---
title: Manufacturing & Distribuiton | Jared Wiesel
---

- [ Hospitality ](https://www.revenueanalytics.com/hospitality/n2pricing)
- [ Manufacturing & Distribution ](https://www.revenueanalytics.com/md/pricing-as-a-service)
- [ Private Equity ](https://www.revenueanalytics.com/md/pricing-as-a-service)
- [ Media ](https://www.revenueanalytics.com/media/rateoptics)
- [ Passenger Rail ](https://www.revenueanalytics.com/rail/farevantage)

[

#### N2Pricing™​

The above-property RMS.

](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hospitality/n2pricing)

[

 Hotelier Gets the Pricing Power it Needs to Beat the Competition 

](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hubfs/Case_Study_Hotelier_Gets_the_Pricing_Power_it_Needs_to_Beat_the_Competition.pdf)

[

#### Pricing-as-a-Service™

Profitable pricing decisions at scale.

](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/pricing-as-a-service)

[

 Packaging Giant Slashes Deal Cycle Time 69% & Boosts Margin 4% 

](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hubfs/Case%20Stories/PAPA/Packaging%20Giant%20Uses%20Price+%20to%20Slash%20Deal%20Cycle%20Time.pdf)

[

#### Pricing-as-a-Service™

Precision pricing for industrial portfolio companies.

](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/pricing-as-a-service)

[

 Does Your Portco Have a Pricing Problem? 

](https://www.revenueanalytics.com/resources/pe/does-your-portco-have-a-pricing-problem)

[

#### RateOptics™​

Modern ad pricing and sales analytics.

](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/media/rateoptics)

[

 Sales Managers Get Their Valuable Time Back at Top Radio Broadcaster 

](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hubfs/Case_Study_Sales_Managers_Get_Their_Valuable_Time_Back_at_Top_Radio_Broadcaster.pdf)

[

#### FareVantage™​

Next-gen Revenue Management for Passenger Rail.

](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/rail/farevantage)

[

 Rail Operator Exceeds Revenue Goals and Lofty Customer Expectations 

](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hubfs/Case_Study_Rail_Operator_Exceeds_Revenue_Goals_and_Lofty_Customer_Expectations.pdf)

## Jared Wiesel

### Recent Posts

## [Pricing Power in Uncertain Times: How Leading Companies Are Turning Strategy into Advantage](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/pricing-strategy-in-uncertain-times)

 Posted by [Jared Wiesel](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/author/jared-wiesel) on May 7, 2025 5:34:47 PM

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Whether I’m meeting with hotel chains in Europe or manufacturing facilities in the U.S., one question always comes up: How do we navigate economic uncertainty while protecting our profits?

The answer, increasingly, comes down to one word – pricing.

Across industries and geographies, leaders want to know whether they’re doing everything possible to pull the right pricing levers. Many are making bold, proactive moves to ensure pricing isn’t just a defensive tactic – it’s a strategic differentiator and competitive advantage. These forward-thinking companies are not only weathering the storm – they’re turning uncertainty into opportunity.

## Static Pricing Doesn’t Work in a Volatile World

When disruption hits – whether from tariffs, retaliatory trade policies, or supplier unpredictability – static pricing strategies show their cracks. Cost-plus models, across-the-board price hikes, or annual reviews can’t respond fast enough to avoid margin leakage.

In this climate, most companies are tempted to hit pause. Pause on investment. Pause on innovation. Pause on anything that feels uncertain. But the truth is, economic uncertainty is exactly when pricing strategy matters most.

The traditional pricing playbook simply wasn’t built for today’s pace of change. Tariffs, supplier volatility, and retaliatory trade moves expose key weaknesses in outdated pricing practices:

- Sudden input cost spikes squeezing margins
- Disconnected systems slowing response time
- Sales teams left guessing at how to price competitively
- Growing customer pushback on price increases
- Inconsistent pricing execution across regions and product lines

The result? Margin erosion that’s preventable – if pricing is treated as a strategic, real-time function rather than a one-time project.

## The Cost of Inaction Is Rising

As recent events show, reactive pricing is no longer an option. The return of tariffs is already driving significant downstream impacts. In one instance, new U.S. import tariffs triggered a [$5 trillion loss in S&P 500 value](https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2025-04-03/shares-bruised-dollar-crumbles-as-trump-tariffs-stir-recession-fears?utm_source=chatgpt.com), underscoring just how fast and far these disruptions can ripple.

In today’s economy, reactive pricing isn’t just risky – it’s costly. For companies still relying on spreadsheets, tribal knowledge, or disconnected tools, each delayed decision carries a steep opportunity cost. Every basis point of EBITDA matters, and speed-to-decision is becoming a competitive advantage.

## Smart Pricing Isn’t Guesswork – It’s Science

Modern pricing isn’t about raising prices across the board. It’s about raising confidence – in the *right* prices for the *right* customers at the right time.

