B2B Price Optimisation Consulting

Price optimisation uses your own sales history to set the right price for each product and customer segment. It replaces blanket increases, cost-plus rules and rep-by-rep discounting with prices that reflect what each segment will pay, and the margin each sale needs to make.

For a business with thousands of SKUs and customers, the result is a price file: a new set of list, net and floor prices that can be loaded into your ERP or quoting system.

• Gross margin is flat or falling even though you put prices up.
• Similar customers pay very different prices for the same products.
• Sales reps have wide discount authority and overrides are common.
• Prices are set by cost-plus rules that ignore competition and customer value.
• Nobody can say which products and customers are under-priced.

Project Blackbird is our price optimisation service. It runs in five stages, from data review and segmentation to an optimised price file. The first file is usually in market through a pilot within 8–12 weeks. Full deployment across a large range then takes 6–12 months, in waves, so each wave is tested before the next.

An optional update contract keeps the price file current as costs and markets move.

What data do you need? Usually 24 months of invoice-line sales history, with costs, plus your current price lists and discount rules.

Will we lose customers? Prices are tested by segment before full rollout. Bunzl retained 98.3% of customers while lifting gross margin by 800bps on targeted SKUs.

Do we need pricing software? No. The price file loads into your existing systems. If you later buy a pricing platform, the segmentation and price rules carry across. See pricing software vs price optimisation consulting.