Building Pricing Power in the United States with Commercial Excellence

Written by Thomas Flarup (CEO, HEIMDALL)

In today’s competitive and margin-pressured markets, companies in the United States are increasingly turning to Commercial Excellence as a strategic lever to build sustainable pricing power. From SaaS and manufacturing to healthcare and financial services, the ability to confidently set, hold, and grow pricing is central to long-term profitability. This article explores how Commercial Excellence enables pricing power through coordinated strategy, execution, and measurement, and why it matters for revenue leaders across the United States.

Why Pricing Power Matters for Commercial Excellence in the United States

Pricing power refers to an organization’s ability to raise prices without losing customers. In the United States, where inflation, commoditization, and cost transparency challenge traditional pricing models, developing pricing power is both a strategic necessity and a competitive advantage.

For mid-market B2B companies, enterprise SaaS firms, and healthcare providers, pricing decisions are under constant pressure from procurement, margin targets, and shifting customer expectations. Companies that rely solely on cost-plus pricing models often leave margin on the table and struggle to defend value in sales conversations. Commercial Excellence offers a framework to reverse this trend.

What Is Commercial Excellence?

Commercial Excellence is a company-wide strategy that aligns sales, marketing, product, and customer success functions to drive profitable revenue growth. In the United States, this approach typically includes roles like the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), VP of Sales, and Revenue Operations teams. These leaders coordinate go-to-market efforts around a unified commercial strategy, backed by systems, insights, and accountability.

When applied to pricing, Commercial Excellence ensures that pricing is not a siloed finance function, but a strategic capability embedded across commercial processes—from product development and positioning to deal management and post-sale expansion.

Key Components of Pricing Power Through Commercial Excellence

1. Customer-Centric Value Messaging

To command premium prices, companies must first articulate the value they deliver. In the United States, where buyers often compare options digitally before engaging with sales teams, communicating differentiated value is essential. A strong Commercial Excellence approach starts with customer-centric messaging strategies designed to resonate at every stage of the buyer journey.

Key elements include:

Cross-functional collaboration: Product marketing, customer success, and sales enablement teams must work together to develop messages that reflect both product capabilities and customer outcomes.
Tailored value propositions: Messaging should be customized by industry, vertical, persona, and use case. For example, a VP of Procurement in a manufacturing company may value cost-efficiency, while a CIO in a healthcare network prioritizes compliance and data security.
Win-loss and competitive insights: Gathering and analyzing feedback from deals—won and lost—helps refine language, positioning, and objection handling.

Example: A healthcare SaaS firm targeting U.S. hospitals developed segment-specific ROI calculators and integrated real-world customer outcomes into sales presentations. The result: win rates improved by 14%, and average deal size grew by 9% within nine months.

2. Segmentation and Price Differentiation

Uniform pricing rarely works in today’s diversified U.S. markets. Companies that practice Commercial Excellence adopt granular segmentation strategies to design pricing that reflects customer behavior, value perception, and market potential.

Essential segmentation tactics include:

Tiered pricing models: Designed around company size, usage intensity, or feature access. These structures allow smaller clients to adopt affordably while extracting more value from enterprise accounts.
Geographic variation: Adjust pricing based on regional cost structures, competition, and purchasing power within the United States.
Bundling and packaging: Creating product or service bundles encourages upselling and provides flexibility while maintaining margin.

Example: A mid-size financial services firm segmented clients based on revenue contribution and growth potential. By introducing gold, platinum, and enterprise service tiers, the company raised revenue per client by 18% and reduced churn by 12% in just six months.

3. Sales and Deal Governance

Even with strategic pricing in place, value is often lost at the deal negotiation stage. A well-designed Commercial Excellence program includes sales governance mechanisms that empower field teams while maintaining margin discipline and pricing integrity.

Core governance structures include:

Centralized deal desks: These cross-functional teams oversee complex or high-value deals, ensuring pricing compliance and value justification.
Approval workflows and guidelines: Discount thresholds, exceptions, and playbooks keep frontline sellers aligned with pricing strategy.
Real-time deal margin visibility: Sales and finance leaders must be able to track profitability by deal, segment, and region.

