cost, not Cost → Price→ Value"

Trechos retirados de "Top three pricing mistakes to avoid"

Para reflexão

"the value mantra is: it's not how little you pay, it's how much you get. That's the basic difference and tension between price and value. And today's procurement professionals not only need to understand this difference, they should use their procurement toolkit to help them put the concept into practice.
...
Unfortunately, the usual modus operandi for many businesses is to seek price reductions that provide immediate gratification rather than buying on best value, which for many managers is too long-term, involves too many departments, and is too complicated and abstract."

Trechos retirados de "Value First Then Price" editado por Andreas Hinterhuber e Todd Snelgrove.

Talvez focar primeiro o valor e só depois o preço (Parte II)

Parte I.

Nem de propósito, ontem de manhã cedo, antes de entrar numa empresa para uma auditoria li em "Using best value to get the best bottom line" de Kate Vitasek e incluído em "Value First then Price: Quantifying value in Business to Business markets", editado por Andreas Hinterhuber e Todd Snelgrove:

"the value mantra is: it's not how little you pay, it's how much you get. That's the basic difference and tension between price and value. And today's procurement professionals not only need to understand this difference, they should use their procurement toolkit to help them put the concepts into practice.
.
When used, best-value approaches become the bridge that spans that tension, because determining the true cost and value equation assures companies they are getting the best "deal".
.
Unfortunately, the usual modus operandi for many businesses is to seek price reductions that provide immediate gratification rather than buying on best value, which for many managers is too long-term, involves too many departments, ad is too complicated and abstract."

Talvez focar primeiro o valor e só depois o preço

Há dias mandei um e-mail a um antigo cliente, com quem trabalhei por causa da ISO 9001, a sugerir que contactasse uma empresa a oferecer os seus produtos.

Ainda no mesmo dia obtive resposta:

"Já apresentamos cotação e perdemos, por preço..."

Confesso que na altura não processei esta resposta convenientemente.

Entretanto, no meio de uma sessão de jogging, comecei a relacionar a resposta com as lições de "Value First then Price: Quantifying value in Business to Business markets", editado por Andreas Hinterhuber e Todd Snelgrove.

Tenho ideia que a empresa é competitiva em termos de custos... fiquei a pensar no que poderia ter feito de diferente para conseguir um resultado diferente.

Talvez focar primeiro o valor e só depois o preço. Talvez pensar no ciclo de vida do produto: a empresa produz mas o cliente precisa de armazenamento, distribuição, embalamento, ...

"Real and meaningful value is less about what you do and more about what the customer receives"

"Real and meaningful value is less about what you do and more about what the customer receives. [Moi ici: Feels, experience, recognize] Many sellers feel that value is what they do or provide to the customer; however, that's only a small part of the overall equation. There is both a science and an art to value-added documentation. The science component includes those things provided that have commercial billable value—such as an emergency after-hours delivery from local inventory. At the minimum, the seller should document billable services, support, and items provided to the customer at no or a reduced charge. This is the easy part and the equivalent of swimming in the shallow end of the pool. The pitfall of only documenting items of this nature is that the customer can easily rebut them by saying "this is your job," "this is what we expect" or "you competitor can do the same thing." The art of value-added documentation and communication is identifying what the customer received as a result of your efforts. Typically what the customer receives is worth many times more than what you provided. Let's use the example of an emergency after-hours delivery from location inventory. If you waived the call-out charge and subsequently developed a value-added document for what you did (the science), the document would show $250 in cost avoidance. However, as a result of your responsiveness, that after-hours delivery of critical components may have reduced two hours of unscheduled downtime at $5,000 per hour. The "science" side of your documentation is worth $250, but the "art" provided them $10,000 in value. When you understand and communicate the "art" of your value, you are now in an area where many customers cannot compare you with the competition. They can refute those items of your job that you quantify, but they are hard pressed to dismiss the benefits they received from you performing your job with a high degree of efficiency and precision."

Trechos retirados de "Value First then Price: Quantifying value in Business to Business markets", editado por Andreas Hinterhuber e Todd Snelgrove.

o potencial de subida na escala de valor ...

