Feb 21, 2022
Shantanu Basu is currently the Senior Director of Go-To Marketing Strategy and Operations at Tanium. He was Director of Strategy and Operations at Intel for a long time, and he's part of an organization called RevGenius. Shantanu got his MBA from the University of Michigan.
In this episode, Shantanu discusses value chain alignment alongside the importance of knowing what your value is and understanding what your customers think what your value is.
Why you have to check out today’s podcast:
- Discover why knowing your company’s value and understanding how your customer sees value in you when doing pricing;
- Understand the importance of doing things one at a time, especially when communicating about the company’s value chain; and
- Find out why it’s necessary for you to be able to ask the right value chain alignment questions
“When you think of yourself as a pricing professional, you're doing your pricing jobs so to speak, don't limit yourself to what somebody else might consider the definition of your job. As a pricing professional, you should be able to ask questions and articulate – if you ask the right questions; articulate the value of your product across the entire value chain.”
– Shantanu Basu
Topics Covered:
01:47 – How Shantanu got into pricing alongside the discussion around capturing and communicating value
04:20 – Knowing your value vs. understanding what your customers think your value is
10:34 – How he communicates with people to help them understand how the value chain inside that company looks like
13:57 – The difference between being right and being effective in doing pricing
17:58 – How to align product positioning with packaging
22:34 – Discussion around the good, better, best framework
26:35 – Briefly talking platform pricing and how it intersects with good, better, best
30:49 – Shantanu’s piece of pricing advice for today’s listeners
Key Takeaways:
“Do you understand how value is created for your product, your business, your industry? Do you know how to communicate and then, hence, capture that value? It starts and ends with value. As long as you can connect those different points along the value chain, you perhaps have something to go to market with.” – Shantanu Basu
“Change comes from understanding. If I don't understand how my product positioning team and/or my sales team thinks our value is, I don't know how to influence that change, assuming I am right in understanding what the customer said.” – Shantanu Basu
“Every time there is a shift to be made from our steady state, you start to ask these questions and go try to reach as far back into the value chain as you can without pissing off too many people and slowing down business. It becomes an art rather than a science.” – Shantanu Basu
“Change management is not about right and wrong or numbers or the customer. It's about people and the emotions and maneuvering the informal dynamics of an organization, which I would like to think it only comes with experience.” – Shantanu Basu
“Pricing isn't rocket science. Influencing change via pricing and influencing the right behavior – whether of your customer, your sales rep, your CEO, or your customer success person – is where the art comes in.” – Shantanu Basu
“You don't have to be an expert in every piece of the value chain. That's not your job. There are people who will always do better than you. But stretch all the way down the value chain and all the way up the value chain and feel free and empowered to ask questions at each point so that you understand the entire value chain. Because when it comes down to this “simple piece of pricing”, your understanding across the value chain is what's going to probably provide the best results, not just coming up with a number and not just coming up with X.” – Shantanu Basu
People / Resources Mentioned:
- Tanium: https://www.tanium.com/
- Stephanie Hallford: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-hallford-ba90732
Connect with Shantanu Basu:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/basushantanu/
- Email: basu@gmail.com
Connect with Mark Stiving:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
- Email: mark@impactpricing.com