That’s where advanced analytics and AI-powered pricing come in. By analyzing historical transactions, customer behaviors, market conditions, and more, businesses can:

- Segment their customers and products based on true value and pricing power
- **Define optimal price corridors** that guide reps toward profitable decisions
- **Test, learn, and adapt** pricing strategies in real time

This approach doesn’t just protect margins – it creates clarity, consistency, and confidence across commercial teams, even in the most volatile or uncertain conditions.

## Final Thoughts: Pricing Strategy Is a Leadership Decision

Uncertainty may be the constant in today’s economy – but uncertainty also creates opportunity.

By embracing a disciplined, strategic approach to pricing, companies are not only protecting margins – they’re building a sustainable competitive edge.

The companies that win in this environment aren’t just reacting – they’re leading. And pricing is one of the most powerful tools they have.

At Revenue Analytics, we partner with organizations to build resilient, data-driven pricing strategies that adapt in real time – especially when market conditions are anything but predictable. If tariffs or economic uncertainty are on your radar, your pricing strategy should be too.

Want to see how a proactive pricing strategy could work inside your business? Schedule a [intro strategy session](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/demo?hsCtaTracking=05f85c99-b5e7-4f75-a6eb-71864d919c88%7Ce9b65076-021f-491f-9fa1-bcb805ac23f9) with our team. 

 

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## [The Hidden Dangers of Cost+ Pricing](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/hidden-dangers-cost-plus-pricing)

 Posted by [Jared Wiesel](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/author/jared-wiesel) on Apr 25, 2024 12:24:46 PM

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Various market and macroeconomic pressures have caused many manufacturers and distributors to struggle with profitability and re-evaluate their pricing strategies.

Despite the appeal of its simplicity, [Cost+ pricing ](https://www.salesforce.com/blog/cost-plus-pricing/)has inherent hidden risks, such as ignoring market dynamics and value perception. Over time, these risks have led to a shift toward modern, data-driven pricing.

To demonstrate just how easy it is for Cost+ to undermine profitability and market position, here are a few brief – but very real – examples.

## Cases in point

### Giving back earned gain

A building products distributor platform grew aggressively through add-on acquisitions. However, their Cost+ pricing strategy backfired.

Lower COGS meant lower prices, unintentionally giving savings to customers with an unchanged willingness to pay, leaving money on the table.

### Falling behind market dynamics

A regional paper products manufacturer’s competition invested in new technologies that lowered costs, allowing them to win customers at lower prices.

By applying aspirational margin targets to a high-cost base, the company dropped from #1 to #3 in their market, losing valuable market share due to Cost+ pricing.

### **Ignoring value perception**

An industrial parts manufacturer faced stagnant growth as its Cost+ pricing treated all customers equally, disregarding customer willingness to pay.

The price for a given product was too high for some customers, resulting in lost sales, and below what other customers were willing to pay, resulting in money being left on the table. The one-size-fits-all nature of Cost+ pricing led directly to substantial revenue and profit woes.

### Misguided pricing during volatility

A packaging manufacturer's Cost+ pricing strategy seemed effective during inflationary times, only if they could process updates quickly.

But when containerboard prices fell, they had a big decision to make about how much of the difference to give back. [Customers were expecting price decreases](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/resources/md/wheres-my-price-decrease), but management didn't want to lose all the gain – leaving them in an unenviable position due to rigid Cost+ pricing.

### Re-pricing delays zap profit

An electrical components distributor faced profit erosion due to infrequent Cost+ price updates.

Despite frequent supplier cost increases, costs were updated monthly in their ERP system followed by a manual Cost+ price update. The lag from supplier cost change to getting a price update published was costing the distributor more and more profit every time there was an update.

## What’s next

Cost+ pricing pitfalls in B2B markets are more pronounced than ever. While it appears straightforward on the surface, the risks Cost+ pricing carries far outweigh the perceived simplicity.

These are only a few examples across industries that highlight the need for a modern, data-driven approach to pricing – which is what our team helps businesses just like yours with every day.

Ready to talk to an industry pricing expert about the impact Cost+ alternatives could have on your business? Find a time that works for you to [book a brief intro chat with our team](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/demo/pricing-as-a-service).

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## [[Guide] Do You Have a Pricing Problem?](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/do-you-have-a-pricing-problem)

 Posted by [Jared Wiesel](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/author/jared-wiesel) on Feb 6, 2024 9:35:12 AM

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**Symptom** *(noun)*: a sign or the existence of something, especially of an undesirable situation.

We all know what symptoms are. While the term is often used in the health and wellness field, it also has a place in your business. There are symptoms felt across your organization every day, ranging from minor to major, that hint at the existence of something deeper.

Some of the most prevalent symptoms we see across a wide variety of manufacturers and distributors have one root cause in common: pricing. Pricing problems can be extremely difficult to identify on their own, but starting by probing into their symptoms can make it easier to connect the dots.