Um título que diz tudo "The World's Worst Pricing Model":

". . . is also one of the world’s most popular. It is cost-plus. I’m talking about anything where the price is based on a mark-up applied to costs.
...
Cost-plus pricing has many apparent advantages. It is simple to use, appears systematic, even “scientific” and can be easily audited. It avoids the need to get to grips with the psychology of pricing. On the debit side, though, it can leave huge amounts of money on the table and in some cases destroy a business.
...
you need to understand what value you actually provide to customers. This can surprisingly hard because if you have been operating cost-plus you have been able to avoid thinking about it. It needs an understanding of context.
...
Secondly, you need to be sufficiently different from your competitors that they will pay for the value you create. If you are just one of the crowd, it makes no difference how much value you create; one of your competitors will be stupid enough to quote a daily rate or other cost-plus amount and you will have to match it. All that extra value you create is captured by the customer.
.
So there are the two things you need to do:
.
Develop distinctive skills;
Understand and communicate the full value of what you do.
It’s surprisingly rare to find businesses that are really good at this, but if you could develop these two skills maybe you also could raise your margins from 25% to 70%."

E este é o método mais usado em todo o mundo... o potencial de subida na escala de valor

"os clientes estão-se marimbando para os custos dos fornecedores"

"If you can prove the value of your product or service by measuring it in ‘hard’ monetary terms that the customer understands, your price premium can be seen as an investment. However, without the backing of data, financial models and in some cases guarantees of minimum value created, you leave procurement people no choice but to discuss price.
.
Advanced companies in numerous industries support the investment they make in developing new products and creating customer value."

Há tempos numa empresa alguém relatava-me que justificou, junto de um cliente, a necessidade de um preço mais alto com uma série de custos mais altos porque o cliente estava a pedir um produto diferente do normal, queria algo personalizado para a sua empresa.

Tentei explicar que os clientes estão-se marimbando para os custos dos fornecedores. A alternativa é focar a atenção no valor. Por que é que o cliente quer um produto diferente do normal? Qual a vantagem que o cliente vai retirar dessa alteração ao produto? Como se pode quantificar monetariamente essa vantagem?

Trecho retirado de "Value pricing when you understand your customers: Total cost of ownership – Past, present and future"

"Not losing deals is a clear indication you are leaving money on the table"

"When you lose on price, it really means that you didn’t deliver enough value for the price. Both sides matter.
.
To avoid losing, you can do two things: lower your price or increase the value you deliver. Lowering your price is usually a horrible idea, so how can you increase value?
.
Create more value by improving your product. You can add more capability, more features, more services. However, these additions must be valued by your market or you still won’t win at your price. Talk to your market to be certain what you are adding matters to them.
.
Communicate your value better. You could have the best product in the world, but if your market doesn’t know it, you won’t get paid for it.
...
As a rule of thumb, if you aren’t losing 10 percent of deals based on price, you should raise your prices. Of course, there is an emotional cost to losing deals, but we have to get over it. We are in the business of making money. Not losing deals is a clear indication you are leaving money on the table."

Trechos retirados de "Losing on Price"

"how much more value do you bring versus the competition"

"Value is relative and not an absolute. Unless you have radical disruptive innovation and no reference value, what matters when you sell to your customers is not how much value you deliver, but how much more value do you bring versus the competition. This differential represents your true value, your differentiated value, which becomes the basis for your pricing strategy and price setting. Value is always a number in B2B. You need a rational story about how much value you bring to the customer and the relevant stakeholders, and that rational story must include dollars. Saying you have 20 percent more reliability than competitors is a nice benefit, but that benefit closes sales only when you express it in terms of cost savings, revenue potential, or an emotional benefit, as shown in the value triad in figure 6.1

The language in figure 6.1 is plain and straightforward. You are reducing costs or providing savings. On the cost-reduction side, perhaps your product offers lower weight or greater efficiency. Perhaps the benefit you provide helps the customer grow their revenue, potentially by charging higher prices. You can also provide a benefit through an emotional contribution: reassurance, confidence, lower risk, better relationships."

