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pricing-strategy

SaaS pricing design and optimization covering value metric selection, tier architecture, price point research, pricing page design, price increase execution, and competitive pricing analysis.

by borghei(0) 0 installs
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Imported from borghei/claude-skills (business-growth/pricing-strategy/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add borghei/claude-skills --skill pricing-strategy. Copyright stays with the author (MIT + Commons Clause).

Pricing Strategy

Production-grade SaaS pricing framework covering the three pricing axes (value metric, packaging, price point), value-based pricing methodology, tier architecture, pricing research methods, pricing page design, price increase execution, and competitive pricing positioning. Pricing is positioning -- the right price communicates as much about your product as your marketing does.

Core Capabilities

  • Three pricing axes (in order) — lock the value metric (how it scales), then packaging (what's in each tier), then test the price point (the number). Most teams skip to price point; that is backwards.
  • Value metric & tier design — select a metric that scales with customer value and is hard to game; architect Good-Better-Best tiers with deliberate feature allocation and naming.
  • Value-based pricing — price inside the corridor (above the next-best alternative, below perceived value), at 10-20% of documented value delivered.
  • Pricing research — Van Westendorp, MaxDiff, competitor benchmarking, willingness-to-pay interviews.
  • Pricing page, price increases & competition — page design (above/below fold, annual toggle), price-increase playbook (strategy, timeline, comms, impact), competitive positioning and health diagnostics.

Use when

  • The user asks to "design pricing", "set prices", or "choose a value metric"
  • Pricing tiers need to be restructured (Good-Better-Best, add/remove tiers, repackage features)
  • A price increase is planned and needs execution design (strategy, timing, communication, grandfathering)
  • Conversion on the pricing page is flat or declining
  • Freemium vs free trial decision needs to be made, or the freemium tier is cannibalizing paid
  • Competitor pricing shifts require a positioning response
  • The user says "our pricing feels off" or asks for a pricing audit

Clarify First

Before designing the pricing, confirm these inputs. If any is unknown or vague, ASK — do not assume:

  • Operating mode — design from scratch, optimize existing, or price increase (each has a different validation gate and workflow)
  • Value metric — how price scales (seats, usage, etc.) (must be locked before tiers and price points)
  • Current pricing + the symptom — existing tiers and the specific failure, e.g. "middle tier too narrow" (optimize mode needs a named failure mode before any change)
  • Target segment + willingness-to-pay — SMB vs enterprise price sensitivity (sets the value corridor and price points)

Stop rule: ask only the 2-3 that most change the output. If the user says "just draft it," proceed and list your assumptions at the top of the deliverable.

Operating Modes

  • Mode 1 — Design From Scratch: No pricing exists or full rebuild needed. Work value metric → tier structure → price points → page design. Validate: value metric chosen before tier design; tiers locked before price points; price points tested against the corridor before page design.
  • Mode 2 — Optimize Existing Pricing: Pricing exists but conversion is low, expansion flat, or customers feel mispriced. Audit, benchmark, find specific improvements. Validate: the diagnosis names a specific failure mode (e.g., "middle tier too narrow") before any change is proposed.
  • Mode 3 — Price Increase: Prices need to go up without burning relationships. Validate: grandfather policy defined, communication window set (90+ days for annual customers), and expected churn modeled before the first notice.

References

Load the reference that matches the task — keep this file lean and pull detail on demand:

  • references/pricing-models.md — the three pricing axes, value metric selection (table, criteria, red flags), tier architecture (Good-Better-Best, feature allocation, naming), and value-based pricing corridor. Read when designing or restructuring pricing.
  • references/research-and-page-design.md — Van Westendorp, MaxDiff, competitor benchmarking, WTP interviews, pricing page design, and the freemium vs free trial decision. Read when researching willingness-to-pay or designing the page.
  • references/price-increase-and-competitive.md — price increase strategy/timeline/comms/impact, competitive position map and positioning strategy, and pricing health signals. Read when raising prices or positioning against competitors.
  • references/tools-and-diagnostics.md — output artifacts, the three Python scripts (analyzer, sensitivity calculator, increase modeler), troubleshooting table, success criteria, and anti-patterns. Read when producing deliverables, running tools, or debugging a pricing problem.

Scope & Limitations

In scope: Value metric selection, tier architecture design, price point research (Van Westendorp, competitor benchmarking, willingness-to-pay interviews), pricing page design specifications, price increase strategy and execution, freemium vs free trial decision frameworks, competitive pricing analysis and positioning, and pricing health diagnostics.