Example: A U.S.-based software company implemented a RevOps-led deal desk that reviewed strategic deals and enforced discounting guidelines. Over three quarters, average discounts dropped by 6%, and gross margins improved by 4.5%.

4. Data-Driven Insights and Analytics

In the data-rich business environment of the United States, pricing decisions are increasingly guided by analytics. Companies pursuing Commercial Excellence invest in tools and methodologies that provide actionable pricing insights.

Critical analytics capabilities include:

Price elasticity analysis: Understand how demand responds to changes in pricing across different segments and products.
Customer lifetime value (CLV): Identify your most valuable customers and tailor pricing and offers to maximize retention and profitability.
Dynamic pricing engines: Leverage AI and machine learning to adjust prices in real time based on market shifts, competitor activity, and inventory levels.
Competitor benchmarking: Monitor competitor pricing, promotional activity, and market share shifts to guide strategy.

Example: A manufacturing company with a national footprint analyzed transaction-level data across U.S. regions. They uncovered significant margin leakage in two underperforming areas and implemented new pricing thresholds, resulting in an 11% increase in contribution margin.

5. Enablement and Change Management

Pricing transformation is as much about people as it is about process and technology. To sustain pricing power, organizations must build internal capabilities and embed pricing excellence into the culture.

Enablement strategies that support Commercial Excellence include:

Ongoing training: Equip sales, marketing, and account management teams with the skills to articulate value, manage objections, and hold the line on pricing.
Incentive alignment: Link performance compensation to pricing compliance and margin outcomes. Rewarding profitable growth over volume drives better long-term results.
Cultural reinforcement: Internal messaging, leadership alignment, and executive sponsorship all help position pricing as a strategic lever—not just a tactical tool.

Example: A professional services firm launched a change initiative focused on pricing confidence. Through quarterly pricing workshops, revised incentive plans, and executive communications, the company increased revenue per engagement by 7% and improved win rates in high-value segments.

By focusing on these five pillars—value messaging, segmentation, governance, analytics, and enablement—companies in the United States can systematically build and sustain pricing power. When integrated within a broader Commercial Excellence strategy, these elements position firms for stronger margins, more predictable revenue, and greater customer lifetime value.

Commercial Excellence Across U.S. Industries

Technology and Software

Software companies in the United States often struggle with discounting in highly competitive markets. By leveraging Commercial Excellence, they integrate value-based pricing with product-led growth strategies, enabling:

Consistent upsell paths via tiered pricing
Better monetization of premium features
Reduced reliance on promotional discounts

Financial Services and Banking

Pricing in financial services must balance compliance and competitiveness. Commercial Excellence helps establish clear pricing policies while allowing front-line teams flexibility within approved ranges. This drives:

Increased cross-sell with bundled offerings
Improved fee transparency and customer trust
Margin protection in a commoditized environment

Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals

In the United States, pricing in healthcare is complex and heavily regulated. Commercial Excellence enables pharma and medtech companies to align market access, sales, and reimbursement strategy through:

Centralized pricing governance
Regional pricing strategies aligned to payer structures
Evidence-based value communication

Expanding Beyond Core Industries

While HEIMDALL works closely with technology, financial services, and healthcare sectors, the principles of Commercial Excellence apply across industries. Organizations in manufacturing, energy, logistics, education, and media are also harnessing pricing power through:

Unified go-to-market strategies
Cost-to-serve and profitability segmentation
Strategic pricing embedded into product roadmaps

Whether you’re delivering industrial equipment or digital content, pricing power depends on commercial alignment, cross-functional execution, and the ability to adapt quickly to shifting market conditions.

Implementing a Commercial Excellence Pricing Framework

Building pricing power through Commercial Excellence follows a structured, phased approach that blends strategic planning with organizational enablement. This four-phase model helps companies in the United States develop pricing maturity, maintain discipline, and drive revenue performance over time.