Trechos retirados de Stephan M. Liozu. em "Dollarizing Differentiation Value: A Practical Guide for the Quantification and the Capture of Customer Value"

VRIO (parte I)

"Value does not exist in a vacuum. Your value - the value that will underpin your value-based pricing (VBP) - is always specific to a well-defined customer segment. Value is also relative to what your competitors offer to customers in the segment. By now your thinking should have moved away from generalizations (large markets, one-size-fits-all thinking) to focus on these narrower definitions, because these are the keys to your success with VBP.
...
Consider the following questions about what you deliver to your customers, day-in and day-out. What makes you special? What makes you unique as a whole? What makes your products unique? Can you be easily imitated? And how well are the answers to these questions expressed explicitly in your value proposition? The answers describe your competitive advantage, and these in turn provide the raw material for your value propositions. Competitive advantage takes three forms: measurable product and service differentiation, market position, and cost/price. The sum of these is your overall competitive advantage, as figure 5.1 shows. You will never be strong in all three, although combinations are possible.

Related to my comment above, I am tired of hearing the word commodity. Except for standardized items that are traded on international exchanges, such as a barrel of oil or a bushel of wheat, there is no such thing as a commodity. The frequency with which I hear that word usually correlates well with how beat up an organization is. They have given up on value, and they fight aggressively in bare-knuckled price wars instead of making the effort to find and extract their true differentiation. Please let me repeat: If you are still in business today, you are doing something right. You are adding value, and it goes beyond the product. It is therefore your responsibility to find your true differentiation, extract it, quantify it, and communicate it. No one else is going to do that for you. Your competitors are certainly not going to do so. And your buyers are not going to volunteer it!

Continua.

Trechos retirados de Stephan M. Liozu. em "Dollarizing Differentiation Value: A Practical Guide for the Quantification and the Capture of Customer Value"

Acerca de alguns mitos do VBP

"VBP is not about having and maintaining the highest price. It is about pricing relative to the value you create for customers.
…
So VBP does not mean switching to kamikaze pricing behaviors such as raising prices overnight.
…
VBP is also not the same as premium pricing. I recommend that you avoid the word "premium" because it reinforces the perception that your prices are higher by default rather than higher because you consistently deliver superior value relative to your competition.
...
VBP is not the same as total cost of ownership (TCO). You only need to look at the “C” to understand why. Offering a customer a lower TCO is purely a cost calculation, but you may deliver value in many ways beyond mere cost savings. Your products may help your customers grow their business, and that difference in revenue and profit for them has a value as well.
...
The truth is that every single business has a differentiated offering and is  therefore a potential candidate for VBP. If you don't believe me, think about this: if customers keep buying from you, you must be doing something valuable. Go find it and localize it. Your source of differentiation may even be your price. No matter what it is, you have to find it and quantify it versus competition. Thinking you are good is not good enough. You also have to prove it, and that means you should not aim for huge differentials without clear proof that you can deliver on them consistently and reliably."

Trechos retirados de "Dollarizing Differentiation Value: A Practical Guide for the Quantification and the Capture of Customer Value" de Stephan M. Liozu.

"from a cost mindset to a value mindset"

"You don't go from a cost mindset to a value mindset overnight. It just doesn't happen after a one-day training. Trainings can plant a couple of seeds, but this is a massive and worthwhile undertaking. A lot of people don't necessarily get that message. Other people are skeptics and will fight any efforts to change the go-to-market approach, especially it times of uncertainty."

Se fosse fácil não era para nós!

Esta é a grande transição que cada vez mais empresas terão de fazer. Este é o truque dos alemães, este é o truque da Marlin, este é o truque que salvou a Lego, este é, em parte, o truque que salvou o calçado português.

E a sua empresa, continua na guerra dos cêntimos a cortar nos custos? Continua com a cabeça virada para o umbigo? Não será altura de experimentar o valor? Será que podemos ajudar?

Trecho inicial retirado de "Dollarizing Differentiation Value: A Practical Guide for the Quantification and the Capture of Customer Value" de Stephan M. Liozu.

"Align Prices with Value by Segment"

"Narrow your customer groups as tightly as possible. Segment them by how profitable they are now, by their willingness to pay, for the extras they request and more. Each transaction represents a different buying situation and therefore a different value proposition. Group these customers by the deal elements they value, and then dedicate a monetary price to these value propositions. Consider shipping rates, support fees, discounts, and allowances as potential value drivers.
.
During this process, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to raise prices for a handful of your smaller segments.
...
If (and let’s be honest when) customers balk at your effort to raise prices, your sales team won’t persuade them to pay up by just listing your product or service features. They need to explain why your customers need the products and/or services and what they get out of them. They have to sell on value.
.
You already know what your customers value from segmenting them during the pricing strategy process. It’s time to put that knowledge to good use during the sales process. As value propositions resonate different from customer to customer, so should your sales strategy."[Moi ici: Na sequência de uma auditoria recente a um departamento comercial fiquei a matutar nas eventuais vantagens e problemas da empresa ter comerciais não por áreas geográficas mas por segmentos de clientes]