Out of scope: Pricing page visual design and CRO (use page-cro), in-app upgrade prompts and paywalls (use paywall-upgrade-cro), signup flow optimization after pricing page (use signup-flow-cro), churn intervention when churn is the root cause (use churn-prevention), and full competitive analysis beyond pricing (use competitive-teardown). Scripts do not integrate with billing systems (Stripe, Chargebee, etc.) or analytics platforms.

Limitations: Van Westendorp analysis requires minimum 30 survey respondents for statistical validity. Pricing benchmarks are based on aggregate SaaS industry data and vary significantly by vertical, company stage, and geography. Credit-based and usage-based pricing models (growing to 38% of SaaS in 2026) have different optimization dynamics than flat-rate or per-seat models. Price elasticity varies by customer segment -- enterprise buyers are less price-sensitive than SMB.

Integration Points

  • page-cro -- Pricing page layout, CTA placement, and social proof design should follow page-cro best practices
  • paywall-upgrade-cro -- In-app upgrade screens must reflect the same tier structure and messaging as the public pricing page
  • competitive-teardown -- Competitive pricing data from teardowns feeds directly into pricing position map and tier design
  • churn-prevention -- Churn analysis by price point and tier informs whether pricing is causing retention issues
  • signup-flow-cro -- Signup flow design depends on pricing model (CC-required vs free trial vs freemium)
  • revenue-operations -- GTM efficiency metrics (LTV:CAC, Magic Number) validate whether pricing supports unit economics

Related Skills

  • page-cro -- Use for optimizing the pricing page conversion rate (layout, CTA, social proof). Not for pricing structure or tier design.
  • churn-prevention -- Use when churn is the underlying issue. Fix retention before raising prices.
  • competitive-teardown -- Use for comprehensive competitive analysis. Feed teardown pricing data into this skill.
  • paywall-upgrade-cro -- Use for in-app upgrade prompts and paywalls. Different from public pricing page design.
  • signup-flow-cro -- Use for optimizing the signup flow that follows pricing page conversion.

Use it

Copy one of these into your project. Installing also returns the manifest and these snippets.

yaml
targets:
  - https://api.opensmartroute.ai/api/v1/registry/borghei-claude-skills-pricing-strategy/manifest   # or paste the manifest below

Manifest

An Open Capability Manifest: the router reads it to know what this does, what it costs and when to pick it.

borghei-claude-skills-pricing-strategy.ocm.jsonjson
{
  "ocm": "1",
  "id": "borghei-claude-skills-pricing-strategy",
  "kind": "skill",
  "name": "pricing-strategy",
  "description": "SaaS pricing design and optimization covering value metric selection, tier architecture, price point research, pricing page design, price increase execution, and competitive pricing analysis.",
  "publisher": "borghei",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "capabilities": {
    "domains": [
      "general"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "skill-md",
      "pricing",
      "monetization",
      "packaging",
      "saas",
      "value-based-pricing",
      "revenue",
      "skills-sh"
    ],
    "languages": [
      "en"
    ]
  },
  "quality_prior": 0.6,
  "examples": [
    "SaaS pricing design and optimization covering value metric selection, tier architecture, price point research, pricing page design, price increase execution, and competitive pricing analysis."
  ],
  "primary": false,
  "metadata": {
    "source": {
      "provider": "skills.sh",
      "repository": "https://github.com/borghei/claude-skills",
      "path": "business-growth/pricing-strategy/SKILL.md",
      "ref": "HEAD",
      "url": "https://github.com/borghei/claude-skills/blob/HEAD/business-growth/pricing-strategy/SKILL.md",
      "key": "borghei/claude-skills/business-growth/pricing-strategy/SKILL.md"
    },
    "license": "MIT + Commons Clause"
  },
  "instructions": "# Pricing Strategy\n\nProduction-grade SaaS pricing framework covering the three pricing axes (value metric, packaging, price point), value-based pricing methodology, tier architecture, pricing research methods, pricing page design, price increase execution, and competitive pricing positioning. Pricing is positioning -- the right price communicates as much about your product as your marketing does.\n\n## Core Capabilities\n\n- **Three pricing axes (in order)** — lock the value metric (how it scales), then packaging (what's in each tier), then test the price point (the number). Most teams skip to pri",
  "cost": {
    "context_tokens": 1862
  }
}

Fetch it by URL: GET /api/v1/registry/borghei-claude-skills-pricing-strategy/manifest?version=1.0.0

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