Over the last 18 years working directly with manufacturers and distributors, we’ve discovered several prominent symptoms of pricing problems. Now we’re sharing them, including questions to ask along the way, so you can recognize and begin to solve pricing problems within your organization.

## Financial Impact

One of the most effective ways to assess financial performance is with profit change over time with granular comparisons. This is especially true for larger businesses, where it’s more difficult to glean insights from looking at large sums of total profit year over year.

Instead, start by comparing profits from top customer or product segments. For example, how profitable were your top 50 customers this year compared to last year? Or if your business is more product-line focused, what profitability changes did your top product category experience year over year or quarter over quarter?

By examining different segments over time, you can isolate and identify the levers behind significant profitability changes and confirm if pricing is the primary culprit.

### **High-Level Financial Decline**

Questions to ask:

- Are our margins shrinking?
- Are we keeping up with inflation or deflation?

Starting with the most readily apparent, if there are even high-level financial struggles, it’s time to look at pricing. Maybe prices were raised with inflation, but now with [pockets of deflation](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/pockets-of-deflation) you’re giving unnecessary concessions back to customers who are willing to pay.

Regardless of market conditions, margins are the best reference point to help determine if pricing is the root cause.

### **Volume and Market Share**

Questions to ask:

- Are we losing ground in the market?
- Is volume fluctuating enough to affect revenue consistently?

Regardless of how your organization tracks volume and market share, persistent changes can be an indicator of pricing problems. Inconsistent pricing is a common cause – pricing yourself out of the market, over-discounting, or both – and can compound over time if erratic pricing adjustments are made to compensate for volume changes.

## Sales Effectiveness

In most cases, your sales organization doesn’t need more training or a new CRM to improve their effectiveness. It’s more likely that issues with sales effectiveness are another symptom of a pricing problem.

### **Deal Cycle Time**

Questions to ask:

- What is our standard deal cycle time (from opportunity to close)?
- Is our standard deal cycle time extending? If so, to what extent?

If the answer to the second question is yes, pricing isn’t always the culprit – but it’s often a strong contributing factor. Long or extended deal cycle times can be a symptom of not knowing the right price.

You have many different products and customers, so one inflexible price won’t work across the board, but having a more accurate starting place cuts down the time it takes to quote and close deals significantly.

It takes time to go back and forth between potential customers and approvals, which adds up. By no fault of our sales reps, this can become a vicious cycle that depletes trust in the pricing itself, not to mention buy-in from sales.

### **Sales Confidence and Buy-In**

Questions to ask:

- How often do your sales reps think your price isn’t competitive?
- What percentage of total deals are you confident in having the right price for?

It’s rare when sales reps report back that prices are too low. But hearing persistent debate from those who are closest to the market is another sign of potential pricing problems.

### **Custom Quotes and Special Agreements**

Questions to ask:

- How many of our customers have custom quotes or special agreements?
- Have at least 10 deals for a given product varied significantly in price?

We call this a [price exception](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/resources/md/price-exceptions-are-the-enemy). When every customer gets a special price, you quickly end up with substantial variability between what similar customers are paying for similar products. Plotting these prices reveals an uncorrelated scattershot, where customer segmentation makes it easy to see just how much pricing differs when all other customer attributes are related.

If the price of a top selling product ranges from $25 to $125, how can all those prices be the right price?

![Do You Have a Pricing Problem Graphic](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Do%20You%20Have%20a%20Pricing%20Problem%20Graphic.png?width=2120&height=1000&name=Do%20You%20Have%20a%20Pricing%20Problem%20Graphic.png)

## Operations

Pricing updates are time-consuming, error prone, and can be made more difficult by system limitations. And a high volume of custom quotes and special agreements only adds to the time and resources required for individual updates.

### **Price Management and Execution**

Questions to ask:

- Who is responsible for updating prices when they change? Is it a manual process?
- How much time and other resources is it taking to keep pricing up to date?

This pricing problem pain becomes more pronounced the more SKUs you have. Take 75,000 SKUs, for example. If someone or a small team within your organization must manually upload prices every time they change, that process can take weeks. And however long it takes, your sales team is using now outdated pricing in the meantime.

## Wrapping Up

Being able to identify and address the symptoms of pricing problems is critical to sustainable profitability. By taking a closer look below the surface of financial performance, sales effectiveness, and pricing operations, you can pinpoint the root cause of complex pricing problems.

Don’t let these symptoms fester. Take control of your efficiency and profitability with a comprehensive pricing strategy.

If you suspect you might have a pricing problem and want an expert opinion, [book time with our team here](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/demo/pricing-as-a-service).

