Competitive Pricing Intelligence & Go-To-Market Strategy

Competitive Pricing Intelligence

Dollars and Sense: Competitive Pricing Intelligence

Aurora GPS helps organizations tackle one of the most difficult – and inherently valuable – aspects of intelligence work: Competitive Pricing Intelligence. For B2B organizations, pricing often is shrouded in mystery, only learned in retrospect after the bid has been awarded – or not at all. For B2C organizations, while consumer prices often are public, discount strategies and input prices often are not. In both cases, any insight regarding pricing strategy has a direct and immediate impact on the profitability of your organization.

  • Inform business decisions related to how your firm should set pricing policy
  • Blunt the impact of discounting and aggressive price strategies from your competitors
  • Generate a near-immediate return on investment for your competitive intelligence efforts

Business Outcomes You Can Expect from Competitive Pricing Intelligence

 

  • Protect your product and service margins
  • Understand the importance of price as a competitive bidding factor
  • Ensure your organization is following all ethical and legal guidelines in price information collection
  • Leverage the knowledge of many stakeholders – including your own employees
  • Stay ahead of pricing trends from disruptive competition (either with very low – or very high – prices)
  • Better understand input costs to understand competitive margins and flexibility

Competitive Pricing Intelligence Mission Portfolio: Regional Insurance Pricing Dynamics

 

Situation:
A regional insurance organization wanted to understand why it seemed to be losing business to an upstart competitor. Its salespeople repeatedly told its product management group that the competitor’s prices were 40-50 percent lower, but management resisted the calls to drop that low without more information. A reduction of that magnitude was unsustainable.

Method:
Aurora GPS worked with a broad group of stakeholders both inside and outside the insurance carrier’s organization to get a better sense of what was happening. As it turned out, the rival was not offering a key aspect of coverage. That omission allowed them to considerably drop their price. More importantly, however, was the insight that customers were not interested in the broader offering the client provided – that is why they flocked to the competitor when the option became available.

Results:
This insight allowed the insurance carrier to begin offering a comparable product, quickly stemming the tide of lost market share.

Three ways to engage with Aurora GPS for Competitive Pricing Intelligence services:

Engagement Level 1: Pricing Brain Trust Review
For many organizations, pricing intelligence begins within their own walls. Coupled with supply chain partners and other cooperative organizations, Aurora GPS can provide a quick assessment of your organization’s pricing strategy and suggest actionable next steps.

 

Approximate timeline: 30 days

 

Engagement Level 2: Full Competitive Pricing Intelligence
In addition to internal and near-internal stakeholders, a broader view of pricing intelligence involves ethically researching participants such as supply chain managers, purchasing agents and end consumers. With a richer source of information, Aurora GPS can provide a more accurate and actionable recommendation regarding your pricing strategy.

 

Approximate timeline: 6-12 weeks

 

Engagement Level 3: Ongoing Competitive Pricing Intelligence Monitoring
It is unlikely your competitors will maintain the same pricing strategy into perpetuity, especially if it is not working. You must assume your competitors are looking for every angle to exploit – including price competition. Aurora GPS will help you stay current with a ongoing pricing intelligence review.

 

Approximate timeline: Ongoing