Pricing Precision. Strategic Confusion. Margin Erosion.

Distributors love a pricing initiative.

Dashboards roll out. Teams dive into the weeds:

• Customer-level pricing
• SKU-level pricing
• Matrix overrides
• Sensitivity curves

These tactics matter. But without strategic clarity, they're just expensive ways to spin in place.

It's like tuning a race car while ignoring the track map. Or buying better binoculars when you're already lost.

Precision won't save you if your direction is wrong.

Start with the foundation. Not the finish.

• Selling white-glove service while matching every quote? That's not value. That's erosion.
• Targeting price-sensitive customers with a premium cost structure? That's not a strategy. That's a race to zero.
• Optimizing discounts without defining positioning? That's not precision. That's noise.

You don't get pricing right by going deeper into tactics.

You get it right by asking harder strategic questions.

"A pricing architecture without intent is like scaffolding around a building you never designed."

Two patterns worth investigating:

The Premium Pretender

Audit your top accounts. Are you subsidizing premium service with margin-eroding concessions? That budget should reinforce your strengths, not undermine them.

The Confused Competitor

Map your lowest-margin customers. Then layer in rep time, rush quotes, complaints. If your operating model isn't built for speed and scale, sharp pricing won't save you.

Pricing isn't a math function. It's an identity function.

It tells the market exactly who you are. Not who you claim to be in slide decks, but who you are when it counts.

Before launching another pricing initiative, align your leaders on five strategic guideposts:

• What is our value proposition and market position
• Which customer segments are we targeting, and what do they value
• Are we pursuing profitability or market share
• What brand identity are we reinforcing
• How are we choosing to compete, not just match

When those are clear, tactics like segmentation and elasticity modeling finally make sense.

Not as a strategy. As execution.

Here's what changes when you anchor pricing in strategy:

• Margins improve because you stop discounting your strengths
• Teams sell with clarity instead of compromise
• Customers self-select because your offer is distinct
• Pricing becomes a signal of confidence, not a scramble for approval

"Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs. It's about deliberately choosing to be different." – Michael Porter

Price is not just a number. It's your business model speaking out loud.

One Final Question

What would your pricing look like if it honestly reflected who you are and aren't?

Because in distribution, confusion becomes a cost structure.

Clarity becomes a competitive advantage.

And the market pays for the difference.