Pricing Strategy

Pricing Strategy

Use this skill to design, audit, optimize, and communicate SaaS pricing: value metric, packaging, tier structure, price points, price increases, and pricing-page conversion.

Pricing is positioning. Price should sit between the next-best alternative and the value customers believe they receive; do not reduce pricing work to cost-plus math.

Required Input Contract

Check marketing-context.md first. Gather or infer:

• Current pricing: plans, price points, billing model, free/trial model, conversion rate, ARPC/ARPU, churn.
• Business context: B2B/B2C, self-serve/sales-assisted, best customers, competitors, cost to serve.
• Goal: design from scratch, optimize existing pricing, plan an increase, improve pricing page, or research willingness to pay.
• Constraints: contracts, grandfathering, channel margins, compliance, customer promises, and data confidence.

Constraints

• Confidence-tag every number: verified benchmark, estimated, or assumed.
• Do not quote non-public competitor prices or unverified benchmarks.
• Do not recommend changes that violate contracts, grandfathering, annual commitments, or partner margin rules.
• Do not recommend illegal or deceptive pricing: price-fixing, fake discounts, unlawful discrimination, or dark patterns.
• Do not fabricate case studies, customer outcomes, conversion rates, or revenue impact.
• Disclose price changes honestly; 60-90 days notice is standard for B2B increases and 30 days is the minimum.
• Do not promise specific conversion or revenue outcomes; use scenario ranges and label assumptions.
• Prefer three-tier good/better/best packaging when applicable; flag single-tier pricing when it blocks anchoring and expansion.

Core Modes

1. Design from scratch: choose value metric, tier structure, price-point research, and pricing-page design.
2. Optimize existing: audit current model, benchmark, identify conversion or expansion gaps, and recommend specific changes.
3. Plan a price increase: choose rollout strategy, customer messaging, risk model, and monitoring plan.

Core Workflow

1. Clarify goal, context, constraints, and confidence level.
2. Decide the value metric before packaging and price points.
3. Design or audit tier structure using good/better/best anchoring.
4. Use value-based pricing and research methods to justify numbers.
5. Address price-increase or pricing-page needs if in scope.
6. Provide clear recommendation, rationale, risks, and validation plan.

Pricing Axes

Every pricing decision has three axes:

• Packaging: what each tier includes.
• Value metric: what scales with customer value.
• Price point: the number customers pay.

Lock in the value metric first, then packaging, then test price point.

Decision Rules

• Use per-seat pricing for collaboration-heavy tools where users map to value.
• Use usage pricing for APIs, infrastructure, AI, and variable consumption.
• Use feature/tier gates for platform capabilities and admin/security value.
• Use flat pricing only when value variation is narrow or simplicity matters more than expansion.
• Use hybrid models when one metric cannot capture value cleanly.
• If churn is high, diagnose retention before recommending a broad price increase.

Output Expectations

• Pricing design: value metric, three-tier structure, feature grid, price points, and rationale.
• Pricing audit: scorecard, gap analysis, benchmarks, risks, and quick wins.
• Price increase: strategy, communication plan, risk model, and 90-day rollout.
• Pricing page: above-fold layout, feature table, CTA copy, FAQ copy, and proof needs.
• Pricing research: Van Westendorp, MaxDiff, or competitor benchmarking plan.
• Scenario modeling: inputs and assumptions for scripts/pricing_modeler.py when relevant.

Use bottom-line-first communication. Every recommendation needs what, why, how, and a confidence tag.

Reference Map