SaaS Pricing Optimization: The Value Challenge | Krzysztof Szyszkiewicz S5:E10

Welcome to Part 1 of our special three-part SaaS Pricing Optimization series on the Force & Friction Podcast, where we break down what really moves the needle in GTM, RevOps, AI, partnerships, and SaaS growth.

Today, we're tackling "The Value Challenge" with Krzysztof Szyszkiewicz, one of the world's leading SaaS pricing consultants and founder of Valueships.

This series addresses one of the most critical areas for SaaS companies: pricing.

You can have the best product, the best value, the best impact, and the best solution, but if you haven't got the correct pricing strategy, you're leaving money on the table.

Most companies are literally hiding what makes them worth it.

What makes this series particularly valuable is Krzysztof's bold claim that companies are not just underpricing, they're fundamentally hiding their value.

With the AI wave making products less of a competitive advantage, focusing on value communication has become more critical than ever before.

In this first episode, we explore the four pricing strategies, the value waterfall framework, and why most SaaS companies are failing at the most basic level: communicating the profit they create for their customers.

Krzysztof Szyszkiewicz

Krzysztof is a certified expert in price, revenue and margin management who specializes in empowering digital companies, including SaaS, e-commerce, and B2B to maximize their revenue through innovative pricing and strategy.

As Partner & Co-founder of Valueships, he's passionate about driving topline growth and unlocking full revenue potential for companies that know there's more money on the table.

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Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode:

1. From Product Roadmap to Value Roadmap: The Fundamental Shift

Krzysztof opens by challenging the core assumption of how SaaS companies think about development and communication.

"Rarely, it's even a product development, not a value development, right. So, if you want to change or shift the paradigm here, I would say that instead of saying product roadmap, we could say value roadmap. And, start with a different question. So, not what else clients would like to have, But what else produces value for them?"

This shift from feature-focused thinking to value-focused thinking transforms how companies approach everything from development to marketing. Instead of talking about new automations or API integrations, companies should focus on the tangible profit they create, either through revenue increase or cost decrease.

2. The Four Pricing Strategies: From Cost-Based to Value-Based Evolution

Krzysztof breaks down the four pricing strategies as an advancement rather than mutually exclusive options, showing how companies can evolve their pricing sophistication.

"Looking at those strategies, those are not mutually exclusive strategies. This is very important. I'd rather see this as an advantage, advancement of the strategies, rather than you can pick one or the other. So, it means, very specifically, that if you are using value-based pricing, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't calculate cost and look at the competition."

The progression from cost-based (focusing on yourself) to competitive-based (outsourcing decisions to competitors) to context-based (aligning with customer situations) to value-based (focusing on customer profit) represents increasing sophistication and impact potential.

3. The Value Waterfall: Understanding the Four Horsemen of Pricing Apocalypse

Krzysztof reveals the value waterfall framework that shows how value erodes from creation to realization, identifying four critical failure points.

"We call them four horsemen's of pricing apocalypse, you can have, four different challenges when it comes to value-based pricing.

Don't create or don't communicate enough value (unseen value)
Price-value erosion
Price is set below willingness to pay (price setting failure)
Transactional discounting

This framework reveals that most companies fail not because they don't create value, but because they don't communicate it effectively, leading to a massive gap between actual value created and perceived value.

4. The Unseen Value Crisis: Why 66% of Value Goes Unrecognized

Krzysztof provides shocking insights about how much value companies create but fail to communicate to their customers.

"Most likely, 99% of your audience doesn't know the whole value that you are generating. When you're driving your car, you don't know that you have this function... The same is with software. You might be using, marketing software, and you are just using 50%, or you're aware of 50% of the functions."

His estimate that companies typically have a 66% gap between actual and perceived value reveals why so many SaaS companies struggle with pricing and retention—customers simply don't understand the full value they're receiving.

5. Dollarizing Value: The Key to Pricing Success

Krzysztof emphasizes the critical importance of quantifying value in dollar terms rather than just describing features or benefits.

"They are not that good in telling, hey, how much ROI you produced through our software... dollarizing value, and it's not even a quantification, it's dollarization of the value. So you save time, so how much? In hours. 5 hours. What is the average salary in this industry? 20. 5 times 20, 100. this is the value that is dollarized."

This approach transforms abstract benefits into concrete financial impact, making it easier for customers to justify purchases, reducing churn, and enabling price increases.

Final Thoughts

Krzysztof leaves us with a powerful diagnostic framework for identifying pricing challenges.

"If your margins are not enough, most likely there is a discounting challenge. If most of your clients converting are on the most expensive plan, great for you, but most likely you are too cheap. If you have better product than your competition, but for some reason you have much lower conversion, maybe you are not communicating enough value."

His final insight emphasizes that value should be at the center of company operations, not just pricing decisions, affecting everything from customer success to product development.

About This Series

This is Part 1 of our comprehensive three-part SaaS Pricing Optimization series with Krzysztof Szyszkiewicz.

Each episode tackles a specific pricing challenge that's costing SaaS companies millions in lost revenue:

•Part 1: The Value Challenge (this episode) - Why companies hide their value and how to communicate profit effectively.

• Part 2: The Price Setting Challenge - How to set prices based on willingness to pay rather than guesswork.

• Part 3: The Discounting Challenge - Why discounting is killing margins and how to optimize realized prices.

Don't miss the upcoming episodes in this series, they build on the foundation established here to give you a complete framework for pricing optimization that can transform your SaaS business.

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Mike Midgley runs a portfolio career, a dynamic hands on digital entrepreneur, founder of the Scrubbing Squad, NXD, strategist, public speaker, Winning by Design certified Revenue Architect and Host at The Force & Friction Podcast.

Mike has achieved multiple exits over a 30+ year career, raised Venture Capital and franchised his businesses 68 times.

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