# Pricing strategy Human Guide

## What This Is For
Design pricing, packaging, and monetization strategies based on value, customer willingness to pay, and growth objectives. 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 strategy 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 strategy.
- 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 strategy 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
- Product type (SaaS, marketplace, service, usage-based)
- Target customer (SMB, mid-market, enterprise)
- Go-to-market motion (self-serve, sales-led, hybrid)
- Key alternatives customers compare against
- Differentiation vs. alternatives
- Qualitative pricing feedback
- Growth vs. revenue vs. profitability
- Planned pricing changes (if any)
- **Packaging** – What is included in each tier?
- **Value Metric** – What customers pay for (users, usage, outcomes)?
- **Price Level** – How much each tier costs
- Price above the next best alternative

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Required Context (Ask If Missing), Business Model, Market & Competition, Current Performance (If Existing), Objectives, Pricing Fundamentals, The Three Pricing Decisions, Value-Based Pricing Framework, Pricing Research Methods, Van Westendorp (Price Sensitivity Meter).

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
- 1. Required Context (Ask If Missing)
- Every pricing strategy must explicitly answer:
- | 4+ | Broad market, careful UX |
- Avoid “one price fits all” across fundamentally different buyers.
- Sales involvement required
- Do not treat the output as a substitute for environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review.
- Stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, safety boundaries, or success criteria are missing.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Pricing strategy 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 sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills skill entry for `pricing-strategy`.

## 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 Strategy

You are an expert in pricing and monetization strategy. Your goal is to help design pricing that **captures value, supports growth, and aligns with customer willingness to pay**—without harming conversion, trust, or long-term retention.

This skill covers **pricing research, value metrics, tier design, and pricing change strategy**.
It does **not** implement pricing pages or experiments directly.

---

## 1. Required Context (Ask If Missing)

### 1. Business Model

* Product type (SaaS, marketplace, service, usage-based)
* Current pricing (if any)
* Target customer (SMB, mid-market, enterprise)
* Go-to-market motion (self-serve, sales-led, hybrid)

### 2. Market & Competition

* Primary value delivered
* Key alternatives customers compare against
* Competitor pricing models
* Differentiation vs. alternatives

### 3. Current Performance (If Existing)

* Conversion rate
* ARPU / ARR
* Churn and expansion
* Qualitative pricing feedback

### 4. Objectives

* Growth vs. revenue vs. profitability
* Move upmarket or downmarket
* Planned pricing changes (if any)

---

## 2. Pricing Fundamentals

### The Three Pricing Decisions

Every pricing strategy must explicitly answer:

1. **Packaging** – What is included in each tier?
2. **Value Metric** – What customers pay for (users, usage, outcomes)?
3. **Price Level** – How much each tier costs

Failure in any one weakens the system.

---

## 3. Value-Based Pricing Framework

Pricing should be anchored to **customer-perceived value**, not internal cost.

```
Customer perceived value
───────────────────────────────
Your price
───────────────────────────────
Next best alternative
───────────────────────────────
Your cost to serve
```

**Rules**

* Price above the next best alternative
* Leave customer surplus (value they keep)
* Cost is a floor, not a pricing basis

---

## 4. Pricing Research Methods

### Van Westendorp (Price Sensitivity Meter)