Expertise
Value-based pricing sets B2B prices from the measurable value your offer creates for a customer compared with their next-best alternative, not from your costs. Market Edge helps chemicals, agriculture and technology businesses quantify that value, set prices with confidence and defend them in negotiations.
When markets turn uncertain, margin targets replace customer value as the anchor.
Signs, causes and fixes →Rebates and deal-by-deal exceptions erode price realization nobody tracks.
Signs, causes and fixes →Innovation premiums are left on the table because value was never quantified.
Signs, causes and fixes →Without a value story, every negotiation becomes a discount conversation.
Signs, causes and fixes →Paraphrased and anonymized from recent conversations with marketing and commercial leaders.
“A new product is being priced at cost plus, with no view of what it's worth to the value chain.”
“Our reps cut price when a customer mentions a low-cost competitor, without checking whether the claim holds up.”
“Keeping price consistent across direct sales, distributors and reps is hard with our legacy systems.”
Four steps, each supported by a proven Market Edge framework.
Measure the economic value your offer delivers from the customer's perspective.
Evaluate next-best alternatives, in kind and not in kind, on Value Maps.
Price Change Analysis anticipates how competitors and customers will react.
Transactional pricing analysis finds leakage; sales get the value story to hold price.
Our point of view
Most pricing problems are confidence problems. Sales needs shared logic and data to hold price, and leaders need a clear view of value by segment and channel. We combine analysis (value creation, Value Maps, transaction data and price-elasticity modeling) with coaching, so your team can repeat it on the next decision.
Typical phases. Every engagement is scoped with you, and many clients start with one phase.
| Phase | Typical timing | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Kick-off | Half a day | A working session with product, sales, marketing and business development. |
| Analyze | 2–4 weeks | Value creation by stakeholder, transaction and discount analysis, and price-volume scenarios. |
| Decide | 1–2 weeks | Value Maps, price position and channel price structure. |
| Equip | Before launch or roll-out | A pricing playbook, objection handling and coaching sessions for the reps who will sell it. |
Human in the loop
AI pricing tools are excellent at finding patterns in thousands of transactions. They can't tell you what a customer will accept, or hold the line in a tense negotiation.
How we use AI responsibly →Life Sciences · Delivery devices
Recent work · 2025–2026
A business unit was about to price a new drug-delivery device at cost plus, with no view of its value to the value chain. The opportunity was significant.
Read the case →Agriculture · Europe
[Result]
Two years after launch, a technically excellent cereal seed treatment was missing its targets. Quantifying its value to growers reset the offer and the price.
Read the case →Paper & Pulp · Polymer chemistry
[Result]
A polymer chemistry leader had a capacity-constrained technology for paper mills that could cannibalize its existing sales.
Read the case →“With Market Edge's analysis and pragmatic approach, we were able to create, articulate and capture more value. Market Edge helped deliver faster growth and improved profitability for our business unit.”
Academy program
Two days applying Value Creation, Value Maps, Price Change Analysis and Transactional Pricing to an agreed pricing challenge in your business.
$1,950 per person · Next: [Dates] Nov 2026
See dates →Tool
Quantify the economic value your offer creates for a target customer.
Explore →Tool
Compare your offer with competitors on the purchase criteria customers weigh most.
Explore →Point of view
Procurement and pricing · August 2026
As buyers automate supplier comparison and technical evaluation, they remove many of the human touchpoints where B2B differentiation is created and explained.
Read →Agriculture · September 2026
US net farm income is down about 16% from its 2022 peak while farm sector debt has reached a record, so growers are optimizing return per acre and cutting input costs.
Read →Market analysis · July 2026
A price drop from genuine cost efficiency and a price drop from overcapacity look identical on a chart, but only one is structural.
Read →Volatile markets · April 2026
In volatile, uncertain markets, supply assurance and lead time can quickly become the criteria that decide a purchase, and share and price move with them.
Read →Value and differentiation · April 2026
Most technical performance criteria in B2B applications are table stakes: every credible supplier meets them.
Read →Setting price from the measurable value your offer creates for a customer compared with their next-best alternative, rather than from cost plus margin.
Cost-plus starts from your costs and ignores what the customer gains. Value pricing starts from the customer's gain, then checks that the price covers cost and target margin.
Compare it with how customers solve the problem today, including doing nothing or doing it themselves. That alternative sets the reference value.
AI is good at finding patterns in transaction data and modeling price-volume scenarios. Deciding the price position, and holding it in a negotiation, still needs people.
A focused value pricing project for one product often takes about a month. Broader pricing programs run in phases by business unit.
"We've been sales and rebate led for years."
Your strategy now depends on selling on value, but the sales force, pricing and segmentation were built for volume.
How we help →"We're about to launch, and the price is cost plus margin."
A new product worth tens of millions is about to be priced without a view of its value to customers.
How we help →Book a 20–30 minute sounding board conversation with a senior consultant who has sat in your seat. No cost, no commitment.