In a detailed presentation from the "AI, SaaS & Agentic Pricing with Monetizely" channel, a pricing consultant shares a cost-effective alternative to traditional pricing research methods for B2B enterprise products. The video "A Unique Approach To Qualitative Pricing Research For Complex B2B Products" outlines why conventional survey-based approaches fail for complex enterprise offerings and presents a structured interview methodology that delivers more reliable results at a fraction of the cost.
Why Traditional Pricing Research Fails for B2B Products
The fundamental challenge with pricing research for B2B enterprise products is their complexity. Unlike consumer products, enterprise solutions contain sophisticated capabilities that can't be easily explained in survey format.
"When it comes to B2B enterprise products, that tends to be very different from consumer products," the speaker explains. "The capabilities and features in a complex B2B enterprise product are not able to be listed on a survey very easily. Let's say you come up with this complex ad optimizations engine or this complex text analytics engine. How are you really going to explain that in a very oneliner sort of survey?"
This complexity creates a significant disconnect when using traditional methodologies. The consultant notes that their firm has repeatedly encountered clients who invested heavily in conventional research approaches with disappointing results:
"At least three times companies have come to us and said 'hey we did this research project with that other company. We spent a hundred,000 to $200,000 with them and they've given us package or pricing recommendations that make no sense to us.'"
A More Effective Alternative: Structured Interviews
The consultant presents an alternative approach that relies on structured interviews rather than surveys. This methodology involves conducting 15-20 interviews with a mix of current clients and prospective customers who match the target buying persona.
"This includes a series of structured interviews to the buying persona candidates across 15 to 20 mix of clients and prospects," the speaker notes, emphasizing the qualitative nature of this approach that captures nuance that surveys miss.
The structured interview process follows a clear agenda:
- Understanding broader pain points
- Assessing fit of new packaging/pricing with customer needs
- Determining expected pricing ranges
- Validating packaging hypotheses
How the Structured Interview Process Works
The consultant outlines a step-by-step process for these interviews:
Pain Point Validation
First, the interviewer validates whether they correctly understand the prospect's pain points, often using a budget allocation exercise:
"I make them distribute $100 across these categories," which helps prioritize which pain points matter most.
Package Selection Testing
Next, the interviewer presents a hypothetical packaging structure and asks prospects to select the option that best fits their needs.
Price Range Determination
For the selected package, the customer is asked to identify pricing boundaries:
"For the selected plan choose a price above which you would certainly not buy because it is so expensive or a price below which you would not consider it because you would not even trust the quality of the product."
This approach reveals not just pricing thresholds but also the reasoning behind them. As the consultant notes, "The beauty of this is actually more in how they explain the decision process which tends not to be the case in traditional survey methods because you don't understand the buying process of a multistakeholder organization."
Unblinded Testing
The process continues with "unblinded" testing where specific price points are presented to see if and how decisions change. This phase includes critical feature validation:
"I may even ask what features in this package can you not live without and if we dropped one feature which one would have no impact to you at all."
Analyzing and Reporting the Results
After completing the interviews, the data is aggregated and analyzed to identify patterns. The consultant explains the types of insights this produces:
"I will say hey this is the median deal size. One of your packages tends to be chosen a lot. There is a plan that is not chosen. We may consider refining it further because after all it was a hypothesis."
The analysis includes identifying:
- Which plans customers prefer (and why)
- Willingness to pay ranges for different segments
- Outlier customers with unusually high willingness to pay
- Preferred pricing metrics (e.g., subscription vs. per-user)
- Must-have vs. nice-to-have features
The consultant highlights an interesting finding from their experience: "Even though there is a fad or a popularity of usage based pricing you would be surprised how many enterprise would just rather pay a fixed amount every year and be done with it."
Benefits Over Traditional Methods
This approach offers several key advantages compared to traditional survey-based methods:
- Deeper insights: Captures the reasoning and decision-making process
- Better alignment: Results in recommendations that actually make sense to product teams
- Lower cost: "We can do this fast and we can do it at a fraction of a cost of other research methods"
- Implementation ready: Delivers "validated results that you can depend on to launch your new pricing and packaging"
From Research to Launch
The outcome of this process is a "finalized package recommendation, finalized pricing metric recommendation and price point recommendation that can actually be launched."
Unlike the abstract findings from traditional conjoint analysis that often leave product teams confused about how to implement them, this approach produces actionable recommendations grounded in actual customer conversations.
For B2B enterprise companies looking to validate their pricing strategies without the six-figure investment typically associated with pricing research, this structured interview methodology offers a pragmatic and effective alternative that better accounts for the complexities of enterprise solutions.