Implementing a radically new business idea, such as adopting pricing software for your firm, can be a painful process. If you can’t get everyone to understand why pricing software is important and dedicate time to the project, then you’re already starting on the back foot. Sure, the executive arm of your business will undoubtedly see how it will assist the company in making more and lasting profit but getting wide-support is key.

The harrowing challenge is to overcome the intrinsically human resistance to change and have everyone heading in the same direction. 

At Pricefx, helping companies implement pricing software is a huge part of what we do. We’ve helped many companies to get buy-in across their organization and in that process learned that during the decision-making stakeholder buy-in is highly likely to be the glue that will bind together the necessary determination to get it done. 

n this article, we will look at getting your team’s stakeholders on board with your pricing technology implementation project ASAP by examining the diverse ways in which the technology can be used to benefit your company’s business objectives while simultaneously displaying a clear work/life balance improvements to all the members of your workforce. 

The Benefits Change Depending on Who You Talk To 

Usually, without executive buy-in led by strong and influential leaders at the highest levels, most corporate initiatives are doomed to fail or, at the very least, fall short of everyone’s expectations. Check out our recent blog article to dive further in-depth into the 4 Steps to Get Executive Buy-In on Pricing Software. 

On the other hand, the stakeholders in your company, from middle managers all the way through to the sales or pricing team, may have a more emotional buy-in experience when adopting price optimization software. In other words, while it is great to have executive buy-in by the decision-makers in your business to help make it more streamlined and more profitable, it may take a more emotional ‘what is in it for me?’ hook to snag stakeholder buy-in throughout your organization. 

While making a rationalized economic value proposition (fast return on investment (ROI) and more profit over the long term), or an organizational problem-solving case is a great reason for executives to buy-in, it may not be as successful throughout your company’s stakeholder base. 

Middle managers or other stakeholders within your company (like your sales team, for instance) are not usually responsible for signing the checks that pay for infrastructure projects like the introduction of innovative technology. They are far more likely to be moved to support the technology implementation project by ‘the emotion of the change.’ 

What does that mean? At the end of the day, showing your company stakeholders how a price optimization software package will make their lives or their jobs easier will usually produce a positive outcome. 

The Ways Pricing Software Leads to Easier Working Lives 

1. Access Your Historical Records – Don’t Re-quote!  

Pricing software saves time and if used correctly, can make manual inputs and the time used to extract sales and transactional or customer data from spreadsheets obsolete, as data records are updated in real time. Use the power of the technology to deliver optimal pricing recommendations based on the historical sales records of what you have done previously with comparable products and across similar client bases. 

2. Give Your Sales Team More Time to Do What They Do Best – Sell! 

Make working lives easier when configuring quotes. Using pricing software in combination with its close relative, Configure Price Quote (CPQ) software, and don’t waste time producing similar or identical ones from scratch. It also makes the job of the sales team easier by empowering sales reps to spend more time doing what they do best (providing excellent service and selling your products) and less time on performing mind-numbing administrative tasks.  

The chances are that they will love you for it, and as a bonus, they will usually be mentally refreshed and well-rested to come back and do it all again tomorrow!  

3. Leverage Up-Selling and Cross-Selling Opportunities to Reach Targets Easier & Faster

Rather than having your staff beaten down by customers in price and creating artificial price wars made without meaning, entrust your sales team to have faith in the technology. After all, your pricing software will precisely know the prices your competitors are offering. Your pricing software can advise you and your staff if there are any gaps in the market to effectively exploit or to indicate whether consumers are saturated in certain areas of the market, so you can switch sales strategies accordingly. 

Make working lives easier by encouraging value-based pricing rather than cost-cutting to assist in reaching personal and/or team sales targets on route to achieving your company’s objectives.  

4. Win over your staff & help improve their work/life balance 

Impress on your staff the potential of pricing software technology to save time, work smarter, not harder and highlight the possibilities of them returning home in a more refreshed frame of mind and ready to live life at the end of each working day. A happy worker is more likely to be a productive one. 

Advancements in modern pricing software technology means that users can reduce the time it takes to complete pricing tasks. The right pricing software can help reduce labor times by minimizing manual calculations and inputs. What’s more, the automation of tasks can reduce requirements for overtime, simultaneously boosting the productivity and overall work-life balance of employees. Rather than staying in the office until 8 PM manually going through spreadsheets, you and your team can leave the office by 5 PM. 

Even those in the IT department can save time if they implement a cloud-native solution. With a cloud-native solution, your IT team will require minimal IT resources, no extra infrastructure to implement it and it will not require the whole IT staff to manage it exclusively over the long term. 

Embrace Fast Change and Change Working Lives 

2,500 years ago, the famous Greek philosopher, Heraclitus said: ‘Change is the only constant in life’. In his world, he believed that fire was the major material tool that would create perfect order in the universe. His words on creating balance and order by embracing change ‘for good’ are still as meaningful today as they were more than two millennia ago. 

By taking up some of the change management ideas we have discussed above on securing stakeholder buy-in to your pricing software implementation project, your employees can reap the work-life balance rewards ASAP.  

To learn more about facilitating pricing software buy-in across your organization and changing working lives, be sure to check out our recent Pricefx article on securing executive buy-in to your pricing software solution for further tips and advice. If you want to help your team understand what to expect from a pricing project, then find out about all of the roles needed in a software project in the article link below.