Posts by: Tim J. Smith, PhD

The Pricing Function: Simple Questions with Complex Answers

By Tim J. Smith, PhD October 6, 2015

Companies that are just beginning to build a pricing team should initially focus on defining the first year’s problems the team must address. Is it a price execution, discounting, setting, or strategy challenge, which most needs to be addressed? In some cases, the performance metric should be something correlated to profits, revenue, and share.

Love Tools but Love People More

By Tim J. Smith, PhD September 11, 2015

The pricing software revolution is in full swing so who needs people anymore? Tim J. Smith, PhD takes on the thorny question of the information revolution impacting entry level and mid-tier pricing jobs and actually finds good news.

Big Show Idea Vlog

By Tim J. Smith, PhD September 11, 2015

Join Tim J. Smith PhD in a new video blogging series covering all things pricing. From Hertz, big oil, airline price gouges and Zulily to homemade soda and Gucci, step into a vlogosphere dissecting what’s affecting prices, the economy and you.

Will Ford Find a Market for F-150 Trucks Above $60,000?

By Tim J. Smith, PhD August 10, 2015

With recovery in job security and wealth, and having successfully survived the worst recession in most of our lifetimes, truck buyers are in a better position and mind-frame to spend. Moreover, since many blue-collar entrepreneurs spend a significant part of their day driving their truck, and it is normal for people to want their working environment to be comfortable, they are willing to spend for luxury work truck.

Pricing Isn’t an Event, it’s a Journey

By Tim J. Smith, PhD July 13, 2015

In the price improvement strategy, firms develop the organizational capabilities to manage prices better. Pricing and discount management processes are developed. People are hired to drive those processes. Tools are acquired to accelerate achievements. Cultures are changed towards a profit and discount cautious mentality.

Price Structure Improvements Drive UPS Earnings Up

By Tim J. Smith, PhD June 10, 2015

In terms of market segmentation alignment, different customers receive different benefits (perceived or real) from the same or similar product. This drives variation in willingness to pay. One goal in improving a price structure is to improve the match between the willingness to pay and the price extracted. It is a form of price segmentation.

Innovate or be Irrelevant

By Tim J. Smith, PhD April 15, 2015

Innovation is clearly on many corporate agendas. And it is not surprising. Companies don’t grow by cost cutting alone. They grow through innovation. But how? And what are the implications of this innovation driven agenda?

Value vs. Power

By Tim J. Smith, PhD April 15, 2015

I met a person who hated value based pricing last week. He was in procurement. Where can a value-based pricing advocate find agreement with an anti-value based procurement officer?

Top 6 – March 2015

By Tim J. Smith, PhD March 16, 2015

“Congratulations to Hifikepuny Pohamba, Namibia President (2005-2015) for winning the 2014 Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. Only the fourth…

Tim J. Smith, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Wiglaf Pricing, an Adjunct Professor of Marketing and Economics at DePaul University, and the author of Pricing Done Right (Wiley 2016) and Pricing Strategy (Cengage 2012). At Wiglaf Pricing, Tim leads client engagements. Smith’s popular business book, Pricing Done Right: The Pricing Framework Proven Successful by the World’s Most Profitable Companies, was noted by Dennis Stone, CEO of Overhead Door Corp, as "Essential reading… While many books cover the concepts of pricing, Pricing Done Right goes the additional step of applying the concepts in the real world." Tim’s textbook, Pricing Strategy: Setting Price Levels, Managing Price Discounts, & Establishing Price Structures, has been described by independent reviewers as “the most comprehensive pricing strategy book” on the market. As well as serving as the Academic Advisor to the Professional Pricing Society’s Certified Pricing Professional program, Tim is a member of the American Marketing Association and American Physical Society. He holds a BS in Physics and Chemistry from Southern Methodist University, a BA in Mathematics from Southern Methodist University, a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Chicago, and an MBA with high honors in Strategy and Marketing from the University of Chicago GSB.