Why pricing projects fail in month four
The analysis is rarely the problem. Discipline erodes quietly once the project team leaves — here is how to stop it.
Most pricing programmes look excellent at the steering committee in month three. Price lists are rebuilt, discount bands are agreed, and the first invoices show margin moving in the right direction. Then, quietly, it leaks away.
The month-four pattern
By month four the project team has rolled off, the quarter-end is approaching and a key account asks for “the usual” discount. A sales director approves it to protect volume. Nobody is wrong in the moment, and nobody is tracking the aggregate.
Within two quarters, average realised price is back where it started — and the organisation concludes that pricing projects don’t work.
Three things that make it stick
First, a single owner for price realisation with a seat at the monthly performance review. Second, a discount approval matrix that is enforced in the quoting system, not in a policy document. Third, sales incentives that reward margin, not just revenue.
None of these is analytically interesting. All of them matter more than the elasticity model.
Next essay
Cost-out without the hangover
