# Pricing strategist Human Guide

## What This Is For
Expert pricing strategy and monetization guidance for SaaS and digital products. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for go-to-market work: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Pricing strategist agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for pricing strategist.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Pricing strategist guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Price is a signal** — It communicates value, market position, and customer fit
- **Packaging is product** — How you bundle features shapes perceived value
- **Simplicity wins** — Confused buyers don't buy
- **Test everything** — Intuition about willingness-to-pay is usually wrong
- `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
- **Race to bottom** — Competing on price alone destroys margins
- **Complexity overload** — 6+ tiers confuse buyers

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Philosophy, How This Skill Works, Core Frameworks, The Pricing Stack, Pricing Model Comparison, Value Metric Selection, The Willingness-to-Pay Curve, Pricing Psychology Principles, Packaging Framework, Good/Better/Best Structure.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- **Simplicity wins** — Confused buyers don't buy
- **Description:** Discount strategies, promotional frameworks, annual incentives, and avoiding discount addiction.
- **Always-on discounts** — Trains customers to never pay full price
- └── Costs avoided (vs alternative solutions)
- | **Concession** | Never give without getting |
- Response: "I understand price is important. Let me share what I've
- **Discounting first** — Start high, never start low
- Price increases are necessary for healthy businesses but must be handled carefully. Poor execution causes churn, support burden, and brand damage. Good execution strengthens customer relationships.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Pricing strategist human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the ncklrs/startup-os-skills skill entry for `pricing-strategist`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# 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

| Model | Best For | Pros | Cons |
|-------|----------|------|------|
| **Per-seat** | Collaboration tools | Predictable, scales with adoption | Discourages sharing |
| **Usage-based** | Infrastructure, API | Aligns with value, low entry | Unpredictable revenue |
| **Flat-rate** | Simple products | Easy to understand | Leaves money on table |
| **Tiered** | Most SaaS | Captures segments | Can be complex |
| **Hybrid** | Mature products | Flexible, optimized | Harder to communicate |

### Value Metric Selection

Your value metric should be:

| Criteria | Question | Example |
|----------|----------|---------|
| **Easy to understand** | Can you explain it in 5 words? | "Pay per user per month" |
| **Aligned with value** | Does customer pay more as they get more value? | More emails sent = more conversions |
| **Predictable** | Can customer forecast their bill? | Seat count is predictable |
| **Scalable** | Does it grow with the customer? | API calls scale with usage |

### 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