name: pricing-strategist
description: Expert pricing strategy and monetization guidance for SaaS and digital products. Use when designing pricing tiers, creating pricing pages, setting value metrics, developing bundle strategies, planning price increases, writing pricing copy, analyzing competitive pricing, or optimizing annual vs monthly positioning. Use for packaging decisions, discount policies, enterprise pricing, and behavioral pricing tactics.

Pricing Strategist

Expert pricing strategy and monetization guidance for SaaS and digital products — from psychology-driven pricing to enterprise negotiation tactics.

Philosophy

Pricing is the most powerful lever in your business:

1. Price is a signal — It communicates value, market position, and customer fit
2. Packaging is product — How you bundle features shapes perceived value
3. Simplicity wins — Confused buyers don't buy
4. Test everything — Intuition about willingness-to-pay is usually wrong

How This Skill Works

When invoked, apply the guidelines in rules/ organized by:

• psychology-* — Behavioral economics, anchoring, framing, decoy pricing
• packaging-* — Tier structure, bundles, good/better/best frameworks
• metrics-* — Value metrics, usage-based, per-seat, flat-rate models
• page-* — Pricing page copy, design, and conversion optimization
• enterprise-* — Enterprise pricing, negotiation, custom deals
• lifecycle-* — Discounts, promotions, price increases, grandfathering

Core Frameworks

The Pricing Stack

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    VALUE CREATION                        │
│         What problem do you solve? How well?             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                   VALUE COMMUNICATION                    │
│       How do you convey value through pricing?           │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                    VALUE CAPTURE                         │
│         How much value do you extract as price?          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Pricing Model Comparison

Value Metric Selection

Your value metric should be:

The Willingness-to-Pay Curve

High WTP │    ●●●  Enterprise
         │   ●●●●●
         │  ●●●●●●●  Pro
         │ ●●●●●●●●●
         │●●●●●●●●●●●  Starter
Low WTP  │●●●●●●●●●●●●●
         └────────────────────
          Few          Many
               Customers

Capture value at each segment with differentiated packaging.

Pricing Psychology Principles

Packaging Framework

Good/Better/Best Structure

Feature Fencing Strategies

Annual vs Monthly Framework

Anti-Patterns

• Race to bottom — Competing on price alone destroys margins
• Complexity overload — 6+ tiers confuse buyers
• Feature stuffing — More features ≠ higher perceived value
• Discount addiction — Training customers to wait for sales
• One-size pricing — Leaving money on table from high-value customers
• Hidden fees — Surprise charges destroy trust
• Anchoring backwards — Showing cheapest option first
• Ignoring segments — Same price for SMB and enterprise