Your team believes the margin is there. Nothing changes

What is changing

Margin pressure has put pricing on the executive agenda, and sales, finance and marketing each see a different problem.

Sales teams are measured on volume and revenue while the board asks about margin.

Common signs

• Leaders say margin matters; incentives reward volume.
• Finance and sales argue over the same numbers.
• Pricing rules change depending on who is asking.
• Staff believe gains are possible and wait for someone else to act.

Where it leads if left alone

Misalignment shows up as exceptions. Each function wins its own argument, rules bend case by case, and the pricing strategy exists only on paper.

The decision that is hard to reverse

Launching a pricing program before leaders agree on the principles is the costly step. Sales hears one message and finance another, and the program loses credibility in its first quarter.

What recovery costs

After a program fails, staff treat the next one with cynicism. Rebuilding belief takes visible leadership, consistent rules and time.

What good looks like

• Leaders state the pricing principles and apply them the same way every day.
• Sales is measured on margin as well as volume.
• A Pricing Council resolves exceptions with reasons and evidence.
• Front-line staff are trained on their own accounts.

What it is worth

An identified opportunity is realised only when sales, finance and the executive team apply the same rules to the same accounts. Progress is measured against the same finance-agreed baseline as any other pricing change.

How it is treated

1. Measure the gap. A short staff survey shows where leaders, sales and finance agree and where they don't. Strategic EBIT Opportunity & Risk Diagnostic →
2. Agree the principles. A working session with the executive team sets the pricing principles and decision rights. Value-Based Culture & Transformation →
3. Train on live accounts. Front-line teams apply the principles to their own customers, with incentives and approvals to match. Pricing Masterclass (12-Week Program) →

How Pricing Insight works

Experience

Ron Wood has worked in pricing for 30 years: first as a pricing and commercial manager in FMCG, building materials and capital equipment, and since 2007 as adviser to more than 160 businesses.

Method

Each engagement follows the same sequence: diagnose, optimise, embed. Recommendations rest on the client's own transaction data, and every figure can be traced to it.

Measurement

Results are measured against a margin baseline agreed with the client's finance team, and reported as realised, modelled or identified.

Continuity

Ron Wood leads each engagement from the first meeting to handover.

Would your sales director and your CFO describe your pricing the same way?

A first conversation establishes how this applies in your business and whether a diagnostic is warranted.

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