EPP Manufacturing Forum: Steins, Schnitzels & Pricing

We’ve touched back down from Berlin where we met with manufacturers from all walks – industrial, automotive and consumer goods – with one thing in common, the challenge of hitting margins in a time of real pressure and volatility. Here are some of our take-aways from the show.

Volatility is here to stay

Manufacturers are living in a pressure cooker – inflation, currency fluctuations, a global labour shortage, rising costs and demand volatility, coupled with the ongoing need to invest in more automated, sustainable, future-proof operations. In the last three years, seismic issues have come and gone, while others have lingered. The learning for all manufacturers throughout this period is the importance of being prepared and building resilience. Pricing has been undervalued in more stable times but with no end in sight to the volatility, it’s an essential tool in every manufacturer’s arsenal.

Regional pricing headaches

Lots of manufacturers are still wrestling with regional pricing execution. How do you price fairly and competitively in each market, while not upsetting customers or opening up loopholes? With a solution like Flintfox, you can simply tailor your prices to each market while staying in control, achieving the margins you need without sacrificing revenue. We know because we’ve delivered exactly this fix for one of our customers. Take a look here [Site One case study link]

You can run, but you can’t hide from Omnichannel. .

We all live omnichannel lives from how we shop, socialise and have fun. And it’s become a business expectation too. Customers want choice and businesses need to maximise the opportunities that new channels bring. Expanding routes to market doesn’t have to be hard or create more complexity. In fact, Flintfox makes operating an omnichannel pricing strategy simple.

Need to move away from firefighting

Let’s be honest there have been a lot of fires to put out across all aspects of manufacturing: supply chain volatility, demand fluctuations, sky-high energy and transport prices, the cost of raw materials and a global labour shortage to name a few. Phew! Pricing is more than a tool to douse the flames. When you take control of pricing, it can prevent fires from occurring.

All that glitters

It’s no surprise that a lot of manufacturers are being tempted by the promises of AI and predictive analytics. Fair enough, it sounds like the holy grail, but the reality is that none of the people we spoke to had enough data necessary to generate meaningful results. Rather than accelerating pricing tech from zero to 100, it makes more sense to get the fundamentals right first.

From small to enterprise-size manufacturers need Flintfox

Small to midsize manufacturers feel like they’ve been left out in the cold when it comes to pricing. Perceptions are that automated pricing execution is only for the big boys when the reality is that we’ve been supporting manufacturers from $100M to $100B in revenue for the last 30 years. Our pricing engine is scalable and affordable and our teams are deeply invested in helping to support and grow our customers’ businesses, no matter what their size.

And on that note, it’s Auf Wiedersehen from me but keep in touch.