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Research · Diagnose, Explore

Pricing benchmark

Establishes where your prices actually sit against the alternatives a customer is choosing between. Harder than it sounds, because published prices and paid prices are different numbers.

The printable canvas and the handoff into Claude Code are part of a paid plan. See what a plan includes. It needs the Claude desktop app on this machine, and your team and the prompt library already installed in that project — we cannot see your disk, so open it there.

Stage
01 Diagnose, 02 Explore
Works at
Business, Department
Maturity
Early startup → Large organisation
Time
Three to five days

What it is

A comparison of your prices against the realistic alternatives a customer is choosing between, normalised so the comparison is meaningful. Complicated by the fact that published prices are rarely what anybody pays.

Comparison basis
The normalised unit — per item, per user, per month, per outcome — with inclusions and terms equalised. Most of the work sits here.
Your realised price
What you actually receive after discount and rebate, and its distribution across customers.
Competitor realised prices
What competitors actually charge, gathered from lost deals, tenders and customer conversations rather than from published rate cards.
The consideration set
What the customer genuinely compares, including substitutes and inaction. Benchmarking outside this set is irrelevant precision.
Explanation of gaps
What a higher price includes and whether customers value it. Turns a comparison into a finding.
Position decision
Match, hold and justify, or diverge deliberately. Drift is what happens without this.
The mistake people makeComparing list prices produces a confident and wrong picture in any market with negotiation. If you cannot obtain realised prices, say so and mark the whole benchmark as indicative.
What it’s forYou need to know where your prices actually sit against the market, not where you assume they sit.
What it’s not forYou compete on something other than price and your customers do not comparison shop.

How you run it

  1. Define like-for-like carefullyDifferent inclusions, terms and volumes make headline prices meaningless. Normalise to a comparable unit before comparing anything.
  2. Find realised prices, not list pricesPublished pricing is an opening position in most markets. Lost deals, tender results, procurement contacts and customer conversations are better sources.
  3. Compare against what customers actually considerIncluding substitutes and doing nothing. Benchmarking against competitors your customers do not shortlist is precise and irrelevant.
  4. Explain the differencesA price gap without an explanation is a number. Work out what the higher-priced option includes and whether customers value it.
  5. Decide what to do about the gapMatch, hold and justify, or move further away deliberately. All three are legitimate; drifting toward the middle without deciding is not.

The prompt

Two ways to run it

Run this tool in your own Claude

The short prompt starts your partner against the library on your disk. The long one carries everything with it and needs nothing installed.

🔒 Prompt locked

Everything above is free — what this tool is, what it is for, what it is not for, and how to run it as a workshop. Three tool prompts a month are free with an account; beyond three, and for the printable canvas, it is the paid part.

See plans — from £19 a month

Your playbook

It lands in the earliest stage this tool suits. Move it on the Playbook page.

You’ll need

  • Your own realised prices, not list
  • A defensible set of alternatives from the customer's view
  • Some way to see what competitors actually charge

You’ll end up with

  • Comparable prices for like-for-like offers
  • Where you sit, with the comparison basis stated
  • What the price differences buy the customer

Runs well with

Acquisition screen and synergy thesisAdjacency mapAI opportunity mapAnsoff matrix