STREET PRICING: Meet Arnab Mishra, CEO Xactly

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Arnab Mishra, Chief Operating Officer at Xactly. Arnab is a seasoned cloud software executive with an extensive history of leading and collaborating with all departments to drive corporate strategy and execution.

Marcos and Arnab discuss Arnab’s beginnings in pricing. (3:40) Arnab talks about a study that he came across that said, “A 1% improvement in pricing, can deliver a 12% improvement in operating profit.”

Arnab gives his three core principles and objectives that he adheres to: (7:35)

1. The goal of pricing is to reduce the friction between the customer and our sellers.
2. Make sure that you are thoughtfully monetizing the features and products that we are delivering.
3. Recognizing that pricing is not a one-and-done activity, it is a continuous activity.

They talk about how important good “Win-Loss Data” and “Opportunity Data” is for SaaS companies and how Arnab was able to convince companies to give the green light on pricing. (12:23) Marcos and Arnab ‘get street’ with the one-size-fits-none approach that a lot of companies have. (18:00) Customer needs can change over time, so pricing and packaging will also need to change to accommodate new features. Arnab uses a ‘Good, Better and Best’ packaging approach.

With the correct systems implemented, Arnab saw a 50% increase in unit pricing, a 20% decrease in discounting, and win rates increased. (23:35) He talks about his internal working group, ‘Pricing Counsel.’ (25:32) This group meets twice a quarter to review all the data that has been collected and talk about certain things they are thinking about implementing, this has created a great forum to discuss.  Arnab talks about ROI-based selling, where companies are super focused on efficiency. (27:02) He also relays his hopes for the future of pricing. (28:40)

Marcos and Arnab close out the show by discussing Arnab’s favorite hip-hop artists: Tribe Called Quest and Eminem.

Street Pricing streams live on OC TALK RADIO, Orange County's only online business channel, every Friday at 10:00 AM PT and is available for download on all major podcast platforms.

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