We build your pricing architecture.
Your team runs it.

Pricing experts who work exclusively in B2B software. Your pricing architecture is the three structural decisions (licensing model, packaging model, pricing model) that determine how your software captures value. We design yours from your evidence and pattern recognition across $480B of software deals. Your team operates it in LevelSetter with our expert guidance — subscription, not services.

Most pricing engagements end with a slide deck and a presentation. SPP designs the architecture, deploys it into your sales motion through LevelSetter, and your team operates it from day one as your pricing capability compounds with every deal.

Engagements run as continuous pricing — renewable. Each renewal is one we earn. Led by Chris Mele, ranked #1 on OpenView’s list of B2B SaaS pricing experts.

$481B+
Transaction data
analyzed.
50+
Exit events with the
architecture intact.
$134.9B
Combined exit
value.
Engagement led by
Chris Mele
CEO, Software Pricing Partners · Ranked #1 on OpenView’s list of B2B SaaS pricing experts · You get the senior in the room, not their junior · LevelSetter runs the pricing infrastructure end-to-end so your experts focus on the calls only humans can make

Our clients have been acquired by

Dell|Oracle|IBM|Siemens|Schneider Electric|Vista Equity|Thoma Bravo|Francisco Partners
Trusted by B2B software companies
SugarCRM BambooHR LiveCode Mission Cloud Invoca OSIsoft Nearmap Apple Wpromote Bentley Systems Lockheed Martin Avant Alfresco Acquia Hexagon
AI Software Pricing

Specialists in pricing AI — across AI products, AI-enabled services, and AI-embedded platforms.

Sama HortonWorks InterSystems Nearmap Booz Allen Hamilton Wpromote
See our AI pricing practice
The signal

Every engagement starts with a moment. A deal that exposed how fragile the pricing is, a competitor that moved, or a product that outgrew its packaging.
When pricing becomes the bottleneck, that’s the call.

The triggers

When companies come to SPP.

01.A

First
product

Getting the licensing, packaging, and pricing architecture right from the start. Avoid the rebuilds that come from copying a competitor’s tier structure.

01.B

New
product line

Packaging a new capability without cannibalizing what works. Pricing AI features, expansion modules, or platform extensions correctly from day one.

01.C

Competitive
threat

A competitor moved their pricing and your response was to guess. We respond from data, not from panic. Ethically-sourced contract price points, not website snapshots.

01.D

M&A
or PE

Pricing due diligence before close, or transformation after acquisition. The architecture that survives PE-level scrutiny across 50+ documented exit events.

01.E

Inflection
point

Growth exposed the cracks. Discounting is out of control, deal velocity is slowing, and finance can’t reconcile what sales actually sold. The pricing architecture is the leverage point.

The method

Three phases.
One continuous system.

02.A

DEFINE the
architecture

Customer interviews, sales-team insight, and competitive pricing analysis converge with your transaction data through LevelSetter‘s simulation engine. Validated against your actual customer base before anything ships.

02.B

DEPLOY into
your sales motion

Sales enablement on real deals, go-to-market rollout, discount governance, and CRM integration. We implement alongside your team, not hand off a playbook and wish you luck.

02.C

DEFEND
continuously

Strategic reviews, competitive response, and continuous validation of your pricing assumptions in the field. Your team gets better at this with every deal — not more dependent on us.

The risk

Same total change.
Different shape of risk.

Event-based pricing rolls metric, packaging, and price changes into one big event every few years — a rupture moment. Continuous Monetization (pricing iterated on the same cadence your team ships product) distributes that change across small iterations.

← scroll →

PRICING-CHANGE MAGNITUDE 0 3 6 9 YEARS → LICENSING PACKAGING PRICING MIGRATE BASE LICENSING PACKAGING PRICING MIGRATE BASE LICENSING PACKAGING PRICING MIGRATE BASE [EVENT-BASED] [CONTINUOUS] TOTAL AREA-UNDER-CURVE: EQUAL FIG 08
The shape
of risk.

Same total change. Concentrated rupture vs. distributed adjustment.

The proof

What the architecture produces.

03.A

BambooHR

“We were stalled out at $22M in ARR. Then we engaged with SPP and were north of $180M not long thereafter.”

Jeff Adams, former CRO, BambooHR

Read the case study →

03.B

OSISoft

Acquired by AVEVA (Schneider Electric) for $5B. Pricing architecture survived PE-level due diligence five years post-engagement.

Read the case study →

03.C

BDNA

20% exit premium attributed to the pricing architecture. Two years post-engagement, Flexera acquired BDNA at a measurable revenue lift that went straight to enterprise value.

