Pricing a Product for Long-Term Profit, with Dan Balcauski

Nearly all product companies grapple with pricing. What model is the best fit? How do you maximize the market value for a novel product without losing customers when it comes time to pay? Dan Balcauski has spent 15 years helping product makers solve exactly these challenges. As founder of Austin, Texas-based Product Tranquility, Dan has guided many products from new concept incubation through successful launches and transitions. He helps high volume SaaS companies assess pricing practices and optimize pricing and packaging, guiding his clients to make the most impactful pricing decisions and communicate value convincingly to decision makers. Episode Highlights: 

  • How to know the value of a brand new product (01:47)What emotional value is, and why it matters (02:39)The purpose of Jobs To Be Done in pricing (03:33)How Airbnb got its value proposition right (07:04)The 4 components of Packaging (09:09)Why Freemium is a terrible idea (11:46)Upgrading perpetual license customers to subscription (13:05)Why Who and How you charge is what determines success (19:18)How to approach Willingness To Pay questions (20:00)The critical importance of segmentation (23:44)Talking to the RIGHT people about pricing (25:16)What most product makers get wrong with pricing (26:40)Understanding the process of pricing to do it right (30:32)