Tech Spotlight | Strategic Pricing Associates (SPA)

SPA is the leading provider of pricing analytics to 100’s of complex companies of all types: manufacturing, distribution, equipment, services, and software/technology products. Since 1993, we’ve built a strong platform of proprietary analytics to quickly and efficiently help companies convert their own invoice data into pricing architectures that maximize their pricing performance and competitive position. Our typical client applies our pricing architecture and improves profitability by two to four percent of sales: $2 to $4 million per $100 million of affected revenue. The benefits are staggering; and they are typically accomplished in less than 90 days.

Clients

SPA Clients include over 200 manufacturing companies including Parker Hannifin, Rockwell, GE, Exxon Mobil, Caterpillar as well as over 400 distributors including Harry Cooper Supply Company, Industrial Distribution Group, AH Harris, and ThermoFisher Scientific.

Click here to read SPA Client Testimonials.

Products and Services

SPA provides recommended pricing architectures and related process training to complex companies. SPA helps clients to quickly and efficiently build a more profitable pricing architecture in their enterprise system, without complex and costly integration efforts.

We work with our clients to segment their customer base and product/service sets. They give us a slice of invoice data that describes their actual pricing performance—who paid how much for which product/service and how many they bought—and we apply our proprietary analytical models to these data to recommend what their pricing architecture should look like. We profile the relative sensitivity of customers and products, to recommend pricing structures that focus discounting where it pays off in the market; and extract price premiums where there is less sensitivity.

We recommend price levels by product/service category and customer segment, as well as customer/product-specific price levels. We recommend list prices, discount/mark-up structures, and even customer contract pricing. We develop guidelines to help our clients manage and control exceptions to the architecture, and to identify pricing leakage points in the business. We coach our clients on the principles of strategic pricing and the process of mastering pricing. We assist you in training your sales reps in the practical and cultural dimensions of this program.

SPA Pricing Cube™

The SPA Pricing Cube™ combines your understanding of markets with SPA’s powerful analytics, to identify the optimal pricing architecture for your business, focusing discounts on the most price-sensitive products and customers, where it will have the biggest payoff in competitive positioning; and extracting small premiums on less-sensitive products and customers.

The SPA Pricing Cube™ takes the guesswork out optimized pricing in complex environments, allowing your sales force to focus on serving the customer and driving value. Our process provides for flexibility and discipline in pricing, to create a balance that works in your business.

• The SPA Pricing Cube™ is the foundation for organizing transaction data for purposes of comparative indexing analysis
• Every customer is assigned to a market segment and customer size and/or sensitivity level; every product/service is assigned to a product/service family
• Every product/service is profiled for price sensitivity
• The SPA Pricing Cube™ provides a foundation for setting pricing standards in complex environments
• The SPA Pricing Cube™ evolves from The Silver Pricing Cube™ to our Gold and Platinum levels, to achieve increasing sophistication and impact
• The Silver Pricing Cube™ builds basic pricing structures based on customer segment and size; and overall product/service sensitivity ratings
• The Gold Pricing Cube™ incorporates dynamic premiums; and segment-specific product/service sensitivity ratings
• The Platinum Pricing Cube™ profiles advanced customer-sensitivity characteristics; incorporates customer behavioral scoring methods; as well as customer cost-to-serve analyses

Events

Webcasts

Join us as we discuss how SPA’s Strategic Pricing Program offers significant margin improvement opportunities and can lead your company to pricing excellence. A SPA client will also share their experiences and advice that will provide you with a wealth of practical knowledge!

Attendees will learn how to address the following all too common issues and opportunities for increasing profitability:

• Customer relationships focused on product/service value, not price
• Identifying and capturing available margin premiums
• Identifying price-sensitive products and services
• Improving sales reps’ confidence in prices
• Stopping undisciplined discounting
• Tracking metrics for sales force accountability
• Improving pricing consistency and fairness

These webcasts draw on SPA’s experience working with hundreds of companies to drive 2-4 margin point improvements on affected revenue with minimal customer pushback.

Click here to see a list of upcoming complimentary SPA Strategic Pricing Webcasts.

Seminars

Seminars are a great way to keep current on the latest in Strategic Pricing and other related topics that will allow your company to stay competitive and improve performance. There is no cost to enroll or attend, and you will take back valuable information on how to use Strategic Pricing to drive improvements in your bottom line.

Examples of what attendees learn include best-practice strategies and tactics to:

• Achieve faster growth and market-leading profitability
• Develop stronger customer relationships
• Maximize your company’s valuation
• Drive real change in sales force culture
• Break the cycle of undisciplined pricing
• Build a sales process based on customer value
• Quantify and Communicate Customer Value
• Achieve pricing flexibility with discipline
• Improve operational efficiency with reporting and analytics

Examples of the major themes covered at recent events includes:

• Now is the time to focus on strategic fundamentals to set the stage for outperformance in the rebound
• Inflation and pricing challenges are looming; those who don’t master pricing will experience a margin squeeze
• There are significant capital markets opportunities to increase shareholder value today
• Pricing excellence is a key wealth-maximizing capability
• Analytics and the information system are key
• Training drives execution
• Sales culture and change management are the challenge
• Prioritization, long-term commitment, and focus are the keys

Click here to see a list of upcoming complimentary SPA Strategic Pricing Seminars near you.

Contact Info

If you have a question about how we can help you, please send us an email or give us a call. We hope to hear from you soon.

Strategic Pricing Associates
2701 Park Drive
Cleveland, OH 44120
216.455.1545
[email protected]

Follow SPA

To easily keep us with the latest SPA announcements, events and resources you can subscribe to our Strategic Pricing Pays blog or follow us on LinkedIn or on the following major social media channels and file sharing platforms: Twitter, Google+, Facebook, SlideShare, and YouTube.

We also encourage you to join the Strategic Pricing discussions in our LinkedIn group and to sign up to receive our Strategic Pricing Newsletter by clicking here.