In a recent educational video, Ajit, CEO and co-founder of Monetize.ly, introduces a valuable free resource for SaaS companies looking to revamp their pricing strategies. He explains, "I'm trying to discuss with you the importance of doing a pricing assessment as you embark on a pricing project," highlighting how this structured approach can help companies identify specific areas for pricing improvement rather than making unfocused changes.
Why Pricing Assessments Matter
When companies decide to revamp their pricing, there's often confusion about where exactly changes are needed. As Ajit points out in the video, "There tends to be an overall consensus that there is a change needed to be made in pricing but a lack of clarity of where that change is required."
This confusion manifests in various ways:
- Sales teams focus on price points
- Product teams prioritize new offering launches
- Questions arise about package structures
- Debates emerge about pricing metrics
- Considerations about usage-based pricing surface
Without a systematic assessment, companies risk making changes that don't address their actual pricing problems or miss opportunities for optimization.
The 5-Step Framework for Pricing Excellence
Monetize.ly has developed what Ajit calls their "5-step framework" to comprehensively evaluate pricing strategies. This framework examines:
- Segmentation - How well you understand and target different customer groups
- Packaging - How your offerings are bundled and presented
- Pricing Value Metric - The core unit of value you charge for
- Price Points - The actual monetary amounts you charge
- Operational Readiness - Your ability to implement and maintain pricing changes
How the Assessment Process Works
The assessment follows a straightforward process:
- Data Collection: "This is done through a survey which will be fielded to all of the people you tell us are pricing stakeholders," explains Ajit. The survey captures information about:
- Respondent's title and role
- Company's current stage
- Main business goals
- Key customer segments
- Packaging structure
- Current pricing metrics
- And more
- Benchmarking: Monetize.ly compares your current pricing approach against industry best practices. Ajit notes they will "benchmark you across these five steps… and we will compare that to what we have seen as the best in class."
- Maturity Analysis: The assessment places your company on a maturity curve for each dimension of pricing, showing "where you are on sort of a maturity curve in processes today and the opportunity that lies in front of you."
- Internal Alignment Check: One unique value of the assessment is that it reveals how aligned your team is on pricing issues. As Ajit explains, "We will replay back the current internal perception… so that you can get a sense of how you are aligning internally across these stages."
- Recommendations: Finally, Monetize.ly provides "broad recommendations as well as quotes from your own team" to help guide your next steps.
Benefits of Conducting a Pricing Assessment
The primary benefit of this assessment is gaining organizational alignment. Ajit emphasizes that this process is "very helpful for you to now gain alignment and consensus inside the company as to the things that you need to do to move forward on your pricing revamp effort."
Other benefits include:
- Identifying specific pricing weaknesses rather than making general changes
- Understanding where you stand compared to industry best practices
- Discovering gaps between team members' perceptions of pricing issues
- Creating a data-driven roadmap for pricing improvements
- Prioritizing which pricing elements to address first
Taking Advantage of the Free Assessment
Monetize.ly is offering this comprehensive pricing assessment at no cost to companies interested in improving their pricing strategy. As Ajit states in the conclusion of his video: "We are offering this to you for free so we welcome to partner with us to review how you're doing in terms of pricing and take your next steps."
This no-cost assessment represents a low-risk way for SaaS companies to gain valuable insights before investing significant resources into pricing changes.
Conclusion
A structured pricing assessment provides the foundation for successful pricing optimization. Rather than making pricing changes based on intuition or isolated feedback, this methodology ensures companies address the right issues in the right order.
As Ajit describes it, this is "a very very powerful approach that we have now come up with after repeated instances of guiding companies on how to think about a pricing project." For SaaS companies struggling with pricing decisions or looking to optimize their revenue model, this assessment offers a clear starting point that can align teams and identify the most impactful areas for improvement.