Most pricing consultants optimize price points. I help companies figure out what customers are actually buying and align pricing to customer value. The case studies below show the dramatic pricing improvements that start with clarifying the customers’ economic value.
[Case Study] What Are Real Estate Brokers Actually Buying?
A PE-backed software company serving residential real estate had 10 acquired products—each with its own pricing logic. After 5 years without a comprehensive pricing review, they knew something was broken. Market pressures were mounting: brokers faced shrinking margins from three years of sluggish housing, rising costs, and competitors who had updated pricing while they stood still.
But they were asking the wrong question.
They wanted to know: “What should our pricing tiers be across 10 products?”
We asked instead: “What are brokers actually buying from you?”
The Discovery
Through customer research and sales data analysis, we found brokers weren’t buying “software features” or “product suites.” They were buying three distinct outcomes:
- Transaction enablement – The ability to close more deals efficiently
- Agent retention – Tools that kept top agents from leaving for competitors
- Operational leverage – Reducing back-office costs per transaction
And the value they received varied dramatically by brokerage size, agent strategy, and transaction volume.
The existing pricing model had small firms sometimes paying more than large enterprises — despite delivering better performance. Deal-by-deal negotiations obscured what was actually working.
The Breakthrough
Once we understood what brokers were actually buying, pricing became straightforward. Instead of 10 disconnected product pricing models, we built one unified architecture around transaction volume—the metric that aligned with how brokerages make money and realize value.
We created a 9-tier pricing structure that spanned:
- All 10 products in the portfolio
- 3 distinct customer segments (agents, associations, and brokerages spanning 2-15,000 agents)
- Consistent pricing logic reflecting value delivered, not cost incurred
The Result:
- A pricing model aligned with customer economics: Pricing scaled with transaction volume, matching how both brokerages and agents generate revenue
- Replaced chaos with clarity: No more deal-by-deal negotiations. One consistent structure across the entire portfolio.
- Enabled strategic selling: Sales teams had a clear story connecting price directly to broker growth
- Simplified bundling: Cross-sell and upsell became logical progressions, not arbitrary product combinations
- Restored competitive discipline: Standardized pricing ended the race-to-the-bottom discounting
The Lesson:
Optimizing pricing tiers without knowing what customers are buying gives you marginal improvements. Getting clarity on what they’re actually paying for first gives you step-function growth.
[Case Study] When a Segmentation Problem Appears as a Pricing Problem.
A premium B2B SaaS company wanted to expand into smaller customers in their target segment, but their pricing was blocking them. Small prospects would choose “nothing” over committing to the premium price point.
The incoming CEO asked us to “make pricing more approachable at the low end.”
But that wasn’t the real problem.
Most consultants would have just lowered the entry price or added a cheaper tier. We asked instead: “What are small customers actually buying versus what large customers are buying?”
The Discovery
Through value-to-price analysis and customer research, we found that small and large customers were buying fundamentally different outcomes:
Small customers were buying:
- Core functionality for basic operations
- Immediate implementation without complexity
- Solutions to discrete problems
Large customers were buying:
- Advanced capabilities and customization
- Integration with enterprise systems
- Comprehensive support and partnership
They were selling ONE product to two different customer types who valued completely different things—and priced it as if everyone wanted the same outcomes.
The Solution
We didn’t lower pricing. We unbundled based on what each segment was actually buying:
- Small customers: Streamlined pricing for core outcomes they valued, removing premium features they didn’t need or want
- Large customers: Premium pricing maintained for comprehensive enterprise capabilities
- Clear upgrade path: As small customers grew, they could expand into advanced features when the value became relevant
The new pricing model stayed within the recommended value-to-price range from smallest to largest customer—but now reflected actual value delivered to each segment.
The Result
- More approachable for small customers without cheapening the premium brand
- Maintained high-end positioning for enterprise buyers
- Created upsell revenue opportunities by unbundling previously included features
- Expanded addressable market across a larger customer base while preserving margins
The Lesson
“Make it cheaper” is rarely the answer. Understanding what different customer segments are actually buying unlocks the right pricing architecture often revealing that lowering prices isn’t necessary at all.
[Case Study] They Were About to Underprice a $2M Deal Again
A B2B AgTech SaaS company was winning deals but losing money. Thin margins and operational challenges were dragging down growth. Now they faced a high-stakes enterprise opportunity—and the CRO knew their standard playbook would lead to dramatic underpricing and potentially long-term operational problems.
They reached out asking us to help price this specific deal. We asked: “What is this customer actually buying?”
The Discovery
Through discovery sessions with all key stakeholders at the prospect’s company, we uncovered that the customer wasn’t just buying software—they were buying five distinct business outcomes:
- Millions in incremental revenue from operational improvements
- Hundreds of thousands in operational cost savings
- Risk mitigation avoiding costly compliance issues
- Competitive advantage through better data and decision-making
- Organizational efficiency reducing manual processes
The CRO had been pricing software licenses based on implementation costs and usage. The customer was buying business outcomes worth 10x what they were planning to charge.
The Breakthrough
We built a strategic pricing framework around the FIVE distinct customer benefits—each with its own value quantification and recommended price range. This completely reframed the conversation from “software cost” to “value delivered.”
The framework gave the CRO:
- Clear articulation of value for each benefit area
- Recommended pricing ranges tied to quantified customer outcomes
- Confidence to position at dramatically higher pricing tiers
- A repeatable methodology for future enterprise opportunities
The Result
- CRO positioned the offering at a much higher pricing tier than any previous deal
- Secured healthy margins while still delivering exceptional ROI to the customer
- The framework became the primary tool for pricing all subsequent high-profile opportunities
- Shifted company trajectory from underpriced deals with thin margins to value-aligned pricing
The Lesson
If you don’t know what the customer is actually buying, you’ll price what you’re selling—and leave massive money on the table. Enterprise customers aren’t buying software. They’re buying business outcomes.