Book Review – The 10 Rules of Highly Effective Pricing: How to Transform Your Price Management to Boost Profits | Rating 2/5 | Qualitative: It is OK

Book Review – The 10 Rules of Highly Effective Pricing: How to Transform Your Price Management to Boost Profits | Rating 2/5 | Qualitative: It is OK “Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia…” | “I am myself and my circumstances” Ortega y Gasset, 1914 This famous phrase by Ortega y Gasset came to mind as I began writing this review—it also helps explain the somewhat surprising rating I gave the book. The book, a bestseller by pricing literature standards, is an easy and engaging read. I would definitely recommend it to anyone starting their journey into pricing or to those seeking a light introduction or a broad overview of the pricing domain. However, for a pricing expert, although it remains a pleasant and smooth reading experience, the book essentially aggregates and consolidates ten well-known pricing truisms—concepts that every pricing professional learns early in their career. The ten principles (not quoted verbatim) can be summarized as follows: 1.Pricing is a C-suite domain. 2.Strive for a pro-profit mindset (avoid leakages). 3.Understand and sell value. 4.Promote and implement price segmentation. 5.Carefully define your price structure, price variation drivers, and price adjusters to maximize profit. 6.Avoid price wars. 7.Create and communicate a price image or perception to your customers. 8.Use data, technology, and models to define your prices (embrace the body of knowledge). 9.Define and uphold pricing governance rules. 10.Avoid preconceived pricing myths that negatively impact decision-making, such as: a) Market share and profit are positively correlated. b) My product is a commodity, so price is my only lever. c) Small price concessions have little impact on the P&L. d) Dynamic pricing is always a black box. e) Pricing is purely cost-based. f) Pricing management is only about increasing or decreasing prices. g) Customers are solely driven by low prices. In a nutshell, depending on your starting point and objectives, I can either highly recommend this book—or simply consider it a “nice to have” if you have nothing else on your reading list. For the latter group, I could recommend several other books that would provide far greater value for your time investment. (text revised by a llm)

- Pedro

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