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What the MCP returns at this step

28 · Business · Pricing

Pricing Model and Packaging Design

Choose a pricing model, willingness-to-pay range and packaging tiers. Use Pricing and Packaging Guidance for the broader marketing workflow.

preismodellwahlpricing-strategist

Pricing Strategist — WTP & Packaging · Original SKILL.md

---
name: pricing-strategist
description: "Use when designing or revisiting product pricing — selecting a pricing model (subscription seat-based, usage-based, value-based, freemium, or hybrid), running Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter analysis on WTP survey data, or designing Good/Better/Best packaging tiers. Recommends a model and a price range with trade-offs, never a single number. For Commercial leads, Product Marketing, and CMOs at the pricing-design moment — not deal-by-deal discounting, not brand positioning."
version: 2.8.0
author: claude-code-skills
license: MIT
tags: [commercial, pricing, packaging, wtp, van-westendorp, value-based-pricing, saas-pricing]
compatible_tools: [claude-code, codex-cli, cursor, antigravity, opencode, gemini-cli]
---

# pricing-strategist

## Purpose

Help Commercial, Product Marketing, and CMO functions answer three questions at the pricing-design moment:

1. **Which pricing model fits this product + customer + market?** (subscription seat-based, usage-based, value-based, freemium, hybrid)
2. **What does the customer actually pay before it feels too expensive?** (Van Westendorp PSM on WTP survey responses)
3. **How should we package this into tiers?** (Good / Better / Best — with anti-pattern detection)

The skill recommends **a model and a range**. The human picks the number, owns the trade-offs, and runs the GTM.

## When to use

- Launching a new SaaS / API / AI tool and choosing the first pricing model
- Revisiting pricing after 18+ months of GTM data (model shift, not just price increase)
- Designing or redesigning tier packaging (Good/Better/Best, Bronze/Silver/Gold)
- You have Van Westendorp survey data and want the optimal price range
- A board / exec is asking "what should we charge?" and you need the structured answer
- You suspect your packaging has anti-patterns (decoy tier, feature dump, no upgrade trigger)

**Do not use for:**
- Per-deal discount approval → `deal-desk`
- Strategic CMO positioning, brand, category creation → `c-level-advisor/cmo-advisor`
- Whole-company revenue strategy → `c-level-advisor/cro-advisor`
- Technical-sale enablement → `business-growth/sales-engineer`

## Workflow

### Step 1 — Assess customer context

Fill `assets/pricing_brief_template.md` (≈ 20 min). Capture: industry, deal size avg, customer count, value drivers, adoption curve, consumption pattern (seat / usage / value / hybrid), competitor models.

### Step 2 — Pick the pricing model

Run `scripts/pricing_model_picker.py --input brief.json --profile saas --output markdown`. Output ranks 5 models by fit-score 0-100 with trade-offs. Decision logic is deterministic: low usage variance + high seat-attach → subscription wins; power-law usage + variable customer value → usage-based wins.

### Step 3 — Validate WTP with Van Westendorp PSM

If you have survey data (≥ 4 questions per respondent: too cheap / bargain / getting expensive / too expensive), run `scripts/wtp_analyzer.py --input survey.json --output markdown`. Output: 4 intersection points (OPP, IDP, PMC, PME) and the Range of Acceptable Prices.

PSM gives a **range**, not the price. See `references/van_westendorp_methodology.md` for common misinterpretations.

### Step 4 — Design packaging

Run `scripts/packaging_designer.py --input features.json --profile saas --output markdown`. Output: 3-tier Good/Better/Best assignment with anti-pattern flags (decoy tier, feature dump, no upgrade trigger, Bronze loss leader, Enterprise no-anchor).

### Step 5 — Decide

Take model + range + packaging into the pricing committee. Skill does not commit the number — you do.

## Scripts

- `scripts/pricing_model_picker.py` — 5-model fit scorer (subscription / usage / value / freemium / hybrid)
- `scripts/wtp_analyzer.py` — Van Westendorp PSM implementation
- `scripts/packaging_designer.py` — Good/Better/Best tier designer with anti-pattern detection

All scripts: stdlib only. `--help` and `--sample` work on all three.

## Quick example

```bash
# Emits a scored 5-model pricing-fit recommendation (subscription / usage / value / freemium / hybrid) for the built-in example
cd commercial/skills/pricing-strategist && python3 scripts/pricing_model_picker.py --sample
```

## References

- `references/saas_pricing_canon.md` — Skok, Tunguz, Campbell, Ramanujam, BVP, Shevlin, Stanford GSB
- `references/van_westendorp_methodology.md` — original 1976 paper, NMS refinement, Conjoint.ly, Sawtooth, ESOMAR, Lipovetsky, Decision Analyst
- `references/packaging_anti_patterns.md` — ProfitWell, OpenView, BVP vertical SaaS, Ramanujam, Poyar, SaaS Capital

## Assumptions

- Pricing decisions are joint: Commercial owns the model + tier shape, Product owns the features-per-tier, Finance owns the discount envelope, Legal owns the contract.
- Van Westendorp PSM is a **directional** tool. N ≥ 30 minimum, N ≥ 100 preferred. Below 30, the script emits a sample-size warning.
- "Value-based pricing" requires a measurable customer value driver (revenue lift, cost saved, time recovered). If you can't measure it, don't pick value-based.
- Industry profiles tune defaults — they don't override your data.
- This is a decision-support skill, not a price oracle. Output is a model + range, never the number.