Trechos retirados de "3 Ways to Raise Prices: The Grand Slam of Your Pricing Strategy"

Fugir da conversa de pilha-galinhas

Para quem opera no B2B estes conselhos são importantes:

"Tie investments to outcomes. When you speak about your outcomes, tie the investment they are making to those outcomes. Explain exactly how the greater investment is necessary to producing the greater outcomes. Also, explain how a smaller investment puts those results at risk. Investments equal outcomes.
Help justify your price. If you want to protect your pricing, provide your contacts with the ability to justify the pricing inside their own organization. Give them the tools, the rationale, and the language to speak intelligently as to why your price is the right price to deliver the outcomes they need."

Recordo logo um caso com bombas centrífugas.

Recordo uma espécie de outcomes e outra.

E se ligarmos isto ao JTBD... é traduzir outcomes por progresso.

E se ligarmos isto ao pricing... é traduzir outcomes por value based pricing.

Recordo caso de um vendedor de soluções que tinha sucesso vendendo uma solução mais cara mas que permitia ao cliente menos tempo de paragem, menos transtorno para os clientes do cliente.

E não esquecer o conceito de ecossistema.

Trecho retirado de "How to Avoid the Need to Defend Your Price"

"This is called value‐based pricing" (parte II)

Parte I.

"Value‐based pricing results from value engineering. As a construct, it works from the premise that in order for the firm to serve customer needs profitably, it needs to understand what those customers need and what they will pay to have their needs met. That is, value‐based pricing seeks to identify the value an offering delivers from the customer’s perspective and then charge accordingly.[Moi ici: Como ontem conversava ao almoço com um empresário, não é cobrar mais porque se consegue dar a volta ao cliente, é cobrar mais porque o cliente reconhece mais valor]
.
Value‐based pricing requires approaching pricing challenges through the lens of detecting and understanding value from the customer’s perspective. It requires gathering facts that can be constructed into meaningful information about what needs customers have, how an offer will impact those needs, and how valuable that impact is, all from the customer’s perspective.
.
Value‐based pricing isn’t a specific technique or process, but rather a paradigm for managing exchanges between the firm and its customers. As a paradigm, it flows across the firm’s decision‐making process. It defines the context through which all pricing and strategic competitive positioning decisions are made.
.
If value‐based pricing relies on understanding value from the customer’s perspective, then what is that value? That is, what value is relevant for pricing decisions?
.
The total value a customer receives from a product is the difference between the total benefits the product or service delivers and the total price the customer must pay to receive that bundle of benefits.
…
the relevant meaning of value for customers is not an absolute, total value construct but a relative, differentia value construct.
.
Differential value is the difference in value delivered to customers by choosing one firm’s offer compared to that delivered by choosing an alternative offer.
…
The concept of differential value, ΔV, covers both hard, calculable issues and softer, perceptual issues."

Trechos retirados de "Pricing Done Right"

"This is called value‐based pricing"

"Value‐engineered firms focus every aspect of their deliverables to customers on what adds value in excess of the costs to produce and then execute against that mandate.
.
That is, in value engineering, the firm works backward from the customer’s needs and value to define the firm’s actions. [Moi ici: Como não recordar a Viarco] Value engineered firms strive to understand their customers’ willingness to pay for different benefits in defining the target price of the offering. From this target price, a target cost is identified that ensures profitable customer interactions. Using the target cost and the target need to be addressed, all attributes of the offering are redefined to ensure market goals are met.
.
In drilling down on the issue of value engineering, we confront a simple fact of competitive free markets: customers have alternative choices. Customers can buy from the firm, its competitors, or do nothing at all. Hence, it isn’t enough to deliver value to customers; value‐engineered firms focus on delivering value in excess of their competitors for their select customer segment.
.
In setting prices, rather than focusing on costs and markups, value engineered firms work from an understanding of their customers willingness to pay. This is called value‐based pricing. In value‐based pricing, a firm identifies those prices that most closely match customers’ willingness to pay without leaving money on the table nor entering into unprofitable or unhealthy transactions.
.
Value‐based pricing is not cost‐plus pricing. It does not always start from the costs to produce and add a markup. This is a good thing. Too often, cost‐plus pricing either (1) sets prices far below a customer’s willingness to pay and therefore leaves money on the table or (2) sets prices so high that few, if any, customers will purchase at that price.
.
Starting with an understanding of what customers value - from their perspective, not the firm’s  - results in a culture of value‐based pricing.
.
As for competitors and competitive pricing, value engineering positions competitive offerings as an alternative choice for the target customer. It doesn’t ignore competitive prices. Instead, it accounts for their role in engineering the value proposition itself. It suggests that if firms want to outdo their competitors, they have to out‐serve their customers—profitably."

