Paul’s Pricing Dictionary: Organizational Memory.


Organizational Memory, n. The Pricing Team. The Pricing Team remembers what worked and what didn’t work. It has a longer data retention period than anyone other than Tax. And unlike Finance, well, let’s just say, they are unlike Finance. The Pricing Team just knows where the data (coll. n. s.) is and lots, lots more. I thought I would list how much more but it started getting creepy so I stopped. You’re welcome.

Previously from Paul’s Pricing Dictionary:

Bad Selling, adj.+gen. Bad Selling is somehow always absent as an option in Bid-Loss analysis. But if there ever was a Bid-Win analysis, I’m sure that Good Selling would somehow get 100% of the credit. Of this I feel absolutely sure.

Happiness, n. A feeling of well-being which is directly proportional to your gross margin %.

Insight, n. What your Pricing Team should be providing you with. Insight from your Pricing Team should come in two distinct flavors:

Business Insight, n – into your business performance

Competitive Insight, n – into your competitors’ performance

Margin Recovery Plan, n. A work of complete fiction written by Sales in the hope that no-one else will read it and, most of all, the author will not be held to account for its contents. Ever.

Price, n. Value, plus a reasonable sum for wear and tear of conscience in demanding it. (qv, Ambrose Bierce, The Enlarged Devil’s Dictionary)

Strategic Deal, n. deal struck at a massively negative gross margin by CxO or Executive Sponsor, usually without any hope of margin recovery. See Margin Recovery Plan. No, don’t see the Margin Recovery Plan. That wasn’t the point of having a plan. The point was to have a plan so you’d sign off on the deal and hopefully forget about the plan and not hold anyone accountable.

Welcome to Clair Wheeler!


I am pleased to be able to announce that Clair Wheeler has joined The Pricing Factory, LLC. Clair has a wealth of experience in managing engineering, sourcing, traditional procurement, cross functional team strategic sourcing, process change management and divestitures at enterprises such as BOC & Air Liquide. He is now a consultant at The Pricing Factory.

At Air Liquide Clair transitioned a traditional purchasing department into a Supply Chain Management team reducing year-over-year operating budgets by 3+%. Clair launched Air Liquide’s first two global sourcing projects generating savings of greater 16% & 11%, and led 6 outsourcing projects for cost reduction of greater than 15%. He created 230 Supply Partnerships Agreements with key suppliers, providing cost reduction, cycle time reduction, index based escalation control plus quality and productivity improvement.

In addition he also led or co-led special divestiture assignments including packaging 68 company-owned retail locations, an FTC mandated sale following an acquisition, and a 10 location distributorship.

Clair’s sales & pricing experience comes from having been exposed to numerous sales approaches for years. His understanding what works, and equally important, what does not work from the Procurement point of view, will be invaluable to The Pricing Factory. His sales experience also includes selling divested businesses for Air Liquide and running 10 retail stores in the southeast for 2 years.

Clair’s exposure to numerous sales approaches over years and understanding what works and what does not work form a Procurement perspective will be invaluable to our clients at The Pricing Factory. He has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Bucknell University, PA.

Welcome Clair!

Welcome to Tony Santucci!


I am pleased to be able to announce that Tony Santucci has joined The Pricing Factory, LLC. Tony has many years of experience managing product pricing, product planning and commodity supply chain at a wide variety of enterprises such as GE, Coopers Industries, Compaq & HP. At Compaq & HP, Tony managed global pricing for ProLiant rack and blade servers, developing product pricing strategies, creating and updating competitive analysis and formulating price proposals. He also has experience as a segment product planner managing product life cycle volumes, price, revenue, margins, product mix and market-share. Previously Tony spent many years at Cooper Industries and GE leading multi-functional teams identifying risks and developing business-specific tactical and strategic risk management programs to meet business objectives and protect operating margins. He analyzed market data to create short and long-term commodity forecasts and managed commodity hedge programs.

Tony’s ability to generate unique and meaningful insights will be an incredible asset for us. He has a bachelor’s degree in finance & accounting from Pace University, Pleasantville, NY.

Welcome Tony!

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