Pricing Software Features
There is more to pricing software than maintaining a list, or the job could be done with a spreadsheet. Pricing software provides updates in a timely manner, supports special cases, and delivers insight on price performance. These are the basic features of pricing software:
Custom pricing — Pricing software must include functionality for salespeople to create custom pricing for individual customers or categories of customers based on factors such as volume, payment terms, contract terms, the customer value, sales targets, and objectives.
Flexible pricing — The software should support pricing methods, such as demand-based pricing, which helps estimate how pricing could change based on customer demand and the perceived value of the products and services offered by a company.
Pricing optimization — A pricing solution provides analytics to assist salespeople in determining the best pricing strategy based on all the criteria mentioned above. It also helps sales estimate the profitability of each sale, product line, customer category, etc.
Integrations — Pricing software must integrate with solutions like ERP and CRM where basic pricing is created, as well as with e-commerce, CPQ, and retail solutions to deploy new pricing strategies right where the customer shops or quotes are created.
Additional Pricing Features
Deep integration — Pricing software works in tandem with CRM and ERP software, but it’s still important to ensure the pricing software you choose effectively integrates with the specific software your business uses. By integrating with your CRM, pricing software can do things like provide a quote and automatically input the information into your CRM as an opportunity. In addition to CRM and ERP integration, the nature of your business may dictate the need for a pricing tool that integrates with shipping and inventory management software, product design software, or a tool that can be integrated and embedded onto your website.
Strategy — Some pricing tools are geared specifically toward optimizing margins, automating pricing updates to trigger based on market conditions or analyzing data to prevent businesses from wasting time and money on products or services that don’t sell. By quantifying consumer data, pricing software can allow companies to cater their businesses toward their customers. Others—typically businesses involved in manufacturing products—are more focused on cost modeling and providing cost visibility at an early stage. Not all pricing tools will have cost modeling functionality, so a pricing software with this ability can help engineers and designers meet cost targets more effectively. Early cost visibility can help a company predict pricing structure sooner and, in doing so, give sales teams a head start.
Multi-currency support — Some pricing software will include multi-currency support, which is usable by businesses in any country. Multi-currency functionality enables businesses that do work outside of their country to easily and efficiently process deals outside of their home country.
Competitor insights — If your business is in a highly competitive market without significant differentiation in product—retail, for instance—it’s critical to keep an eye on your competitor’s prices. Some pricing tools have features that allow you to mine pricing data from competitor websites. By boosting your awareness of your competitors, you can more effectively price your own products.
Potential Issues with Pricing Software
Cost — A pricing tool that maximizes your margins is only worth it if that tool doesn’t eat into those margins. Some pricing software will offer standard and premium versions. The premium versions, of course, come with more functionality. It’s important to have a grasp of the breadth of functionality which your business requires to select the software which meets, but doesn’t greatly exceed, your needs.
Support and services — Any time software needs to integrate with other software, problems may arise. You’ll want to know if the company that sells you the software you’re investing in also provides support for implementation and integration. Since pricing tools are usually at their most effective when used in concert with other software, you’ll want to know if you can integrate the product yourself or if you’ll need a consultant to assist with the process. You’ll also want to research the level of support the pricing software will provide while you’re a user. Support teams can be extremely helpful with troubleshooting and in helping you get the most out of the product.