Phase 1: Diagnostic and Alignment

Before launching any pricing initiatives, companies must conduct a comprehensive diagnostic to understand current performance and gaps. In this phase, the goal is to establish a foundation of insight and alignment:

Evaluate Pricing Strategy: Analyze current pricing models, rate cards, discount practices, and margin erosion patterns.
Assess Governance and Execution Gaps: Identify where pricing decisions break down across marketing, sales, finance, and operations.
Map Key Influencers: Understand who impacts pricing decisions—CROs, VPs of Sales, Product Managers—and how they interact.
Leadership Alignment: Facilitate executive workshops to agree on pricing goals, accountability structures, and Commercial Excellence objectives.

This phase ensures that leadership across the company is unified around a vision for pricing that supports both growth and margin protection.

Phase 2: Design and Development

With a shared vision in place, companies can begin to design a pricing strategy rooted in value and segmented to match customer needs:

Segmentation Strategy: Define customer segments by industry, size, buying behavior, or lifetime value.
Value Propositions: Tailor messaging and offerings to reflect segment-specific benefits and outcomes.
Monetization Models: Choose the right revenue models—subscriptions, usage-based pricing, tiered bundles—to match customer value perception.
Pricing Guardrails: Create discounting thresholds, pricing floors, and approval workflows to prevent margin leakage.
Tool Selection: Identify technology needs such as pricing software, CRM integration, and analytics platforms.

This phase emphasizes cross-functional collaboration between product, marketing, finance, and sales enablement teams.

Phase 3: Execution and Enablement

Once the framework is developed, it must be deployed across the commercial organization through structured enablement and system support:

Sales Training: Equip teams with the tools and language to sell on value, not just price. Role-play scenarios, objection handling, and negotiation techniques should be included.
Governance Mechanisms: Launch deal desks, real-time pricing approval workflows, and clear escalation paths.
Dashboards and Visibility: Roll out dashboards that track pricing KPIs such as win rate by segment, discount frequency, and margin trends.
Performance Monitoring: Track adoption rates, team compliance, and initial outcomes; adapt messaging or tools as needed.

The goal in this phase is not just compliance, but internal buy-in—commercial teams must see pricing as a value driver, not a constraint.

Phase 4: Continuous Improvement

Pricing strategy is not a “set it and forget it” initiative. Companies that achieve long-term pricing power treat Commercial Excellence as a living system:

Feedback Loops: Create structured channels for feedback between field teams, finance, and product to surface friction points and new opportunities.
Competitor Benchmarking: Regularly compare internal pricing models against market shifts and competitor moves.
Pricing Refreshes: Periodically update monetization models, tiering, and messaging to reflect evolving customer needs and market conditions.
Quarterly Reviews: Embed pricing performance reviews in broader revenue forecasting and strategic planning sessions.

Companies that institutionalize continuous pricing improvement benefit from greater agility, stronger margins, and a more aligned commercial engine.

Why Choose HEIMDALL as Your Commercial Excellence Partner?

At HEIMDALL, we help companies unlock pricing power through tailored Commercial Excellence strategies. Our delivery models include:

Consulting and Strategy Creation: Pricing diagnostics, monetization strategy, and executive alignment
Complete End-to-End Solutions: Design and deployment of pricing governance, systems, and dashboards
Management and Planning: Ongoing oversight and KPI tracking across revenue teams
Staffing and Implementation: Training, enablement, and change support across commercial functions

Our clients range from mid-market disruptors to global enterprises, with a shared goal: to grow profitably and sustainably through commercial discipline.

Let’s Build Your Pricing Power

Whether you’re facing increased competition, margin erosion, or growth plateaus, building pricing power is within reach.

Let HEIMDALL help you develop a Commercial Excellence strategy that elevates pricing from an operational task to a strategic asset.

Contact us today to schedule a consultation. As your Commercial Excellence partner, we’ll help you implement a pricing strategy that drives measurable, lasting impact in the United States and beyond.

Contact HEIMDALL – Commercial Excellence Partner