♖ How to Get C-Suite Buy-In for a Pricing Change

Hi Friends,

Week 4 at Pricing I/O, and I'm noticing something on our sales calls.

We're not just selling to prospects. We're helping them sell internally.

Last week, a VP of Product Marketing at a $23M software company our team: "Can you help me build a business case for our CEO? I know we need to transform our pricing, but need help making the pitch."

That feeling hit home.

Back in 2019, I was at Mercatus and saw a big opportunity fixing our pricing. I knew what needed to happen. But fear nearly stopped me—fear of selling the CEO, losing board support, torpedoing my career.

After reviewing dozens of successful transformations at Pricing I/O, I discovered a hidden pattern: companies that won didn't have better pricing strategies, they had powerful methods to communicate the change internally.

Inspired by our clients and my past, I put together a Pricing Strategy Canvas: a one-page framework that gets C-suite buy-in, turning fear & apathy into aligned momentum.

The Pricing Earthquake Happening Right Now

A massive shift is happening in software pricing.

AI is making seats obsolete. When AI does the work of multiple people, charging per seat creates a perverse incentive. The better your product works, the fewer seats customers need. You're literally penalized for being good.

The numbers prove it: Seat-based pricing dropped from 21% to 15% in just 12 months, while hybrid models surged from 27% to 41% (per Growth Unhinged's 2025 State of B2B Monetization).

I'm hearing this on nearly every call. VPs say: "Our seat-based model feels vulnerable, but we don't know where to go next."

The risk is real: Companies sticking with per-seat pricing for AI see 40% lower margins and 2.3x higher churn (per Pilot: The New Economics of AI Pricing in 2025).

Translation: Everyone knows the old model is dying. The path forward is murky and full of land mines.

The Complexity Leaders Underestimate

Picture a $50M company shifting from traditional seat-based to outcome-based or hybrid pricing. Fault lines appear everywhere.

CFO panics about revenue predictability.
VP Sales worries about churn.
A major client threatens to leave.
The board wants trends but demands stable numbers.

It's like playing Jenga with your revenue model. Pull one piece and everything wobbles. Sales comp, billing systems, customer contracts, forecasting models.

This is pricing transformation reality: revenue risk, customer pushback, internal resistance, and investor pressure simultaneously.

Yet the opportunity is massive: software companies that regularly optimize pricing grow 2x faster than those that don't (Source: OpenView Partners).

Introducing The Pricing Strategy Canvas

After exploring dozens of successful pricing transformations, I discovered something critical:

How you communicate the change matters as much as the change itself.

Winners didn't have better strategies, they just knew how to sell them internally.

That realization led me to create the Pricing Strategy Canvas. It's designed for those silent heroes inside every company who see what needs to change but don't know how to build the case.

One page. Three moves: Show your current pain, paint your future vision, build the bridge between them.

Here's what the Pricing Strategy Canvas looks like for AutomateFlow, a fictional $50M workflow automation company shifting to a new pricing model.

Why it works:

• Big picture thinking - No getting lost in details

• Reveals gaps - Inconsistencies become obvious

• Built for alignment - Makes thinking transparent

• Eliminates PowerPoint death - Keeps focus

The 9 sections:

Start with WHY:

1. Pain Points: Evidence change is necessary
2. Strategic Vision: The end state
3. Goals: Specific metrics and timelines

Move to HOW: 

4. Execution Plan: How you'll deliver.
5. Change Coalition: Who's accountable
6. Risks: What could go wrong and prevention

End with WHAT: 

7. Resources: Investment requirements
8. Signals: Early success indicators
9. Business Case: ROI justification

Success factors:

• Start strong with data, not opinions

• Keep it simple

• Show how this helps every function win

• Make a specific ask

What Actually Matters

You can have the world's smartest pricing strategy, but without C-suite alignment, it's a Ferrari with no wheels.

In real terms: your transformation becomes months of politics, half-hearted execution, quiet sabotage. Sales teams resist. Finance questions everything. Customers get mixed messages. Your career stalls.

The goal of the Pricing Strategy Canvas is to fix this. Address every executive concern upfront and build the blueprint for massive monetization success.

And here's the thing: this structure can be adopted for any big tranformation. Same nine sections. Same ability to cut through the noise and get everyone aligned.

Download the FREE Pricing Strategy Canvas v1.0:

• Canva Template

• Google Slides Template

We’ll test this with prospects & clients. I'll share updated versions and results as we learn.

'Til next time,

—Ali

P.S. What do you think of the Pricing Strategy Canvas? Hit reply with feedback, I read every response.

About Me: I'm Ali, Head of Growth at Pricing I/O. We take a hands-on approach to help software companies stop guessing at pricing. A Houstonian at heart watching the Texans prove that optimism and reality are two very different things. 0-3 and counting. Brutal.