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## [Market Dynamics: Varied Demand Patterns](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/market-dynamics-varied-demand-patterns)

 Posted by [Jared Wiesel](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/author/jared-wiesel) on Jan 18, 2024 10:21:03 AM

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In the always-advancing world of product development, the interdependence [between product cycles, sustainability, and innovation](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/pricing-product-cycles-and-sustainability) is undeniable, but not always straightforward.

Successfully driving product innovation to meet or surpass customer demand requires an up-to-date, nuanced understanding of market dynamics - the most complex of which is the difficulty to predict demand outside of standard stock and flow.

Plus, markets are changing more rapidly now than ever before. Trends that may have played out over a decade in the past might run the same course over just a year.

Take COVID-19, for example, and the last few years since the pandemic. After mass shutdowns, there was a huge spike in demand for to-go containers. The movement to support restaurants and small businesses with the limitation of not being able to go into them increased carry-out business like never before.

While it has come down since, many restaurants are[ still experiencing more takeout business](https://fesmag.com/topics/trends/21493-off-premises-dining-bigger-than-ever) compared to their pre-pandemic averages. So even though overall demand for to-go containers has settled down, more volatile peaks and troughs are expected to continue, only across even shorter time periods.

When you account for supply chain, source material, manufacturing equipment, production capability, sales cycles, design, etc., it's easy to see how exponentially unmanageable production and fulfillment can become when demand forecasting is too far off.

Even the dot-com boom, while further back historically, continues to evolve and shift the retail environment – which is one of the top drivers of packaging use. Online orders can be shipped in the product’s original packaging, packed into a larger box or container for shipping, combined with other products and padded with additional packaging materials, and the list of permutations goes on and on.

Demand planners trying to project material, capacity, or anything else are met with uncertainty more regularly now than in decades past. But being adaptable to rapidly changing market dynamics is crucial for the whole business.

Demand fluctuations are showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. And while you might not be able to forecast demand, you can make sure your pricing strategy is flexible and ready for the dynamics of the market.

The right pricing solution will make sure you protect, and even grow, margins, regardless of the market uncertainties. If you're ready to learn how to protect your margins and profitability amid market volatility, [talk to an expert](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/demo/pricing-as-a-service) about Pricing-as-a-Service. 

 

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## [Pricing, Product Cycles, and Sustainability](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/pricing-product-cycles-and-sustainability)

 Posted by [Jared Wiesel](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/author/jared-wiesel) on Dec 19, 2023 3:08:41 PM

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Products evolve for a variety of reasons, including technological and manufacturing advancements, sustainability initiatives, and market demands, among others. Most notably, the evolution of ecommerce and focus on sustainability continue to influence the development of new packaging products and updates to existing ones.

The two primary buckets that sustainable packaging innovation fit into at a high level are adding or removing material, and each comes with important pricing implications.

1. **Adding material**: developing something new, like plant-based or more compostable material, to replace or augment a less sustainable option.
2. **Removing material**: figuring out how to make a product with less material overall, which could be for environmental or cost purposes.

In the case of adding material, the pricing challenge becomes identifying and targeting the right subset of customers who are willing to pay a premium for more sustainable packaging. But when removing material, the biggest opportunity is to shift away from a cost-plus pricing strategy to align to the value of the market.

**Just because you can make the same product with less material doesn’t mean your customers automatically expect a lower price.** It would be wise to keep the same price, at a minimum, but you might even be able to raise it.

Have you ever had a package delivered that was so secure it was nearly impossible to open? And we’ve all received at least one delivery that looked like it got run over when the truck was pulling away – so there’s a delicate balance associated with removing material. But in either case, just because one product has a lower cost doesn’t mean it needs a lower price.

One customer might place the highest value on having the sturdiest box to use for shipping, while another might value the downstream cost savings of lighter shipping boxes more. Either way, your pricing can’t solely be left up to the product composition. **If you’re not factoring in added value and willingness to pay, you’re leaving money on the table.**

Ready to learn more about how we use Pricing-as-a-Service to optimize pricing and profit across products and initiatives for customers just like you? Find time to [talk to one of our pricing experts](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/demo/pricing-as-a-service) about your business’ priorities and pricing needs.

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## [5 Reasons Pricing Should be a 2024 Priority](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/5-reasons-pricing-should-be-a-2024-priority)

 Posted by [Jared Wiesel](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/author/jared-wiesel) on Dec 11, 2023 11:46:22 AM

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There’s likely a long list of potential value-creation strategies you’re considering for 2024. No matter how you prioritize the initiatives, not all are created equal. Whether prioritizing initiatives based on total ROI, likelihood of success, or speed to realization, one initiative comes out on top in all categories – pricing.

Whether you’ve never thought about pricing before, have tried to fix it but with lackluster results, or simply believe it won’t work for your unique business, the many facets of economic uncertainty we’ll face in 2024 necessitates that pricing gets a closer look.

