The articles below are a sample of my most recent writing, organized around seven different themes.
You can read my entire archive of 75+ articles for free on Substack.
Theme 1: Translate your product’s features into customer value
What’s in it for you: Value is not what you put into a product; it is what the customer gets out of it. This set of past issues will help you transform your sales conversations from technical descriptions to result-oriented transformations.
Issue #28: The three pricing mindset shifts small businesses need. Move from the “either-or” choice of price vs. volume to the flexibility of differential pricing.
Issue #23: Is your pricing scaring away customers? Apply the “So What?” test to transform technical attributes into human benefits.
Issue #52: Five strategic pricing steps for small businesses. Stop guessing at the “right” price and start pricing the outcome rather than the means.
Theme 2: Eliminate your pricing blindspots
What’s in it for you: Small businesses often rely on a single number to appeal to an entire market. This approach ignores the reality that value is subjective and context-dependent. These three articles will help you identify internal biases and tactical errors that are capping your profits.
Issue #10: Are you leaving money on the table? 10 myths about price setting. Sidestep common pricing fallacies, such as the belief that pricing should be based solely on your costs.
Issue #8: Grow your small business: avoid these 10 common pricing mistakes. Learn how cost-based pricing, and a failure to sort buyers by their willingness to pay, leads to lost sales and profits.
Issue #29: Stop losing revenue: why relying on a single uniform price always fails. Understand why relying on a single price point under-prices for some of your customers and over-prices for others at the same time.
Theme 3: Build a high-performance tiered price menu
What’s in it for you: A tiered price menu acts as a self-sorting machine that guides customers toward the level of value they’re willing to pay for. This set of articles explains the psychology behind “choice architecture” and how to use it to nudge buyers toward your most profitable options.
Issue #2: Unlock the psychology of good, better, best pricing. Leverage extremeness aversion to provide a safe middle ground for buyers who fear overpaying or underpaying.
Issue #37: Solve the sorting problem: implement good, better, best. Use high-end “anchor prices” to frame your standard offers as sensible bargains.
Issue #38: Ten things sellers get wrong about tiered price menus. Safeguard your price menu from design errors like overwhelming customers with too many choices.
Theme 4: Structure your offering for maximum flexibility
What’s in it for you: You can change the price of an offering by changing the offer itself. This triplet shows you how to deconstruct your current offering into modular parts to appeal to both budget-conscious and premium segments.
Issue #22: Unbundling: unlock new sales and boost profit margins. Break apart your existing offers into “no-frills” core products to attract price-sensitive customers.
Issue #35: Stop discounting the customer: the smart pricing shift. Protect your margins by offering smaller amounts or lower-cost versions to buyers who demand a lower price.
Issue #4: Unlock more profit: 10 expert pricing tips for using add-ons. Capitalize on the lower price sensitivity of buyers once they have committed to a base purchase.
Theme 5: Master the art of the bundle
What’s in it for you: Successful bundling stimulates sales that otherwise wouldn’t happen. This set of articles gets into the “dos and don’ts” of product grouping to ensure you are increasing total revenue without sacrificing your premium brand image.
Issue #5: Bundle smarter: 10 dos and don’ts. Study how products and services are used together to enhance customer value while avoiding substitute products.
Issue #21: Three key steps to a successful mixed bundling strategy. Implement strategic product and service combination to offer buyers an incentive to purchase a complete package.
Issue #12: Beyond discounts: 5 smarter pricing strategies. Use mixed bundling to provide a “win” for the customer while protecting the perceived value of your individual products and services.
Theme 6: Sort buyers with time and effort hurdles
What’s in it for you: Different customers value their time and money differently. This set teaches you how to use “strategic friction” to ensure your discounts only go to those who truly need them.
Issue #6: Price, time, and effort: segmenting buyers. Nudge buyers to off-peak times or require inconvenience to separate those with a lower opportunity cost of time.
Issue #17: Effort-based price discounts: how companies segment customers. Require a non-monetary cost (time or effort) to attract price-sensitive buyers without cutting prices for everyone.
Issue #18: Effort-based discounts: avoid 5 common revenue traps. Shield your business from arbitrage and stockpiling by creating effective effort barriers.
Theme 7: Scale your nonprofit’s revenue and reach 🍎
What’s in it for you: Economic logic doesn’t stop at the commercial border. If you run, advise, or sit on the board of a non-profit or public sector organization, these three articles apply differential pricing principles to help you balance financial sustainability with community impact.
Issue #1: Balancing mission and money: 10 tips for introducing fees. Learn how to determine fee feasibility, identify relevant costs, implement tiered fee menus, and use offer stacking to broaden your impact.
Issue #13: Ten essential strategies to boost revenue and expand reach. Build a flexible fee structure, using offer stacking, to expand access and fund your mission.
Issue #14: Three smart fee strategies to boost your nonprofit’s revenue. Select the right model (pay-what-you-can, sliding scales, or tiered menus) for your specific impact goals.