Trechos retirados de "Pricing Done Right"

Value-based pricing?

Em "Is it Really that Hard to Quantify Customer Value? 3 Hurdles B2B Product Managers Leap When They Create Value Propositions for Sales" uma boa base para pensar o tema:

"No Differentiation. The first question that stumps some teams is a fundamental marketing question. How is our product different from the competition?   The fact that it takes some teams hours to answer this question often indicates a need to improve product development processes.  Even so, getting to an answer is real progress in understanding a product’s positioning.
...
Differentiation is sometimes hidden in service, reliability, and other less tangible value drivers that can be quantified if the team works through the customer’s business."

Numa PME com um desafio destes em curso, resolvemos começar por um ponto de diferenciação. A empresa equacionou vários: proximidade; relação; rapidez; ...
 mas entendemos todos que para começar vamos lidar só com um desses pontos.

"Too many customer situations, offerings & competitors. Teams quantifying value often get hung up at the very first specific quantitative question.  The answer to an early question all too often is “it varies” or “it depends.”  Specific quantitative answers regarding how much better we are, and what that is worth to the customer, often change with: (1) the type of customer, (2) which version of our product we are offering, and (3) who the competitor may be in the customer’s buying process." 

O passo seguinte constituiu em responder à pergunta: Olhando para os clientes actuais, conseguimos reuni-los em grupos mais ou menos homogéneos em função da maior ou menor importância que dão ao factor escolhido?
.
Depois, outra pergunta: que vantagens os clientes retiram desse factor? Aqui recordo a tríade de MacDivit (reduzem os seus custos? aumentam os seus ganhos? ganho emocional?)
.
E a sua empresa, pratica o value-based pricing?

Value-Based Pricing?

A propósito deste artigo, "A Quick Guide to Value-Based Pricing", não consigo deixar de pensar que não concordo com a interpretação do autor sobre o que é o Value-Based Pricing:

“Value-based pricing is the method of setting a price by which a company calculates and tries to earn the differentiated worth of its product for a particular customer segment when compared to its competitor.”

Sim, acho que tem a ver com "a particular customer segment".
.
Não, acho isto que se segue errado:

"2) Compare with next best alternative. This pricing method only works when the target segment has a specific competitor’s product they can buy instead. Value-based pricers always ask the question: “What would this segment buy if my product wasn’t available?” This “next best alternative” for the target is the essential point of comparison for calculating the value-based price. For products that are truly new, without peers, the value-based pricing methodology won’t work well."

Julgo que o autor confunde competition-based pricing com value-based pricing.
.
Harry Macdivitt e Mike Wilkinson em "Value-Based Pricing: Drive Sales and Boost Your Bottom Line by Creating, Communicating and Capturing Customer Value" definem value-based pricing como:

E começam o capítulo intitulado "Competion-Based Approaches" com:

"In competition-based pricing, we compare the features and specifications of our product with those of the competition and make a judgment about how the product should be positioned and priced."

O value-based pricing procura identificar os benefícios (económicos e emocionais) que o cliente vai sentir por causa da oferta. Depois de reconhecidos, ambas as partes partilham os ganhos criados pela interacção.