Here are the top 5 reasons why pricing should be a top priority for 2024:

## 1. Profit Improvement

There's no lever more effective for driving profit improvement than pricing. In fact, it’s at least **50% more effective** than traditional cost-out or share-gain strategies, according to a [study](https://hbr.org/1992/09/managing-price-gaining-profit) published by the Harvard Business Review. Not to mention, it’s measurable and fast to realize, making a focus on pricing a no-regrets decision.

## 2. Sales Efficiency

When prices are poorly set – not market-relevant, not differentiated by customer value, or misaligned with company strategy – sales efficiency suffers. We’ve seen first-hand that poor pricing habits can lead to **sales reps spending up to 40% more time on admin work** related to pricing and quoting. The bulk of this time is spent debating the “right” price and chasing internal approvals. Fixing pricing will refocus sales efforts where they should be, on selling.

## 3. Customer Experience

When [sales efficiency](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/from-estimates-to-efficiency) suffers, the market-facing implication is concerning for customers. Poor pricing can mean it takes weeks to produce a final customer-ready quote. This frustrates customers – “How can you not know the price of your own product?” – not to mention putting many deals at risk. It shouldn’t be that hard, or that slow. Additionally, if you serve customers across multiple channels, **any disconnects in pricing can further erode customer trust**.

## 4. Handling Volatility

2024 is shaping up to be a volatile pricing environment, with uncertainty around inflation, [commodity prices](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/costs-customer-expectations-and-commodity-volatility), supply availability, and localized demand patterns. Regardless of how these economic factors shake out, two things are certain: 1)** You must get pricing right or you risk losing revenue and profit**; 2) These factors are likely to remain volatile, so this week’s pricing answer is not likely to be the answer next month.

## 5. Commercial Maturity

When exits finally pick up, **those best positioned to reap maximum valuations are those most able to demonstrate consistent profitable growth**. Yes, past performance is a big element of that equation, but more so is go-forward potential. Companies with a robust pricing strategy backed by capabilities and processes will be best positioned to support projections of continued, and more importantly consistent, profitable growth.

2024 is likely be another volatile year, requiring an all-hands-on-deck effort to drive profitable growth. You’ll have to remain focused and place your bets on a select few value-creation strategies to have an impact. **Pricing is the bet you can’t afford to pass on.**

[Connect with an experienced pricing expert](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/demo/pricing-as-a-service) to learn more about the impact strategic pricing can have on your profitability in 2024.

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## [A Root Cause of Risk: Siloed Systems and Data](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/a-root-cause-of-risk-siloed-systems-and-data)

 Posted by [Jared Wiesel](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/author/jared-wiesel) on Dec 1, 2023 2:05:01 PM

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If you had to rank your organization’s data systems on a scale from cutting-edge to in need of updates, where would they fall? If they lean more toward the latter, chances are it’s not your fault. You’re likely working with siloed systems that have been bolted on over time to address different needs as they arise.

Your [estimating and quoting processes](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/from-estimates-to-efficiency), for instance, may take place in a different system than you bill from. And for things as interrelated as estimating and billing, system silos can become a big problem. You can very easily end up with an estimate and bill of materials (BOM) in a format in one system, and the invoice in a different format somewhere else. This makes it extremely difficult to connect any data points between the two and understand what a customer bought on an individual level, much less at scale across all your customers.

That’s enough data entanglement for one entity alone – not to mention acquisitions, consolidation, and mergers – which can add another set of disparate systems that increase the complexity exponentially. While some inherited systems will be in better shape than others, you’re still left with the challenge of bringing them all together.

Without the right people and skillsets, this is where the web of data systems gets really complicated. The more systems you have that don’t or can’t talk to each other, the less control you have over them, and the less reliable and functional your data becomes.

You might be thinking, why does this really matter? You know you aren’t the only packaging provider operating this way, and you've been running like this for years or even decades.

## What You’re Risking

Take two estimators, for example. One is rolling through estimates with a stamp of approval, while the other is meticulously correcting cost inconsistencies. With separate systems and no real way to look at any of this data together, you can end up with customers who are highly profitable and others who are significantly less or entirely unprofitable.

**![2023 Siloed Systems + Data Graphic](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hs-fs/hubfs/2023%20Siloed%20Systems%20+%20Data%20Graphic.png?width=2120&height=1000&name=2023%20Siloed%20Systems%20+%20Data%20Graphic.png)**

These challenges exist across countless other businesses, too. But when you combine the [custom nature of packaging](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/how-to-simplify-pricing-for-custom-packaging-products) providers with the variability of human estimators, they become much more pronounced. So now, in addition to other priorities, you have to figure out how to clean up your data and right-size siloed systems and processes to help make that happen.

While costly consultants may devise a plan that looks good on paper, they won’t stick around and help with implementation to see it to fruition. That’s where a partner like Revenue Analytics comes in.

