How Ron Wood became
Australia's Leading Pricing Expert
Meet Ron Wood
The Founder and Director of Pricing Insight and one of Australia’s leading pricing experts.
Personal note from the founder of Pricing Insight
My interest in price optimisation came about whilst working in price analytics at an ASX listed FMCG company where I observed much of the price setting was reactive, based on what competitors were doing, leading to margin erosion and missed earnings targets.
Through trial and error analysing large data sets, I discovered relationships between price, volume and profitability could be explained with statistical formulas. For me, this discovery was ground-breaking. It meant the business could now predict sales volumes and profitability at various price points, with high levels of confidence, which had never before been possible. This statistical solution was scaled and implemented across the business, for all products, and all channels to market. The net result was an incremental $10.0M in profit. This discovery was the catalyst for a lifelong commitment to pricing.
After establishing Pricing Insight in 2007, I went on to work with many other sales teams across a range of industries.
I realised many pricing decisions were emotionally based, driven by fear or overconfidence, leading to suboptimal profit outcomes.
Through a range of experiments, I developed a series of formulas, ratios and ultimately a unique algorithm, that identified pricing power at an SKU/item level. This algorithmic approach enabled thousands of SKUs to be price optimised, to maximise revenue and margins.
Today, we can analyse a client data set by SKU, and develop a unique value-based pricing algorithm that will generate between $2M-$7M EBITDA for every hundred million dollars of revenue optimised.
We work with B2B & B2C companies from a wide range of industries, both listed and privately held.
I look forward to helping you grow your business more profitably.
Ron Wood
Founder & Managing Director
Pricing Insight
Pricing has always interested me. When I was in my early twenties I privately tutored students in guitar. I quickly realised that a lot of students were unable to afford one-on-one tuition. So I offered a reduced ‘bring a friend along’ rate to make the lessons more affordable. I discovered that students got just as much value learning in pairs as on their own. The outcome was that the actual revenues per lesson increased and more students were learning guitar.
Early days
After finishing my business studies, I started working at a large Australian food manufacturing business. I quickly discovered that, in relation to pricing, no one really knew what they were talking about.
One morning, there was a panicked 7am meeting after it was discovered that a price promotion at a large retail chain in Australia, Coles supermarkets, clashed with a promotion for the same product at another large retail chain called Woolworths. The price clash meant that the product was 20 cents cheaper at Coles.
The Woolworths supermarket chain had written a letter to the food manufacturer accusing it of embarrassing them in the market and deducted the difference between the prices from their remittance. This ended up being a loss of $300,000 in pure profit.
Pricing Insight
It became clear to me that there was a lot of confusion about what the appropriate price was to set for this product and how to manage these prices in the marketplace.
It also became clear to me the arguments put forth by the senior Executives at the time were based on perceived truths about pricing and markets, rather than facts. It was hard to believe there was no clear pricing strategy based on data. A loss of $300,000 was a very real number to me starting out in business, especially when I calculated that the business would need to generate $5 million in sales to absorb that loss.
I was determined to find out more about what the right price for the product should be to improve profits for the business. My research culminated in a presentation to the National Sales Director. I demonstrated that the business would miss its budget with its current pricing plan. I discovered that there were too many price promotions for products that were price inelastic. This meant that the document generated no value for the business and profitability was damaged.
My career in pricing begins
And, so it began. I was asked to work on pricing full-time and was promoted into the role of Head of Pricing at the age of 27, managing a team of 5 analysts. We set to work building pricing models, analysing price promotions, getting control of the promotional program across 45 different accounts and working with supply chain to ensure forecasts were accurate. In the first year of operation, we generated an extra $5 million for the business. It was an amazing time. I knew what I wanted to do and that was to build a career in pricing.
The experience convinced me that when data, statistics and financial modelling are brought together in a coordinated way, they can have a major impact on a business’ profit outcomes. On the flip side, it also became apparent that a business that does not have a clear pricing strategy and control over pricing tactics risks substantial margin impairment. A business culture that accepts independent and unstructured pricing decisions without accountability is a recipe for margin disaster.
