Case Studies
A defensible pricing architecture that positioned a strong platform to capture the full value it already delivers.
Engagement: 2025–2026
Industry: Automotive SaaS / Call Intelligence
Services: GTM strategy, account segmentation, coverage model design, pricing and packaging architecture, expansion motion design
Written by
Carmen Olmetti
A private-equity-owned call-intelligence platform had built real strength: thousands of automotive dealership relationships, hundreds of millions of call minutes processed each month, and a product footprint customers valued. With new ownership focused on value creation, the moment was right to modernize the commercial model and convert that market position into durable, expansion-ready revenue.
The opportunity was clear once we looked at the economics. Contribution margins at list price already sat in the high 80s to high 90s percent. The upside lived in how the platform was packaged and sold. A few areas offered the highest leverage:
Pricing had grown organically into an à la carte rate card, creating an opening to introduce coherent tiers and packaging aligned to customer needs.
The gap between realized pricing and list price was considerable, almost entirely due to discounting rather than repricing, meaning value could be recaptured without raising prices for customers.
A small share of accounts consumed roughly half of all platform minutes, concentrating the highest-value opportunity where focused pricing discipline would pay off most.
Strong product adoption and high margins created ideal conditions for a structured cross-sell and expansion motion.
Usage-grounded segmentation
Built a parent-level segmentation model from platform usage and channel-state data, keying every product-to-tier mapping to an explicit index to keep the analysis clean and focused on real commercial behavior.
Two paths, not one ladder
Designed a tiered architecture built on needs-based packaging and usage-based pricing, with clean swap rules so mutually exclusive anchor products fit naturally within each tier.
Rate card as single source of truth
Reconciled pricing to one governing rate card, giving the team a single authority to sell and govern against. The new structure landed only about 6.5% above the current rate card, confirming the win was due to disciplined governance, not price increases.
Discipline on the high-value tail
Focused pricing discipline on the top-usage quartile, the single highest-leverage action given how heavily minutes concentrate among a handful of accounts.
Expansion-ready coverage
Mapped sales roles and a pod-based coverage model to the segmentation so tiers ladder naturally into a repeatable expansion and renewal motion.
A defensible pricing architecture
A coherent tiered ladder gave the commercial team a structure they could confidently sell and govern against, all reconciled to a single source of truth.
Margin recaptured at the source
By focusing discipline on the accounts driving the majority of consumption, the program targeted recovery of significant margin while keeping the customer relationship healthy, capturing value the platform already earned rather than chasing price increases.
Expansion built into the model
Segmentation, tiering, and coverage were designed as one system, opening a structured path for cross-sell and expansion aligned to customer needs.
Scale-ready foundation
Consistent segmentation, a clean packaging ladder, and coverage mapped to sales roles created the backbone for a repeatable growth motion the team can operationalize with confidence.