Read the case study →

The engagements

How we help.

04.A

B2B Pricing
Strategy

The architecture rebuild. Licensing, packaging, and pricing redesigned as one system.

See the engagement →

04.B

AI Software
Pricing

Pricing AI products, AI-enabled services, and AI-embedded platforms for volatility, not around it.

See the engagement →

04.C

New SaaS
Product Pricing

Architecture for new pricing decisions: launches, modules, metric introductions on existing products.

See the engagement →

04.D

Evolve B2B
Monetization

Rebuilding monetization architecture when the model has fallen behind the product, market, or cost structure.

See the engagement →

04.E

Legacy Software
Monetization

Perpetual-to-SaaS transitions modeled customer-by-customer, not by blanket cutover date.

See the engagement →

04.F

Discounting
Analysis

Audit deal patterns. Rebuild the architecture so discount frequency drops 60-80%.

See the engagement →

04.G

Competitive
Pricing Analysis

The Real Deal framework (competitive intelligence built from negotiated prices, the choice set buyers actually weighed, and customer-reported value, not scraped list prices) applied to your competitive set and integrated into LevelSetter.

See the engagement →

04.H

PE Pricing
Due Diligence

Pre-LOI diagnostic, 90-day post-close implementation, continuous operation across the hold.

See the engagement →

The library

Go deeper on the topics that matter.

05.A

SaaS pricing
models

Why the pricing model is the wrong starting point, and what to decide first instead.

Read the guide →

05.B

Enterprise
pricing

Deal velocity, discount governance, and complex sales motions in B2B software.

Read the guide →

05.C

Value-based
pricing

What it actually takes in B2B software. Not the consumer version that gets quoted in the press.

Read the guide →

05.D

AI software
pricing

Which AI capabilities to charge for, which to embed, and how to package outcome-based value.

Read the guide →

05.E

The three
decisions

Licensing model, pricing model, packaging model. Why the order matters — and what most companies get wrong.

Read the guide →

Frequently asked questions

SPP designs and operates pricing architecture for B2B software companies: the licensing, packaging, and pricing models that determine how revenue is captured. We combine deep pricing expertise with LevelSetter, the management platform that runs alongside your existing CRM and quoting systems and turns strategy into operational infrastructure your team runs every day. See our outcomes.
Global firms deliver a recommendation and leave. SPP builds the architecture and ships it into LevelSetter for your team to operate. The same team that designs the strategy built the platform that makes it operational. Engagements run as continuous pricing, renewable. Some of our clients are CEOs who worked inside Big Firm consulting earlier in their careers and chose SPP specifically because they knew the recommendation-and-leave model wouldn’t deliver the durability software companies need. See what makes SPP different.
Boutique pricing firms typically run 4–12 week engagements ending in a recommendation deck. Architectural work gets compressed or skipped when the timeline is short. That work includes licensing-model selection, packaging design, and discount governance — the decisions that determine whether pricing holds at the next renewal. The price recommendation looks defensible at delivery and gets unwound at the next renewal cycle, when the engagement is already over. Pricing systems SPP has built have carried 50+ clients to exit at $134.9B in combined documented value. The depth that matters at the second and third renewal cycle is pattern recognition across hundreds of B2B software companies, not credentials from one or two. See our approach.
CEO of Software Pricing Partners. Ranked #1 on OpenView’s list of B2B SaaS pricing experts. Former B2B software CEO who built an angel-funded company recognized as an Intuit Top 10 Developer. Early web pioneer at Ernst & Young who helped build the first credit card system on Netscape for Bank of America. Hired SPP as a client in 2008, joined the firm in 2014, and built LevelSetter from problems he’d lived firsthand. Learn more.
SPP works exclusively in B2B software across 40+ industry verticals: enterprise infrastructure, security and cybersecurity, vertical SaaS, AI/ML platforms, healthcare and life sciences, financial services, and PE-backed portfolio companies. See industry depth on the outcomes page.
Common triggers: discount creep without guardrails, a migration from seat-based to usage-based pricing, an AI pricing decision with no framework, a packaging rebuild after product expansion, or preparing for a funding round or exit. SPP works across growth stages, from Series A formalizing pricing for the first time through PE-backed portfolios rolling out consistent discipline. When clients have transaction data, we build the architecture from it; when they don’t, we iterate deal by deal until the strategy settles. This is also how continuous validation reduces strategic pricing risk.

Your pricing architecture should compound, not age on a shelf.

If your team is discounting without guardrails, losing deals they can’t explain, or navigating an AI pricing decision with no framework, that’s the conversation. Renewable. Each renewal is one we earn.