Your go to market pricing strategy is your ‘cash flow lifeline‘ after a crisis. Only organisations that have maintained a strong investment in marketing their go to market pricing strategy will be in a position to drive growth after the crisis.

 

>Download Now: Free PDF Future Proof Your Pricing Strategy

 

Every business in Australia, and indeed the whole world, is feeling the unprecedented impacts of COVID-19. Some businesses will be fighting for survival; most will be re-configuring new product pricing strategies in marketing to adapt.

 

The role of price-based marketing strategy will play an even more essential role in the business. More people will be turning to online shopping for their needs. New strategies will be planned to find innovative ways to reach the online market.

 

Capability Building Programmes For Pricing & Sales Teams!

 

Your pricing is more important than ever…

 

Pricing strategies marketing management will cover everything from marketing communications to pricing, distribution and the product and service offering with customers in mind. As a strategic part of the organisation, marketing will help you to adapt and invest in the right go to market pricing strategy.

 

In this article, we will discuss all the operations marketing departments are looking at during the COVID-19 pandemic to drive profitable revenue, both for the short term and the long term.  We strongly believe that while a global pandemic requires business leaders to think on their feet, there’s evidence to suggest that leaders who invest in their go to market pricing strategy now do better in the long term.

 

By the end of this article, you will learn how you can help your business survive during tough economic times and protect your staff. 

 

go to market pricing strategy

 

Can current business models adapt to this pandemic?

 

This is an unprecedented time we are in, but one that won’t last forever. It can be a difficult balancing act and no two businesses will have the same tactics. 

 

What should a Marketer know about Pricing? 📚 Podcast Ep. 61!

 

But with the proper strategy and pricing implementation, your business can survive:

 

  • Contingency plans: Pandemic would be the greatest threat to business continuity and could remain so for up to months if not years. Therefore, businesses should formulate meticulous contingency plans to slow down the progress of a pandemic and restrict its effects on employees, consumers, partners, shareholders, and communities. This means, requiring more than simply checking again the existing business continuity plans is they are still reliable enough. 

 

  • Employee protection plan: Recent study models propose that the pandemic is presumed to come in three waves. Each wave will sweep globally in a matter of weeks, for as long as three months. Thus, there should be a change in the nature of continuity planning. It should be away from tactics that protect infrastructure and towards protecting employees and their capability to work even during a sustained crisis.

 

  • Scenario planning: Businesses shouldn’t only depend on a specialised risk management team to manage them through a sustained crisis. They should develop instead the capacity to quickly anaylse ongoing changes in the surroundings and create responses based on simple principles. 

 

  • Task teams: Companies should have a worldwide network of people taken throughout the organisation that can organize and adjust as events unravel, reacting quickly and appropriately to disturbances such as failures in communication inside and outside the business and losses of physical and human resources.

 

Other strategies and pricing implementations:

 

  • Tactical decision support: This network needs to rapidly cycle through a process of sensing threats, responding, coordinating, and then sensing again. It needs to get involved in collaborative and creative yet disciplined problem solving on the go, though members of the crisis network move around or get dissolved.

 

  • Pricing committee: A company could form a globally dispersed group with changing membership that would commit (for instance, half a day every other month) to engaging in different pricing scenarios. What would the team do, for example, if 30% of the company’s factory workers in Asia dropped out? What if big countries like China or the US closed its borders? How would the team respond to a “worst-case” scenario? The goal is not to create specific rules for responding to specific threats but to practice new ways of problem-solving in an uncertain future.

 

  • Knowledge distribution: Advantage in a crisis will go to the one that can leverage its pricing capabilities and cooperate with other members of the community—even competitors. Companies should think about applying a shared model to crisis response. Just as they invite partners and competitors to co-develop innovative products, they should look at whether co-developed crisis responses would be better than exclusive ones. If they’d lose certain capabilities in a crisis and competitors would lose others, are there mutually beneficial opportunities for trade and collaboration?

 

  • Accountability: Finally, many leaders think crisis management is not their job. But creating organisations that are strong in the face of uncertainty requires a new mindset. And that must be driven from the top down. By developing pricing mechanisms that support superior adaptive capability; companies will inoculate themselves against a range of threats, not just pandemics. They’ll become more resilient and competitive in the complex and uncertain future business situations.

 

Discussion

 

As more people transition to working from home and develop remote communication skills; each employee should feel recognised and supported, to maintain productivity. Keeping their morale high; and showing staff that you and the company care for them, is important to build psychological safety. The first and foremost priority of the company is the welfare of the workers. Without them, the business will fail.

 

Businesses are now being scrutinised by the public and handed an opportunity to strengthen their reputation. The potential is significant, but businesses must be mindful of getting the timing right. Giving back to customers and supporting them through tougher economic times – like giving donations and extended hours to shop or relaxing payment terms for smaller B2B accounts – will be greatly appreciated by the public and B2B businesses alike. A company that makes extra efforts to be part of the community will garner customer loyalty; and this is what pricing strategy in marketing really means. Profitability is not a zero-sum game – let’s grow share of the pie. 

 

Only organisations that have maintained a strong investment in marketing can drive growth after a crisis has passed. A successful go to market pricing strategy demonstrates that you can adapt to changing customer’s needs. Planning ahead in the event of a crisis will be beneficial to developing a better go to market pricing strategy; as you’ll come out stronger from it. Having contingency plans to ride out a crisis shows that you are prepared to face any situation. With the new pricing knowledge learned from the crisis; you’ll be in the position to read the market and make better plans in the mid to long term. You’ll build a more resilient and capable team that can think on their feet.  

 

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Implications

 

Organisations have to address immediate issues and losses at hand; with all business leaders doing that right now. Organisations should also be acting with the long term in mind. 

 

During periods of uncertainty and crisis, organisations should be flexible enough to adapt to where the opportunities are.  Applying the right plan properly in a crisis defines the pricing strategy in marketing.

 

Agility is crucial, but it cannot be achieved by boardrooms alone. Empowering employees at every level of the business is imperative. Cultivating a culture of care needs to be fostered. As all of us are working in these uncertain times.

 

Internal communications must be consistent and transparent, and teams should feel they are all on a collective journey together. 

 

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Conclusion

 

While the conditions of the coronavirus outbreak are ever-changing, your go to market pricing strategy will be paramount throughout. Use this time to regularly reflect and review pricing. Making more informed marketing decisions will ultimately reap the rewards of consumer trust, loyalty and subsequent growth.

 

Click here to access your free pdf guide on driving pricing strategy in your business.

 

For a comprehensive view on building a great pricing team to prevent loss in revenue,

Download a complimentary whitepaper on How to Build Hiring Capability To Get The Best Pricing Team.

 

Are you a business in need of help to align your pricing strategy, people and operations to deliver an immediate impact on profit?

If so, please call (+61) 2 9000 1115.

You can also email us at team@taylorwells.com.au if you have any further questions.

Make your pricing world-class!