ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a story that describes the approach that successful businesses have taken to align themselves to deliver and price on real customer value. The by-product is better cooperation between pricing, product management, and salespeople. There are few issues that cause more conflict between salespeople and those responsible for pricing than ensuring that pricing policy is properly observed. In the absence of discipline in the discounting process, this can and often does become a serious matter for top management and demands intervention. People's views on pricing management are usually maintained out of a spirit of loyalty to their businesses and from careful personal consideration. It is not an easy, magic solution. To be effective it needs the firm yet sensitive hand of thoughtful top management, clear understanding of the underlying factors and a willingness of people in several business areas to cooperate in finding and implementing a way forward.
