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Business model · Explore, Plan

Pricing strategy review

Examines what you charge, why, and what it signals. Seductive because it is fast and the numbers move immediately — which is also why it gets reached for when the real problem is elsewhere.

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
02 Explore, 04 Plan
Works at
Business, Department
Maturity
Early startup → Large organisation
Time
Two to three days

What it is

A structured review of how a business sets, communicates and realises price. It covers the level, the basis, the architecture and the discipline — of which the level is usually the least important and the only one anyone examines.

Realised price
What actually arrives per unit after discount, rebate and credit. The distribution matters more than the average.
Basis of pricing
What you charge per — unit, seat, hour, outcome, tier. A basis misaligned with how value accrues caps revenue regardless of the level.
Architecture
The structure of the offer: tiers, bundles, add-ons, entry points. Determines how customers self-select and how they grow.
Discount discipline
Who can discount, by how much, and against what. Uncontrolled discretion is a value-articulation failure appearing as a pricing number.
Willingness to pay
What the customer would pay, tested independently of your cost. Cost-plus pricing gifts away every pound of value above cost.
Competitive reference
Where you sit against alternatives, including the customer's option of doing nothing.
The mistake people makePricing work is fast, quantifiable and satisfying, which makes it the default response to a margin problem whatever caused it. Confirm price is actually the constraint before spending three days here.
What it’s forYou suspect you are leaving money on the table, or discounting reflexively.
What it’s not forPrice is not the constraint. Pricing work is seductive because it is fast and feels like progress.

How you run it

  1. Measure realised price, not list priceStart from what actually lands in the bank per unit. The distribution across customers is usually wider than anyone believes and is the first finding.
  2. Find where the discounting comes fromWhich customers, which reps, which situations. Discretionary discounting is generally a symptom of a value articulation problem, not a pricing problem.
  3. Check the basis of pricingAre you charging per unit when value scales with something else? Misaligned basis caps revenue far more than the level does.
  4. Test willingness to pay separately from costCost-plus pricing gives away everything above cost. What would customers pay if you asked differently?
  5. Model the change before making itPrice moves flow straight to margin in both directions. Model volume response and be explicit about the assumption, because it is a guess.

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

  • Actual realised prices, not the rate card
  • Discounting patterns by customer and by rep
  • Some read on competitor pricing and customer value

You’ll end up with

  • The gap between list and realised price, explained
  • A pricing basis that matches how value is delivered
  • Specific changes with a revenue impact estimate

Runs well with

Acquisition screen and synergy thesisAdjacency mapAI operating model optionsAI opportunity map