With [Pricing-as-a-Service](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/pricing-as-a-service), built specifically for complex industries like yours, you get ongoing support from a team with the IT horsepower, skillsets, and technology to process your data from any source, in any format. Once it's all together it can be validated at scale to help identify outliers and what caused them to address root causes of profit erosion, like siloed systems and data.

To learn more about how we can help turn your siloed data into profitable decisions that align to your business’s unique needs, [talk to one of our pricing experts](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/demo/pricing-as-a-service).

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## [Costs, Customer Expectations, and Commodity Volatility](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/costs-customer-expectations-and-commodity-volatility)

 Posted by [Jared Wiesel](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/author/jared-wiesel) on Nov 20, 2023 11:23:48 AM

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In dynamic markets moving at lightning speed, thanks to inflation, manufacturers and distributors continue to face the pressure to effectively balance costs and customers. And when your customers are watching commodity indexes as closely as you are, managing price expectations is much easier said than done. But commodities aren’t stepping out of the inflation spotlight any time soon, so how can you and your organization align financial expectations with profitability in the months and years ahead?

## Commodity Volatility

Regardless of the material – paper, plastic, metal, etc. – every commodity is unique and behaves differently from the others. Despite their differences, commodities in these categories have gone up very quickly and aggressively in price over the last few years due to inflation. And because packaging products, regardless of material, are so cost-focused and customized, everyone, including your customers, is aware of commodity indices. So as commodity prices start to stabilize or even come down – we'll use containerboard as an example today – [customers expect price decreases](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/resources/md/wheres-my-price-decrease).

![2023 Volatile Commodities + Cost Inputs Chart 1](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hs-fs/hubfs/2023%20Volatile%20Commodities%20+%20Cost%20Inputs%20Chart%201.png?width=1000&height=482&name=2023%20Volatile%20Commodities%20+%20Cost%20Inputs%20Chart%201.png)

**United States - Producer Price Index by Commodity: Pulp, Paper, and Allied Products: Corrugated Shipping Containers (last 5 years)  
**Source: [Trading Economics](https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/producer-price-index-by-commodity-for-pulp-paper-and-allied-products-corrugated-and-solid-fiber-boxes-fed-data.html)

The crux of the problem is aligning financial expectations. As a manufacturer or distributor, you don’t want to give back all your margin gains at once, but your customers are already expecting a decrease in one form or another. And if the products you provide are [uniquely customized or configured](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/how-to-simplify-pricing-for-custom-packaging-products), the bill of materials (BOM) will vary.

Take two products, for example, where containerboard makes up 40% of the cost for one, but 80% of the cost for another based on composition and other configurations. Instead of being able to simply give your customers buying these products a 5% price decrease when containerboard goes down 5%, you need to take a more surgical approach to account for other variables in the mix.

The next layer of complexity is where your customers lie in terms of price and customer value relative to their segment of comparable customers. If they’re far below similar customers, then they should actually be considered for a price increase regardless of commodity activity. And vice versa — if they’re above other customers in their segment, it could be a great opportunity to give them a price decrease to reduce the risk of losing them as customers.

![2023 Volatile Commodities + Cost Inputs Chart 2](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hs-fs/hubfs/2023%20Volatile%20Commodities%20+%20Cost%20Inputs%20Chart%202.png?width=1920&height=1080&name=2023%20Volatile%20Commodities%20+%20Cost%20Inputs%20Chart%202.png)

When considering a price increase, the biggest concern quickly becomes justifying it to your customers (not to mention your sales reps, who hate having to go back and ask for more). Counterintuitively, this was easier during inflation. All costs were going up, so while your customers likely didn’t enjoy paying more, they understood why. We were all experiencing the same thing in our daily lives, too, which helped normalize it to some degree.

It’s an easier conversation when you can point to an index that shows containerboard up 105% and only take a customer’s price up 4%, compared to when they can see a commodity come down 5% and only get a 1% decrease.

## Other Cost Inputs

Commodities are just one piece of the puzzle – there are a variety of other major inputs that make up the total cost of a sale. Some may be new, and many are behind the scenes and never seen by customers, making them more difficult to substantiate and leaving your customer’s mindset unchanged: commodity cost down = price decrease. They see the indices, but not everything else that goes into the products they purchase – like having to increase production with fewer employees, highly specialized labor, and freight costs, among other things.

But the reality is that not all commodities are down, and most manufacturers and distributors are dealing with a mixed bag of commodities that are going up, holding fairly steady, or starting to go down. Amid volatile commodities and a variety of other tangible and intangible cost inputs, the best solution is to get granular.

When everything is going up, it’s easy to take a broad brush to price increases, and vice versa. But when you work across a variety of commodities, customers, and products, you find out quickly just how profit-critical the details become.

