Our Methodology
How Pricing Insight finds lost margin, sizes it in dollars and basis points, and builds the structures and capability to keep it.
Why this is different
Why is this not another consulting framework?
If past consulting work left you with a slide deck and little else, you are right to be wary. We have disrupted that model. Rather than renting you advisers, we build consulting bench strength inside your business and leave it there as a lasting asset: new prices in your systems, clear rules for your sales team, and your people equipped with practical pricing IP, documented methods and field-tested techniques. The result is earnings growth that keeps building long after the engagement ends.
Pricing Insight is led by Ron Wood, who brings 30 years in pricing and was recruited by ASX-listed and Fortune 500 companies to set up their pricing functions. Since 2007 the method has been tested and refined across more than 160 clients in building materials, manufacturing, distribution, capital equipment, FMCG and services, in 15+ countries.
160+
clients since 2007
15+
countries
5,000+
executives trained
30
years in pricing
A$2m–9m
EBIT for every A$100m of revenue optimised
Typical consulting approach
The Pricing Insight method
Recommendations in a report
New price files, discount rules and approval limits loaded into your systems
Interviews with a few executives
Every commercial role surveyed, plus interviews, plus the full sales history
One price move across the board
A price for every customer and product, set by each customer's pricing power
Opportunity quoted as one big number
Opportunity sized in five stages, after rebates, with no double counting
Consultants leave, behaviour reverts
Teams trained and certified, governance in place, results tracked after go-live
The problem
Why does margin go missing in businesses that look well run?
Price is the most powerful profit lever in business, yet few of the people who set, quote and negotiate prices have ever been formally trained in pricing.
Margin is rarely lost in one big decision. It goes in thousands of small ones: a discount given to save a deal, a contract price that never moved, a rebate nobody tracks, a cost-plus price on a product customers value highly, a price increase that only half reaches the invoice. None of these show up as one line in the P&L. Together they decide your earnings.
In our diagnostics, the people who set and negotiate prices average between 30% and 39% on a basic pricing maths test. That is a capability problem, and it can be fixed.
Where does the price go between list and bank?
Illustrative price waterfall for one order. Each step is a decision someone in your business made.
List price
Customer discount
Deal override
Rebate
Freight and terms
Pocket price
Illustrative only. The diagnostic measures each step from your own sales history.
The profit lever
Why does price beat every other lever?
In a business earning a 10% EBIT margin, a 1% improvement in price, with no loss of volume, lifts EBIT by about 10%. The same 1% gained from cost or volume is worth far less. That is why a small, well-placed price move outperforms most cost programs.
Illustrative business: revenue A$100m, variable costs A$70m, fixed costs A$20m, EBIT A$10m.
1% better price
10%
1% lower variable cost
7%
1% more volume
3%
1% lower fixed cost
2%
Increase in EBIT from a 1% improvement in each lever, all else equal.
Three methods
What are the three methods, and which service delivers each?
Each method answers a different question for the leadership team. Most clients start with the first and add the others as results come through.
Method 1
Diagnostic Roadmap + Immediate Earnings Results
Where is margin being lost, how much is it worth and what do we do first? A capability survey, interviews and the full sales history, scored on the 9PE (Nine Pricing Elements) canvas, with quick wins ranked by value.
Method 2
Algorithms and Architecture
What should every customer pay for every product? The Blackbird engine sets a floor, target and ceiling for each price, and a clear list, discount and rebate structure holds them in place.
Floor
Target
Ceiling
Method 3
Capability and Culture Transformation
How do we keep the gains when we leave the room? Governance, approval rules, dashboards and certified training move the business from cost-plus habits to value pricing.
How an engagement runs
What happens, week by week?
Five stages, each with a clear output the leadership team can act on. A diagnostic runs 8 to 12 weeks. Price optimisation programs have delivered measurable margin within 6 to 12 months of go-live.
Discover and configure
Weeks 1–2
Agree the commercial objective, confirm the data, map the business units, channels, customers and products.
Output: scope, data request and financial starting point
Diagnose capability
Weeks 2–5
Every commercial role completes the 9PE survey and pricing maths test. Interviews test what the scores mean.
Output: 9PE canvas by business unit and role
Analyse transactions
Weeks 3–7
Price spread by product, compliance with price lists, discount depth, rebates, customer and product concentration.
Output: margin bridge and price waterfall
Prioritise and optimise
Weeks 6–12
Quick wins and structural changes ranked by value and ease. Where the data supports it, Blackbird sets the prices.
