Pricing Onboarding

Pricing Onboarding — sub-skill

Interactive setup. ~10 minutes. Outputs:

• brand-config.json at repo root (or merges into existing one)
• SOUL.md at repo root with the pricing section filled in

The skill REFUSES to draft real pricing recommendations until both files exist with the required pricing fields populated.

Activation

The main pricing skill routes here when:

• brand-config.json doesn't exist OR
• brand-config.json exists but pricing.* is empty OR
• SOUL.md doesn't exist OR
• SOUL.md exists but the pricing-stance section is empty

Workflow

Step 1 — Welcome + scope

Output:

Pricing setup — ~10 minutes
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

I'll ask you 12 questions about your current pricing, then create:

  brand-config.json   ← your tiers, value metric, customers, ops
  SOUL.md             ← your voice and stance on pricing decisions

The skill won't draft real pricing recommendations without these
files. Generic pricing copy is worse than none. Ready? (y/n)

Wait for confirmation. If n, exit with a brief explanation of why this matters.

Step 2 — Brand-config questions

Ask in batches of 2-3, not one at a time:

Batch 1 — Current state (3 questions):

1. What's your current pricing? (List the tiers + prices + cadence — e.g., "$99/$299/$999 monthly")
2. What's your headline value metric — what scales with customer success? (per-seat / per-API / per-record / per-outcome / hybrid)
3. What's your average ACV today, and is it trending up, down, or flat in the last 6 months?

Batch 2 — Customers (3 questions): 4. Who's your primary Pain Signal Profile (PSP)? (1-2 sentences. If you've installed claude-psp, paste the PSP slug.) 5. What's your typical buyer's biggest pricing objection in cycle? (verbatim if you have it) 6. What pricing did you walk away from in the last 6 months that you wish you'd held? (and why did you discount?)

Batch 3 — Diagnostic surface (3 questions): 7. Do you know your WTP distribution per PSP — or would the answer to "What would you pay for this?" be different across your buyer segments? (Yes/Best guess/No) 8. Have you ever run a structured WTP survey (Van Westendorp / Gabor-Granger / conjoint) in the last 18 months? 9. What's your current discount policy? (Documented thresholds, or "sales discretion")

Batch 4 — Reference frames (3 questions): 10. What does your buyer use INSTEAD if they don't buy from you? (the inertia anchor) 11. What's the highest-priced product or alternative they're already paying for? (anchor candidate) 12. Do you have an outcome guarantee or risk-reversal mechanism today? (e.g., "money-back if X")

Step 3 — Voice setup (SOUL.md pricing section)

After brand-config is captured, prompt:

Now let's capture your pricing voice. 3 short questions:

A. What's your stance on pricing? (1-2 sentences. e.g., "Pricing is
   a discipline, not a strategy. I refuse to lead with cost-plus
   or competitor anchoring.")
B. What 3 phrases would you NEVER use when talking about price?
   (e.g., "investment", "value-add", "best-in-class")
C. What 2-3 stories or receipts do you cite when explaining why
   your price is fair? (Specific receipts: customer X saved Y; team
   Z hit metric W.)

Step 4 — Write the files

Write brand-config.json using the schema in brand-config.example.json. Populate the pricing.* fields with the operator's answers. Don't overwrite other sections if they exist; merge.

Append the pricing-stance section to SOUL.md (or create the file with the pricing-stance section template).

Step 5 — Confirm + route

Show a summary:

✓ brand-config.json written/updated
✓ SOUL.md written/updated

State check:
  ✅ Step 1 — brand-config + SOUL ready
  ✅ Step 2 — Current tiers documented
  ⬜ Step 3 — Pain Signal Profile (recommend: install claude-psp)
  ⬜ Step 4 — WTP discovery (next: /pricing diagnose)
  ...

Recommended next action: Run /pricing diagnose to see where your
margin is leaking before any tier rebuild. (~15 minutes.)

Run it now? (y/n)

Validation rules

Before writing the files, validate:

• All 12 brand-config questions have non-empty answers
• All 3 SOUL questions have non-empty answers
• Tier prices are real numbers, not placeholders
• WTP "Yes/Best guess/No" answer determines whether to require a WTP-source field

If validation fails, loop back to the unanswered question — don't write half-filled files.

Self-check

• brand-config.json exists and parses as valid JSON
• brand-config.json has populated pricing.currentTiers, pricing.valueMetric, customer.psps[]
• SOUL.md exists and has the pricing-stance section
• Operator confirmed both files via y response
• State checklist re-evaluated post-write

Reference

• ../../brand-config.example.json — schema for the JSON file
• ../../SOUL.md — template for the voice file
• ../pricing-kickoff/SKILL.md — where the operator returns after setup