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Home » The Art of Executing Strategic Pricing
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The Art of Executing Strategic Pricing

The roles each department plays in the margin-improvement process

By    Brent R.  Grover 
September 25, 2009
More about:  Management/Strategy
This article looks at the roles of each part of the organization in strategic pricing. Using a sports analogy, the author refers to the Sales Function as the offense, the Operations Function as the defense, and the Purchasing Function as special teams. IT, Finance, Credit and HR play support roles, enabling the team to be in a position to win. And management is the coaching staff. Running a complex "play" like strategic pricing requires all functions to work in concert.

Much has already been written about the "science" of strategic pricing. I have written some of it, including Strategic Pricing for Distributors, published by the NAW Institute earlier this year. I intended the book as a do-it-yourself explanation of strategic pricing.

The magicians Penn & Teller famously perform a magic act that reveals the secrets of magic tricks. But even if you know the secrets, learning how to execute those illusions requires skill and experience. And even if you understand the relatively simple concepts behind strategic pricing, successful implementation is challenging work.

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This article looks at the roles of each part of the organization in strategic pricing. Using a sports analogy, the author refers to the Sales Function as the offense, the Operations Function as the defense, and the Purchasing Function as special teams. IT, Finance, Credit and HR play support roles, enabling the team to be in a position to win. And management is the coaching staff. Running a complex "play" like strategic pricing requires all functions to work in concert.

Much has already been written about the "science" of strategic pricing. I have written some of it, including Strategic Pricing for Distributors, published by the NAW Institute earlier this year. I intended the book as a do-it-yourself explanation of strategic pricing.

The magicians Penn & Teller famously perform a magic act that reveals the secrets of magic tricks. But even if you know the secrets, learning how to execute those illusions requires skill and experience. And even if you understand the relatively simple concepts behind strategic pricing, successful implementation is challenging work.



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