I recognised that a company needs to build a culture based on value and ensure everyone is skilled to define, communicate and capture value. It’s better to cut through misinformation that leads to waste and accept the parts of pricing that can be controlled, measured, modelled and used to strategise. Pricing outcomes are not all up to the market.
Establishment of Pricing Insight
I started Pricing Insight in March 2007 after I was offered three Pricing Manager positions at three different companies. I wanted to help all three companies and by this time, I had been a Pricing Manager for 10 years and wanted a new challenge. Starting my own pricing consulting business was the next logical step.
I also wanted to capture all the pricing knowledge I’d accumulated over the last 10 years. After attending an international pricing conference, I realised that my approach to pricing was unique. I found the conference speakers to be theoretical and generic in their explanations and far removed from my own personal experience. I believe practical approaches are needed to solve real world pricing problems. So, I decided to write my own course and became the first person to teach value based pricing in Australia. This became the basis for my business. I started educating company Executives on pricing and education has been part of the philosophy of Pricing Insight from day one.
I’ve worked with 100+ companies and educated over 2,500 Executives. I firmly believe education and learning are crucial to ensuring good pricing practices are undertaken.
Biography
As the Founder and Director of Pricing Insight and one of Australia’s leading pricing experts, Ron is a regular speaker for the International CEO Forum, International CFO Forum, American Chamber of Commerce and Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply. He is also the author of Pricing Insight’s Executive training program, Pricing Masterclass.
Ron has trained 2000+ Senior Executives in value-based pricing techniques and margin enhancement strategies. He has also devised unique and internationally recognised programs that equip Executives with the skills they need to deal with pricing challenges in a practical and pragmatic way.
His unique approach to consulting is the result of delivering real world pricing solutions for over fifteen years to ASX and NYSE listed companies in Australasia, South East Asia and the USA. His experiences span industries of manufacturing, financial services, construction, capital equipment, metals, retail FMCG, air freight, tourism and agriculture.
His consulting clients include some of Australia’s largest Private Equity, ASX and Fortune 500 listed companies and he works with C-level and Senior Sales, Marketing and Finance Executives to build commercially effective margin improvement solutions.
Ron works closely with sales, marketing and commercial teams to develop value based pricing solutions to generate margin and profit improvement.
Pricing has real world consequences
The music of pricing
Pricing Insight today
I make it my business to stay up-to-date with what’s going on in the pricing world domestically and overseas. And because I speak to so many people across so many industries, I get to see what’s actually happening. I study my clients in detail to understand what their challenges are. But I also look at what’s happening globally to ensure changes in organisational design and organisational structures, such as the impact of technology, are all being channelled into pricing strategy within a business.
I enjoy the discovery of something new and working with other people who are committed to transformation.
I have learned from my clients the importance of balancing competing demands. Something that may appear to be a top priority may in-fact need to be number two or three.
Clients often ask me to return to their business on multiple occasions. As they go down the pricing improvement journey, they realise how much more there is to know.
Biography
As the Founder and Director of Pricing Insight and one of Australia’s leading pricing experts, Ron is a regular speaker for the International CEO Forum, International CFO Forum, American Chamber of Commerce and Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply. He is also the author of Pricing Insight’s Executive training program, Pricing Masterclass.
Ron has trained 2000+ Senior Executives in value-based pricing techniques and margin enhancement strategies. He has also devised unique and internationally recognised programs that equip Executives with the skills they need to deal with pricing challenges in a practical and pragmatic way.
His unique approach to consulting is the result of delivering real world pricing solutions for over fifteen years to ASX and NYSE listed companies in Australasia, South East Asia and the USA. His experiences span industries of manufacturing, financial services, construction, capital equipment, metals, retail FMCG, air freight, tourism and agriculture.
His consulting clients include some of Australia’s largest Private Equity, ASX and Fortune 500 listed companies and he works with C-level and Senior Sales, Marketing and Finance Executives to build commercially effective margin improvement solutions.
Ron works closely with sales, marketing and commercial teams to develop value based pricing solutions to generate margin and profit improvement.