Output: ranked actions, decision pack, price files
Embed and sustain
Month 3 onward
Approval rules, dashboards, playbooks and Pricing University training, with results tracked against the plan.
Output: governance, trained teams, tracked results
Method 1 in detail
What does the 9PE canvas measure?
9PE stands for Nine Pricing Elements. The nine elements of pricing capability are customer value drivers, pricing strategy, customer agreements, management alignment, pricing team skills, marketing, sales and negotiation, analytics and methods, systems and tools, and pricing structure. They sit across three pillars. Each is scored from the survey and tested against the sales data, so opinion and evidence sit side by side.
StrategicIs the direction right?
StructuralIs the system set up to deliver it?
OperationalDoes it happen every day?
Value
Customer value driversDo we know what customers pay for, by segment?
Pricing strategyIs there a written market position and price policy?
Customer agreementsDo contracts, rebates and terms protect margin?
People
Management alignmentDo leaders share one view of pricing and its targets?
Pricing team skillsIs the pricing function resourced and capable?
Marketing, sales and negotiationCan the field sell value and hold price?
Structures
Analytics and methodsAre prices set on evidence rather than habit?
Systems and toolsIs master data accurate and are overrides tracked?
Pricing structureIs the list, discount and rebate architecture clear?
Red: below 50%Amber: 50–74%Green: 75% or aboveResults split by business unit, role and region, and flagged where teams disagree
Method 1 in detail
Which 16 pricing techniques do we test?
The diagnostic scores 16 techniques where margin is most often lost. Each one links to a measurable test in your sales data and a named fix.
T1List price optimisationStructure
T2Customer discount price levelsStructure
T3Tactical discounts and price overridesBehaviour
T4RebatesAgreements
T5Channel discountsStructure
T6Cost management and pass-throughProcess
T7Volume managementAgreements
T8Product and customer mixStrategy
T9Undefined customer value driversValue
T10Cost-plus markup pricingValue
T11Commodity mindsetCulture
T12Discounting to win or retainBehaviour
T13Negotiation with procurementBehaviour
T14Price increase implementationProcess
T15Convoluted or inconsistent price structureStructure
T16Management misalignmentCulture
Method 2 in detail
How does Blackbird decide what each customer should pay?
Project Blackbird is Pricing Insight's method for setting a floor, target and ceiling price for each customer and product. Blackbird combines what each customer can bear with what each product earns across the market, then rolls the answer up into a price structure sales teams can use.
Input 1
Customer pricing power
Each customer is scored on five dimensions from your ERP data and placed in a tier.
Switching costPrice awarenessRelationship depthGrowth trajectoryProfitability
HARVESTPROTECTMONITORRISK
×
Input 2
Product price distribution
For every product, the full national spread of prices customers paid, this year against last.
- Mean, median and most common price
- Percentiles from the 2nd to the 98th
- How tightly prices cluster, a sign of discipline
- How far prices have spread, a sign of override creep
=
Output
Prices and EBIT scenarios
A recommended price for every customer and product, with EBIT at three risk levels.
Low risk
Mid
Higher risk
Rolled up to price groups or contracts, so sales teams receive one clear position, not thousands of changes.
Bars show the relative size of the three scenarios, not a client result.
Opportunity sizing
How do we size the opportunity so the board can trust it?
An estimate is never presented as a result. Every figure states its basis, period and currency, and moves through five stages before it is called a benefit.
Stage 1
Measured exposure
What the sales history shows todayStage 2
Peer benchmark
Against similar customers and productsStage 3
Addressable
The share the business can act onStage 4
Expected benefit
Conservative, base and stretch casesStage 5
Realised benefit
Tracked in the accounts after go-liveAfter rebates. Opportunity is measured on net price, so it survives the CFO's first question.
No double counting. Estimates from different fixes overlap, so they are never added together.
Shown two ways. Uplift in basis points and in dollars, by business unit and channel.
A$2m–9m
EBIT delivered for every A$100m of revenue optimised, the typical range across our projects.
Method 3 in detail
Why do pricing programs fail, and how do we make the gains last?
Pricing transformations fail for human reasons more often than technical ones. The spreadsheets work. What fails is the fear of losing the deal, the habit of cost-plus and rules nobody owns.
From a culture of compliance
- Cost-plus markups on every product
- Discounts given before the customer asks
- Price increases absorbed, not passed through
- Sales and finance pulling in different directions
- Rules imposed from head office and worked around
→
To a culture of commitment
- Prices set on the value customers receive
- Discounts earned, approved and tracked
- Leaders front price increases with key customers
- One margin language across sales and finance
- Rules co-designed with the field and owned by them
Monthly pricing council
Cross-functional, one-page decisions on exceptions, tiers and campaigns.