Managing commodities, costs, and customers is a multifactorial challenge that demands a detailed solution – which is why we built [Pricing-as-a-Service](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/pricing-as-a-service) just for manufacturers and distributors. It combines your business’s unique strategy, products, and data with our technology and experienced team to provide profitable, ongoing price guidance you can trust in any market. [Schedule a 1:1 with a pricing expert](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/demo/pricing-as-a-service) to learn more about how we can help solve your complex pricing challenges for you.

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## [From Estimates to Efficiency: Streamlining Sales Cycles and Customer Experience](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/from-estimates-to-efficiency)

 Posted by [Jared Wiesel](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/author/jared-wiesel) on Nov 10, 2023 11:38:48 AM

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Catering to a diverse customer base requires a nuanced approach to sales, particularly when dealing with highly configurable and custom products. These products make it essential to understand each customer’s unique needs without sacrificing speed and accuracy.

The traditional estimating process is inefficient and can create price exceptions for you, not to mention a poor experience for your customers. Our team of pricing experts advocates for a data-driven approach to set accurate prices at the product level to set your sales team and customers up for success from the start.

It’s time to break away from the limitations of traditional estimating approaches, which is why we’re highlighting the primary factors that complicate sales and the buying experience for your customers, and how to improve each of them.

## Understanding Customer Needs

As a manufacturer, you likely serve a wide range of customers. Some may be more sophisticated and know exactly what they need, while others may require more support throughout the sales process. But a more consultative sales approach can complicate the quoting process, resulting in an even longer sales cycle.

When you add highly configurable and custom products to the mix, quoting becomes that much more complex. Because most of your customers aren’t just buying a plain box, for example. They’re buying a custom box that has a combination of custom specs to serve a specific purpose.

Understanding the detailed ins and outs of your customers needs can vary in difficulty from business to business. The sales process will look very different for a customer who knows the exact end product they want and which customizations they need, compared to other customers who may need more hands-on help to determine the combination of specs that will work best for them.

Take a new e-commerce customer, for example, where shipping will be a primary focus. The products that will be inside each package, the distance the packages will travel on average, and a variety of other factors will determine the box that’s right for them. Or another e-commerce business might have received feedback about packages showing up damaged, and need help exploring sturdier options that will hold up better to the wear and tear of shipping and handling.

This leads to a lengthy, complicated process to combine product design, specs, order quantity, frequency, etc. into a quote on a case-by-case basis. So, when your estimating team comes up with a price, how do you know it’s the right price? Because **estimating**** ****≠ pricing**.

The typical result, through no fault of their own, is just a bill of materials ([BOM](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bill-of-materials.asp#:~:text=of%20Materials%20(BOM)-,A%20bill%20of%20materials%20(BOM)%20is%20a%20centralized%20source%20of,process%20by%20creating%20a%20BOM.)) - the product broken down and priced out by all its components – plus a markup.

## Finding the Right Price (in time)

After all that work, you’re left with a price that you end up negotiating with your customer, creating the dreaded [price exception](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/resources/md/price-exceptions-are-the-enemy). Which, depending on the customer, can go back and forth several times – further extending your sales process. That cycle may include reassessing markups for competitive bids or adjusting specs, among other things. But because there are so many ways you can arrive at a new price, it can be difficult to tell if you have a true pricing issue versus customers changing order details for other reasons.

What your customers really want to know is: can you provide what they need, and how much will it cost? – as quickly and accurately as possible. And if you’re estimating from scratch for every custom product, you’re creating a false level of precision that will only slow you down.

By grouping custom products that are similar enough to compare together, you can create price ranges for similar groups to start uncovering meaningful differences in willingness to pay or margin performance at certain break points of product size, BOM, customizations, etc.

![Lengthy Quoting Visual2023 Consultative Sales + Lengthy Quoting Graphic](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Lengthy%20Quoting%20Visual2023%20Consultative%20Sales%20+%20Lengthy%20Quoting%20Graphic.png?width=1920&height=1080&name=Lengthy%20Quoting%20Visual2023%20Consultative%20Sales%20+%20Lengthy%20Quoting%20Graphic.png)

How do you create related groups with custom products in the mix? Check out our latest walkthrough of what we call Peer Groups that helps [simplify pricing custom products](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/how-to-simplify-pricing-for-custom-packaging-products) for you.

By using your product and sales data to set better prices from the beginning, your customers will have a much smoother experience while improving the back and forth in your consultative sales cycle.

Your customers don’t want to wait three weeks to learn how much something is going to cost, and your business can’t afford to continuously repeat the arduous process of estimating true custom or highly configurable products from scratch.

## Giving Sales Data-Driven Guidance

While streamlining your estimating and quoting process, it’s also important to consider additional efficiencies, like where all this data lives. Instead of pencil, paper, Excel, and emails back and forth, imagine having the right price range for any product directly in front of Sales in whichever quoting system you’re using today.

By putting prices in an actionable place Sales is already using, you can start improving two sales cycle components at once: quote turnaround time and sales compliance.

