“Everybody has a plan until they are punched in the face.” is a famous quote by Mike Tyson. Many of us are feeling like we have been punched in the face. When one is hurt and threatened, the tendency is to react, and when we react to circumstances under great pressure we make mistakes.

Our goal needs to be to respond and not to react. Responding means that we pause, at least for a moment, to assess the situation and think about what outcomes we want to achieve now and after the crisis has passed.

Ibbaka is working with OpenView Venture Partners to understand the different pricing actions companies are taking in response to the COVID 19 crisis.

We are doing this in three ways.

1. Through a simple survey, you can take the survey here

2. By surveying the pricing pages of the top 100 SaaS companies that publish their prices to see how they are changing their pricing pages

3. By reaching out to the pricing leaders at various companies to get their insights into the guidance they are providing to their companies

If you have stories to share, please reach out to us at info@ibbaka.com

A few lessons are emerging.

• Do not react by making changes to your basic pricing structure without

  1. Understanding how the crisis has impacted your customers

  2. Segmenting your customers by the nature of the impact

• Do not take advantage of demand surges by price gouging

• Do offer new packages that will help your customers weather the crisis and adapt to the post COVID 19 reality

• Do consider altering the terms of trade to support customers who are suffering severe disruptions to their cashflow

You should have three goals at this time.

1. Survive

2. Help your customers survive

3. Set up the position you want to occupy post COVID 19

We are all going to have to work through many difficult situations over the coming year. We will all succeed by helping each other. Pricing is not a zero sum game. The goal of pricing strategy is to find the package and pricing that generate the most value for all market participants.