MarketShare Capabilities

Clients We Serve

MarketShare clients range in size from Fortune 500 multi-nationals and multi-billion-dollar Japanese trading companies to early stage ventures. They are all deeply involved in technology -- marketing computer software or hardware along with related services, and typically serving technical markets and using technical features to differentiate their products.

Our clients' products span a wide range… from networking systems to web-related technologies, from computer-aided design to educational software, from widely used enterprise productivity software to specialized software and systems development tools. Recent clients are listed on our Client List.

Benefits to Our Clients

MarketShare helps its clients realize greater returns from the products and services they sell, and from the sales professionals and reseller organizations who sell them. The focus of our practice is pricing. We help our clients identify the pricing strategies, price structures, and price levels that best address their business needs and opportunities. Then; we help them take the steps necessary to realize those prices in actual transactions. Our practice falls roughly into three areas that are summarized below. (For a full description see Practice Areas.)

Value-Driven Pricing - Setting price levels based on the value delivered to customers, and developing price and discount structures that make products & services easier to sell and their value easier to see.

Strategic Discounting - Identifying how well current discounting practices support company objectives and, using proven techniques, helping a company achieve higher returns for the discount dollars they invest.

Value-Based Selling - Identifying the economic value of software products & services for individual customer segments, and arming sales professionals with the messages and materials they need to persuasively communicate that value.

Our Process

Our typical engagements are highly collaborative and interactive. The more our clients are engaged in the project the more efficient (and effective) the project can be. While we make sure we understand the key drivers of success for each business need we address, we avoid the temptation to learn all there is to learn about a client's business and to reinvent wheels that our clients have already crafted. In this way, we can avoid activities that can be both time-consuming and very expensive. We also avoid the occasional temptation to expound on all we know about pricing thereby obscuring the key issues. We work with our client as partners, sharing what we each know that's needed to address the particular problem or opportunity at hand.

Our Approach

Our projects blend analytical rigor with the judgment that comes from years of practical experience. We also avoid the trap of developing detailed solutions that miss the mark because of a client insight or perspective we overlooked or wasn't shared. Prior to developing detailed solutions, we share our intended direction with our clients so we can agree on the steps - small or bold - moving forward.

The Results

As the project draws to a close and we present our final recommendations, we are mindful of the implementation consequences. Our recommendations are detailed enough so the client knows what to do but, at the same time, the recommendations are general enough so the client can adapt to market requirements as they develop over the next 12 - 18 months. To ensure smooth implementation, we also build into every project a period or ongoing assistance. Some of our projects can be found on our Project List.

The People Behind the Work

Rarely do pricing projects require a large number of people. Often a large team creates more confusion when clarity is required. Our approach to project staffing is to engage with our principals. We then add, as required, subject matter experts in competitive analysis, market research, sales compensation and coaching among other areas. Here is information about Our Principals who lead all project teams.