Get the confidence of knowing you have the right price for every product and every customer, faster than ever before, with [Pricing-as-a-Service](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/pricing-as-a-service). Want to learn more about how we solve these and other complex pricing issues for packaging manufacturers like you? [Connect with a pricing expert](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/demo/pricing-as-a-service) today to schedule a 1:1 discussion about your organization’s unique pricing and quoting needs.

 

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## [How to Simplify Pricing for Custom Packaging Products](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/how-to-simplify-pricing-for-custom-packaging-products)

 Posted by [Jared Wiesel](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/blog/author/jared-wiesel) on Oct 27, 2023 1:05:56 PM

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When you think about packaging, what comes to mind first? Maybe it’s the to-go container from your favorite restaurant that perfectly fits your usual order. Or it might have been the new easy-open box your go-to ecommerce marketplace just rolled out.

But if you work in packaging, what likely came to mind first was a variety of complex products and the equally cumbersome processes that support them.

While easier stock items exist, many packaging products are custom or highly configurable. Manufacturing a high volume of configurable or custom products further complicates pricing, quoting, product cycles, and demand patterns, among other things.

When it’s time to price, estimate, or quote, you end up with a sea of "observations of 1:" one-of-a-kind products with a handful of add-ons and adjustments that make it difficult to decipher which unique attributes affect the cost, and to what extent.

![Custom Packaging Products-00](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Custom%20Packaging%20Products-00.png?width=1000&height=354&name=Custom%20Packaging%20Products-00.png)

If you sell highly customizable products then you rarely, if ever, sell the same product twice. So how do you tell which product attributes determine what your customers are willing to pay more or less for?

## How to fix it

Having a wealth of sales, customer, and product information is a great start, but only if it’s in a digestible and usable format. That’s where Peer Groups come in.

It’s not simple segmentation for custom products. Peer Groups drill down further to deconstruct the characteristics of a product into the primary attributes of form and function to break massive collections of unique products down into groups by their similarities.

Take a box, for example. One of the most obvious characteristics to start grouping boxes together by is size. You can start with extra-small through extra-large buckets, like in the example below, or start grouping any boxes that are within an allowance of AxBxC dimensions. But there’s a lot more to a box than just its size. Do some plants have different manufacturing capabilities, or do they service different regions? Will the box have a 1-color logo, use a few spot colors, or will it need a full-side, multi-color print? Will it have adhesive, dividers, or inserts?

It’s clear how, based on the variety of options and seemingly never-ending decision trees, you can end up with several hundred thousand unique combinations.

![Custom Item Peer Groups](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Custom%20Item%20Peer%20Groups.png?width=1000&height=563&name=Custom%20Item%20Peer%20Groups.png)The six attributes above are an example of clustering that can be tailored to any product characteristics. Determining the right attributes that help organize your custom products and add value for your customers is first and foremost a business strategy discussion. From there, clustering and modeling can start uncovering any meaningful differences in willingness to pay or margin performance at certain break points of size, geography, composition ([BOM](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bill-of-materials.asp#:~:text=of%20Materials%20(BOM)-,A%20bill%20of%20materials%20(BOM)%20is%20a%20centralized%20source%20of,process%20by%20creating%20a%20BOM.)), etc.

The right Peer Groups help determine and group custom products that are similar enough to compare where, if all other attributes are equal, products that vary within a tolerance of each characteristic are presumed close enough to be a peer. So instead of Peer Groups resulting in a price range for every group, they allow you to get even more granular and arrive at a margin per standard unit of measure ([UOM](https://www.mbaskool.com/business-concepts/operations-logistics-supply-chain-terms/13304-uom-unit-of-measure.html)).

Using box size as an example again, what margin per standard UOM, let's say per sq. ft., would help determine is a box that is ¼ of an inch taller, with all other characteristics being the same, is similar enough to the ¼ inch shorter box to have the same margin per sq. ft. of composition material.

## Why does it matter?

If you’re using a cost-plus pricing strategy, then you already know how essential it is to get margins right. But without accurately breaking down the attributes of custom and configurable products, you're left guessing on value, cost, and willingness to pay – resulting in a scattershot of misinformed prices.

By applying Peer Groups to your custom products, you’re finally able to look at all of your sales within each group to get an accurate gross margin per standard UOM. Now, your pricing looks less like a scattershot, and more like an organized, bucketed way to make profitable pricing decisions at scale – even for custom products.

![custom-items-chart-2](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/hs-fs/hubfs/custom-items-chart-2.png?width=1000&height=354&name=custom-items-chart-2.png)

Pricing is complex and unique to each organization – just like your custom products. If you want to learn more about Peer Groups and how Revenue Analytics uses [Pricing-as-a-Service](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/pricing-as-a-service) to solve complex pricing challenges for packaging pros like you, schedule a convenient time to [talk to a pricing expert](https://4864103.hs-sites.com/md/demo/pricing-as-a-service).

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