Integrated margin dashboard
Every role sees true margin, weekly, for the accounts it manages.
Early wins in weeks 2–3
Visible dollar results before the harder structural work begins.
Certified training
Pricing maths and value selling through Pricing University, tested before and after.
Global deployment
Can it run across several business units and countries at once?
Yes. The method is built for groups. One survey, one data model and one scoring method run across every business unit, so results compare like with like.
Findings are set out from the top down: group, business unit, channel, top customers, then product examples. The leadership team sees the whole picture first, and each business unit receives its own canvas, margin bridge and action list.
We work with private equity portfolio companies, Fortune 500 businesses, ASX-listed groups and family-owned companies.
AustraliaNew ZealandSouth East AsiaIndiaUnited StatesUnited Kingdom
Group
Business unit
Channel or segment
Top customers
Products and examples
How every diagnostic is structured and reported
The evidence
What do our diagnostics show across B2B businesses?
Across our client diagnostics, the weakest areas sit in the day-to-day execution of pricing, more than in pricing strategy.
A centralised record of competitor prices was the weakest, or close to the weakest, statement in almost every business. Review cadence and sales negotiation sat in the bottom three most often.
Source: Pricing Insight cross-client diagnostic register, anonymised. Mean agreement on a 1–9 scale, pooled across clients.
Pricing review cadence
5.2
Sales enablement and negotiation
5.4
Methodology and price architecture
5.4
Analytics, data and systems
5.6
Governance and consistency
5.6
Price-increase management
5.8
Value creation and communication
6.0
Roles, resources and capability
6.0
Results
What has the method delivered?
Published results from client engagements. Every figure is from a public case study.
| Client | Result | Timeframe |
|---|---|---|
| Arnott's | Over A$5m EBIT | Recovered within 12 months |
| Bunzl | +800bps gross margin on targeted SKUs (A$5.7m EBIT), 98.3% of customers retained | Within 12 months |
| Staples | A$6.8m EBITDA on A$80m revenue | Within 12 months |
| Hyster-Yale Asia Pacific | From an A$100k EBIT loss to an A$3m gain | Within 12 months |
| Farmlands | A$3.5m–6.2m EBIT opportunity identified | Pricing maturity 61% at baseline |
What you receive
What does the leadership team receive?
Every output is built to support a decision, with the evidence behind it available to check.
Decision pack
The answer first, the financial starting point, then one decision for each of the nine elements.
Diagnostic report
The full capability and opportunity findings, by business unit, channel and role.
Evidence workbook
Live formulas and a quality-check log, so finance can trace every number.
Price architecture
List price, discount matrix and override rules, drawn as one family tree.
Price files
Recommended prices by customer and product, ready to load into your ERP.
Two-year pricing strategy
Market position, policy, governance and a staged plan for the leadership team.
Who leads the work
Who will be in the room?
Ron Wood founded Pricing Insight in 2007 after building pricing functions from the inside for ASX-listed and Fortune 500 companies.
Ron brings 30 years in pricing, more than 160 clients and over 5,000 executives trained. Pricing Insight engagements are led by Ron, who works across building materials, B2B industrial, capital equipment, services and retail in Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, India, the United States and the United Kingdom.
How is Pricing Insight different from a generalist consultancy?
The work goes past recommendations into price lists, approval rules, systems and training, and the results are tracked afterwards. The method was built by a practitioner who has run pricing functions.
Do we need clean data to start?
No. The diagnostic states which analyses the available data supports and names what to fix in the data along the way.
Will price changes cost us customers?
Changes are set customer by customer according to pricing power, and at-risk accounts are protected. In the Bunzl engagement, 98.3% of customers were retained.
Can you run it across several business units or countries?
Yes. One survey, data model and scoring method run across every business unit, with group results and a separate canvas and action list for each unit.
Is the diagnostic a survey or an analysis?
Both. The capability survey shows how pricing is managed, and the transaction data shows what it costs.
How long does it take?
A diagnostic typically takes 8 to 12 weeks from start to executive workshop. Price optimisation programs have delivered measurable gains within 6 to 12 months of go-live.
Where is your margin going?
Start with a 9PE diagnostic and see the answer in your own numbers.
Let’s work together
Whether you're ready to optimise your pricing or want to explore what's possible, we'd love to hear from you.
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