Flagrante da vida real

Interrompo aqui a pausa de férias só para relatar um flagrante da vida real que incorpora três temas muito caros a este blogue: Valor, pricing e autenticidade.
.
Antes, dois tweets desta semana que relaciono com o flagrante. O primeiro, num tom irónico mas sério:

@ccz1 https://t.co/pRpD9HCuL6 a minha consultoria só peca por ñ ter marca de multinacional e muitos digitos nos honorários

— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) August 3, 2016

O segundo, sobre a tolice que muitos académicos divulgam, que o preço é a única coisa que conta:

A ler livro escrito por alemães sobre monetização de produtos. Regra #1 nunca entrar em guerra de preços. Tótós acham q basta mexer na moeda

— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) August 2, 2016

Esta manhã tive de ir a Estarreja e aproveitei para comprar fruta no supermercado Couto. Resolvi comprar pêssegos. Então, tive de escolher de entre três variedades:

• uma caixa de madeira com pêssegos espanhóis;
• duas caixas de madeira com pêssegos portugueses.

Houve uma caixa que me seduziu porque os pêssegos tinham todo o aspecto de serem caseiros. Não sei explicar ... talvez uma maior diversidade de tamanhos e não o "autoritarismo" do calibre, talvez um tom mais amarelado a sugerir apanha mais tardia, talvez a estirpe menos "comercial", tudo a sugerir-me, subjectivamente, um je ne sais quoi de autenticidade. Só sei que escolhi os pêssegos dessa caixa. Depois, reparei que eram os mais baratos a 1,20 €/kg.

.

Ao chegar à balança, em tom cúmplice disse a um dos gerentes:

- Estes é que deviam ser os mais caros. Parecem caseiros!!!

A resposta foi imediata:

- E são! Vieram directamente do agricultor na serra da Estrela.

.

Bingo!

.

.

.

.

.

É a isto que chamo deixar dinheiro em cima da mesa. A gerência até é capaz de ficar toda contente por os pêssegos se venderem bem. É aquilo a que os alemães da Simon-Kucher & Partners me ensinaram a chamar de minivation. Imaginem que o supermercado queria vender os preços do agricultor e ganhar dinheiro a sério. Seguindo regras do pricing, colocaria uma das caixas de pêssegos portugueses a um preço de entrada. Colocaria a caixa de pêssegos do agricultor a um preço bem superior mas intermédio e a caixa de pêssegos espanhóis a um preço mais alto. Imaginem, seguindo os ensinamentos e percentagens do Evangelho do Valor, o quanto mais dinheiro seria libertado!!!

.

A informação que o gerente me deu não devia estar escondida. A caixa de pêssegos devia ter uma foto do agricultor, um mapa da região onde foram produzidos e uma mensagem pessoal dele para os consumidores. 

.

Voltando ao segundo tweet, citado lá em cima, o século XX enterrou-nos no Normalistão, encarcerou-nos num modelo mental em que só o preço conta, e só nos ensinou uma forma de fazer preços: custo mais uma margem.

.

No Estranhistão, os actores económicos vão aprender que o preço não tem nada a ver com o custo e tudo a ver com o valor percepcionado pelos clientes-alvo.

.

Tenho de arranjar marca de multinacional e inflaccionar os honorários.

.

De volta às férias.

"value pricing ... is about customizing an outcome for your client"

"Before you can change to value pricing, however, you must first understand the relationship between value and what you are selling,[Moi ici: O que vendemos é um recurso, um instrumento, uma ponte para chegar ao resultado pretendido]
...
remember that in any interaction or relationship with a client, there has also got to be a profit for the client. The total value you create then is your value and the client’s value together.
...
often the client doesn’t know fully what they value - what they want, in other words. Your role is to help them see what else they need, beyond their compliance requirements. You are opening the client’s mind, finding the things they care about, looking for triggers. This way you can increase the value you offer, and the price then just follows the value.
...
“Value changes, and it changes based on time, place, location and what outcome customers are seeking.” [Moi ici: Daí a importância das tribos e de fazer crescer o cliente, educar o cliente, integrá-lo numa constelação de relações, sinais, significados] In other words, value is related to the context of the situation at hand, and therefore, a focus on value provides the opportunity to drive pricing higher.
...
value pricing requires pricing the customer, and not just the service or product. With that in mind, you are intentionally slowing down the sales process to explore the customer’s wants, desires and outcomes (rather than just their needs) in order to sell an expectation of future results.
...
value pricing is not about efforts, hours and activities, but is about customizing an outcome for your client [Moi ici: Precioso!] while sharing risk to identify and agree on the real value for your services."

Trechos retirados de "Price Services More Effectively with Value Pricing"