Ep. 346 — Casey Brown: The Pricing Power You're Not Using

5 min read

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Episode Summary

You feel the pinch every month and you keep finding ways to absorb it. Costs are up. Wages are up. Your team is exhausted from passing through the last five price increases. So you sit there hoping you can hold the line without losing volume, and meanwhile some chunk of unrealized profit walks out the door and lands in your customer’s bank account every single day. I brought Casey Brown from Boost Pricing on to get into what most owners are actually dealing with: pricing decisions made from fear, not confidence. Casey is an engineer by training, a Six Sigma black belt, and has spent two-plus decades helping owners ask for what they’re worth. We got into the two times to raise prices (when you can and when you must), why anchoring your justification to costs is a value-killer, how granular beats one-size-fits-all every time, and the part that should matter most to any owner thinking about exit: unexercised pricing power is the first thing a PE buyer will go capture after they close. You might as well print that money for yourself first.

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## Top 10 Takeaways
  1. Pricing decisions made from fear cost you margin every day, and you barely notice it leave.
  2. Your customers will buy from someone. The only question is whether they buy from you at the right price.
  3. There are two times to raise prices: when you can, and when you must. Most owners only act on the second.
  4. Anchoring your price increase to costs admits you add zero value beyond your inputs.
  5. Every 1% of price on a 5% EBITDA business is a 20% lift to the bottom line.
  6. Revenue is for vanity, profit is for sanity. The top line funds growth, talent, and quality.
  7. Granular pricing beats one-size-fits-all. The riches are in the niches.
  8. Start your price increase where the risk is lowest, not where the dollars are biggest.
  9. Underpricing a new product to drive adoption locks in low value perception forever.
  10. Unexercised pricing power is the first thing a PE buyer will harvest after they close.

Sound Bites

“There are two times to ask for more price: when you can and when you must.” (@TBD) — Casey Brown

“Revenue is for vanity, profit is for sanity.” (@TBD) — Casey Brown

“If you tell your customer that the only reason they should pay you more is for the cost of your inputs, you’re essentially admitting that there’s no value that you provide. You’re reducing yourself to an accumulation of inputs as if that’s the only reason you’re valuable to them.” (@TBD) — Casey Brown

“One of the most important things that buying organizations like a PE firm are looking for is unexercised pricing power, because then they can just come right in, raise the rates, and just print money. To a founder or owner looking to sell a business at some point in the future, you might as well print it for yourself first and then sell it, and sell it for higher multiples too.” (@TBD) — Casey Brown

“Dogs and prospects can smell fear.” (@TBD) — Casey Brown

About This Episode

Casey Brown is the president of Boost Pricing, a leading pricing consulting firm working with middle-market companies. She’s an engineer by training (degrees in chemical engineering, Spanish, and business, plus a Six Sigma black belt) who spent her early career on pricing strategy inside Fortune 500 companies before launching Boost. Over the past two-plus decades she has helped owners and their sales teams shift from pricing out of fear to pricing from confidence. Her TEDx talk on pricing has been viewed over 5 million times across platforms, and she is a frequent keynote at Vistage, EOS Worldwide, and industry association events.

Resources Mentioned

  • Boost Pricing — Casey’s firm. — boostpricing.com
  • Casey Brown on LinkedIn — Where she publishes content, videos, and blogs. — Handle: Casey Brown Boost
  • Casey Brown TEDx Talk — 5M+ views on pricing power.
  • Good to Great by Jim Collins — Referenced for “bullets before cannonballs” as a framework for risk-mitigated pricing tests.
  • Free by Chris Anderson — Referenced (and pushed back on) regarding the “land and expand, then raise prices” model in SaaS.
  • Tommy Mello (A1 Garage Door Service) — Referenced as an example of an owner who built from 2 trucks to $150M by pricing for the value delivered and the wages he wants to pay his team.
  • Warren Buffett — Paraphrased: if you need a prayer session before raising prices 10%, you have a terrible business.

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