## Anti-patterns

- **Recommending a specific number.** This skill emits a model and a range. Final price is a human commercial decision involving deal-desk policy, competitive intel, and strategic intent that this skill cannot know.
- **Using PSM with N < 30.** Statistical noise dominates. The script warns; respect the warning.
- **Treating PSM as "the price."** PSM gives a Range of Acceptable Prices (RAP) and an Optimal Price Point (OPP). Test the range in market, don't anchor on a single intersection.
- **Picking value-based pricing without a measurable value metric.** Without instrumentation to show customer ROI, value-based collapses into "whatever they'll pay" — which is just bad usage-based pricing.
- **Designing tiers before picking a model.** Tier structure depends on the model. Run pricing_model_picker first.
- **Packaging "feature dumps" into the Best tier.** If Best has 3x the features for 2x the price, customers buy Better and never upgrade. See `packaging_anti_patterns.md`.
- **Hidden usage-based pricing inside subscription tiers.** "Up to 100k API calls/mo, then $X per 1k" disguised as a "Pro tier" is two pricing models in one. Customers notice. Pick one.
- **Confusing this skill with deal-desk.** Pricing strategy = the menu. Deal-desk = approving discounts off the menu. Different decision, different cadence, different owner.

## Distinct from

- **deal-desk** — per-deal discount approval, MEDDIC, deal scoring. Operates daily on existing pricing.
- **c-level-advisor/cmo-advisor** — strategic positioning, brand, category. Pricing strategist consumes positioning as input, doesn't generate it.
- **c-level-advisor/cro-advisor** — full-funnel revenue strategy, comp plans, territory design. Pricing strategist is one input to CRO.
- **business-growth/sales-engineer** — technical sale, POC scoping. Sales engineering operates after pricing is set.

## Forcing-question library (Matt Pocock grill discipline)

Walked one at a time by `/cs:grill-commercial` or the orchestrator. Recommended answer + canon citation per question. Never bundled.

1. **"Is your customer paying for outcomes, seats, or usage?"**
   Recommended: outcomes (value-based) if you can measure them; usage if marginal cost is variable; seats only if usage is roughly flat per user.
   Canon: Ramanujam 2016 (*Monetizing Innovation*) — Mistake #1 of 9: seat-based pricing on a usage-variable product caps TAM at ~20% of WTP.

2. **"Do you have a measurable value metric, or are you guessing?"**
   Recommended: instrument the value metric BEFORE going to market with value-based pricing.
   Canon: Patrick Campbell / ProfitWell research — value-based without instrumentation collapses into bad usage-based pricing.

3. **"What's the variance in customer usage across your top decile vs. median?"**
   Recommended: variance > 10x → usage-based wins; variance < 3x → subscription wins; in between → hybrid with usage overage.
   Canon: Kyle Poyar (*Growth Unhinged*) — high-variance products lose 60%+ of revenue on flat-rate plans.

4. **"What's your competitor's pricing model, and why are you choosing the same or different?"**
   Recommended: surface the differentiation hypothesis explicitly. Identical pricing = identical value claim.
   Canon: David Skok (*For Entrepreneurs*) — pricing is a positioning signal.

5. **"What sample size do you have for WTP analysis, and is it segmented?"**
   Recommended: N≥30 per segment for PSM, N≥100 for conjoint.
   Canon: van Westendorp 1976 / Sawtooth Software methodology — sub-30 PSM is statistical noise.

6. **"What's the ONE feature that forces a tier upgrade?"**
   Recommended: every Better and Best tier needs a single non-negotiable upgrade trigger.
   Canon: Ramanujam (*Monetizing Innovation*) — Mistake #4: tiers with no clear differentiator make 70% of customers pick the cheapest.

Walk depth-first. Lock 1-3 before opening 4-6. After all 6 are answered, invoke `pricing_model_picker.py` → `wtp_analyzer.py` → `packaging_designer.py` in sequence.

When to use

Choose a pricing model, willingness-to-pay range and packaging tiers. Use Pricing and Packaging Guidance for the broader marketing workflow.

What you get

The complete original guidance with attributed source and declared limitations.

How it works

Clarify the task and evidence, then apply relevant source instructions within authorized scope.

Requirements

Product, segments, survey evidence, costs and constraints.

Delivery and review notes

Brief source danger screening: full-text pattern triage and review of flagged passages, not a comprehensive audit or functional test. Scores, thresholds, benchmarks and examples are decision aids, not verified outcomes; retain actual decision-owner approval. Referenced scripts, templates, integrations and sibling skills are not supplied or installed unless explicitly listed as included. External calls, account changes, messages and file writes require the actual user task and authorization.

Starting prompt

Use Pricing Model and Packaging Design for [TASK]. Ask for missing inputs: Product, segments, survey evidence, costs and constraints. Identify assumptions and missing tools before execution; do not claim results or approvals without evidence.

Not for

Claiming runtime installation, certified safety, verified numerical outputs or permission for external actions merely from loading this source.

What M11 added

German routing, task scope and source limitations. Original author attribution: claude-code-skills. Brief source danger screening: full-text pattern triage and review of flagged passages, not a comprehensive audit or functional test. Scores, thresholds, benchmarks and examples are decision aids, not verified outcomes; retain actual decision-owner approval. Referenced scripts, templates, integrations and sibling skills are not supplied or installed unless explicitly listed as included. External calls, account changes, messages and file writes require the actual user task and authorization.

Original authorship remains with alirezarezvani/claude-skills · Original source ↗

Original license & copyright

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 Alireza Rezvani

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

Source SHA-256: 0dcefcdeb60a2c319a0c12119290d1f812919ef7fe98aed9748aee2f9e79c9e6
Snapshot checked: 2026-09-28T15:50:31.645Z

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