The Hidden 10%: Why 95% of SaaS Companies Are Leaving Money on the Table

Welcome to the Force & Friction Podcast, where we break down what really moves the needle in GTM, RevOps, and partnerships. Today, it's all about unlocking hidden revenue through strategic pricing and how AI is changing the pricing game.

We're joined by Krzysztof Szyszkiewicz, partner and co-founder of Valueships, a pricing consultancy that's helped generate over $400 million in client revenue with a bold promise: every company has at least 10% revenue potential just sitting on the table.

Krzysztof brings a unique perspective, having started his career at McKinsey as a pricing dedicated consultant before moving to SaaS and eventually co-founding Valueships. His mission is to democratize pricing knowledge and give companies the strategic freedom that comes from getting their pricing right.

We explore why pricing remains the "cousin nobody wants to talk about" while companies obsess over sales and marketing, how a simple 5-column Excel analysis can reveal massive revenue leakage, and why 95% of their clients end up increasing prices after working with Valueships.

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: The Discount Epidemic: Your First Revenue Leak

Krzysztof opens by revealing the most common way companies hemorrhage revenue without realizing it, discount management that has spiraled out of control.

"The first thing that we see, and surprisingly, both in PLG and SLG companies, is discount management so frequently. There was a Black Friday. There was something in your solution not working. So you decided to grant your customers a discount for 3 months that has never been sealed after afterwards."

This creates a gap between what companies charge today versus what customers actually pay. Chris provides a simple 5-column Excel analysis that any company can use to identify this leakage: customer ID, current plan, last month ARR, current price of the plan, and the difference between them. When this gap exceeds 10%, it's time to act.

2: The Grandfather Trap: When Loyalty Becomes Loss

Krzysztof addresses the emotional challenge many founders face with early customers who helped them get started but are now paying outdated prices while receiving significantly more value.

"If you find yourself in the situation that after 5 years you still have those first customers. Trust me, they most likely really really like your product. And since they've been either the early adopters or the innovators. Most likely they've been seeing, you know, the advancement that you've like the progress that you've done."

His approach involves checking the margin and profitability of these clients first. If they're unprofitable, they should definitely be repriced. If they're profitable but underpriced, the key is human communication with grace periods and understanding that these loyal customers actually want the company to succeed.

3. The Churn Myth: Why Price Increases Don't Kill Customers

One of Krzysztof's most counterintuitive insights challenges the widespread fear of customer churn from price increases.

"The churn increase that we see if we increase the prices with good communication. If it's a fair increase when you talk about the value, if you give them some time if you act as a human... the churn increase. That we see is minimal. Right? I'm not saying that the churn is not happening. Of course it does. Nevertheless, I haven't seen the situation so far that clients were not better off from price price increase."

He uses advanced analytics including Monte Carlo analysis to predict churn and revenue impact, typically achieving predictions within 5-7% accuracy. The key insight: companies often need 30% of customers to churn before a price increase becomes unprofitable, a threshold rarely reached in practice.

4. AI Pricing: Evolution, Not Revolution

Krzysztof provides a nuanced perspective on AI pricing models, arguing they're more evolutionary than revolutionary when viewed through the lens of existing industries.

"The output based models, the usage based models. The success based models were here for quite quite a while. So imagine the marketplace, or like booking.com right booking.com is basically a success model... If the booking was successful for putting your room or your hotel in front of their buyers. They are booking through booking, booking receives the and the Commission."

For legacy companies adding AI features, he strongly recommends building AI pricing on top of existing monetization models rather than completely overhauling pricing structures. This protects the core business while allowing companies to learn and adapt gradually.

5. Add-Ons vs. Discounts: The Strategic Choice

Krzysztof concludes with the fundamental strategic choice every company faces: building value through add-ons or destroying it through discounts.

"When you think about this. And when you look at the research. We all focus on sales marketing, growing in volume. Then frequently we also streamline our costs to make sure that we are efficient. But then pricing is always like this, cousin that nobody wants to talk about."

He reveals that while there are thousands of marketing job openings in Europe, there are only about 5 for pricing specialists. This imbalance represents a massive opportunity for companies willing to invest in pricing expertise and discipline.

Final Thoughts:

Krzysztof leaves us with a powerful reminder about the strategic importance of pricing in an AI-driven world.

"If your pricing is right. Most likely your margins are also right, which gives you a strategic freedom to act on your company... pricing is becoming more and more important due to AI."

His final insight emphasizes that pricing isn't just about revenue optimization, it's about creating the financial foundation that gives companies the freedom to invest, innovate, and compete effectively.

The hidden 10% isn't just about finding more money; it's about building a sustainable business model that can fund growth, weather economic uncertainty, and provide the strategic flexibility needed to win in competitive markets. As Chris demonstrates, the companies that master pricing don't just make more money—they gain the freedom to build the businesses they truly envision.

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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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