Pricing consultant with 20 years’ experience at the world-leading pricing firm with 1,400 staff talks about the importance of smart pricing in growing a small business, shares tips and resources for owners (Episode 44 - Christoph Petzoldt)

In this episode, I interview Christoph Petzoldt, the Managing Partner of Simon-Kucher’s Australia/New Zealand operations. Chris has 20 years of management consulting experience across all industries and his work focuses on strategic marketing, portfolio/bundle design, and pricing optimization. He has conducted more than 80 consulting projects in Europe, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Oceania, and South America.

Chris is specialized in portfolio optimization, value-based pricing, pricing research, retention, and sales execution. He founded Simon-Kucher’s Australia/New Zealand business in 2011, covering all industries in the region. Before that, he was responsible for telecommunications in APAC, a topic that remains his focus. He comes on to talk about how small business owners can use proper pricing to build and grow their businesses towards long-term success.

This Cast Covers:

A subject matter expert on pricing for the last 20 years with experience working in a variety of industries.
The importance of growing businesses looking at their pricing at different stages of their growth.
Demystifying the concept of the price elasticity of demand.
How to start a business that makes a profit by fulfilling the needs of customers.
The harm that “Jumping to conclusions” kind of pricing causes to small businesses.
Using costs and competition as a guide for product pricing.
The pricing assumption that cost Audi $400 Million in lost opportunity.
The power of pricing: How branding, packaging, and the story around a product can help a business in the commodities space come up with its own unique price for the product.
Why small businesses should not start with very customized offers when they’re starting out.
How Christoph worked in helping a railway company come up with an effective pricing model that enabled it to make more money and remain competitive.
The effectiveness of combining behavioral economics and market research when working on pricing.
Perpetual discounting and how it works without eroding the value of a brand in consumers’ minds.
Why large retailers should consistently collect customer-oriented data by surveying their employees on the ground.
Doing optimal pricing by looking at what the data shows, what the customers give as feedback, and what common sense and behavioral economics show.
How small businesses can use knowing their actual revenues, costs, and profit to do their pricing.
The businesses that can use loyalty programs and why.
What to do about pricing on day one of starting in business: Check whatever you do and what value it creates for your customers.

Additional Resources:

Quotes:

“Sometimes you can’t see the forest behind the tree” – Christoph Petzoldt (03:57 to 04:17)

“The prerequisite to making money with a business is fulfilling a need a customer can fulfill elsewhere, better” – Christoph Petzoldt

“People are willing to pay for having their needs fulfilled” – Christoph Petzoldt

“Customers will always complain about your prices. If they don’t complain then you’re in trouble because it’s a sign you’re too cheap” – Christoph Petzoldt