Posts by: Tim J. Smith, PhD
“If there is a Volkswagen Way, it is to be determined, diligent and attentive to detail, with a glint of ruthlessness.” VW…
MoreIn the age of big data, sales velocity has become a metric for guiding pricing decisions. Pricing software vendors all cite sales velocity as an important factor in guiding pricing decisions. Fortune 500 and mid-tier firms alike are known to practice it. But what does velocity-based pricing mean? Why should sales velocity influence pricing decisions? How should firms use sales velocity to inform pricing? And are there serious pitfalls to this approach, or is it a sound business practice?
MoreA customer checks you out … How did he know you existed? What brought him to you? How do you get more…
MoreTheoretically, if you know the elasticity of demand you can optimize the price through economic price optimization. You may think that this approach would give the best price in practice as well since the word “optimal” is implied in its name alone. But dig beneath its sexy title you will generally find an ugly mess. So what do we do with it?
MoreWhy do Americans generally get paid more to do business than to do engineering or science? Is it that there is greater…
MoreApple has had a beating both in the market and the press lately. Despite record quarterly profit, they lost their number-one stock spot to Exxon Mobil. By some prognostications, Samsung is rising in the smartphone market, and Huawei is taking a stronger foothold on the price-sensitive emerging-market field, while Apple is stumbling. Well, for those who failed to sell Apple at above $700 prices and now see it below $450, what did you expect?
MoreEconomic price optimization has a lot to tell us, but not necessarily the price which optimizes the firm’s profits. Economic price optimization relies on a defined demand curve. Unfortunately, defining the demand curve with sufficient precision and reliability for decision making can be done for only a subset of challenges. So if this method is not useful for pricing in many cases, what use is it?
More“We’re looking to make progress quickly, either fail fast or succeed fast.” Daniel Hullah, Venture Capitalist Most businesses fail, but some succeed…
MoreFirmographics are descriptive attributes of firms that can be used to aggregate individual firms into meaningful market segments. In an analogy, firmographics are to businesses and organizations what demographics are to people. Firmographics describe businesses, non-profits, and governmental entities.
MoreSomewhere between blunt and precise lies communication. Go too far in either direction and you lose them. When sales people manage information…
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