13 Symptoms Indicating Need to Fix Pricing, Billing and Monetization

I just recently represented Good Sign Solutions at European Monetize 11 event in Amsterdam. The event concentrated in modern monetization capabilities, which are needed when organizations are adopting new business models and growing services.

I will share three of the event highlights like a practical list of 13 symptoms that indicate the need of fixing pricing, billing and monetization

The event focused on the following topics:

• Organizations shifting to recurring revenue
• Global e-commerce
• How mainstream revenue leakage is 2-5% or more due to missing monetization capabilities
• How subscription billing must be scalable – and more and more flexible
• How combining revenue streams and/or pay-per-use require extended capabilities
• How to improve quote to cash processes
• Adopting new payment methods
• About leveraging platform business models
• Monetization!* (please find MGI Research’s definition of what is Monetization below)

13 Symptoms indicating you need to fix pricing, billing and monetization

The first highlight is this list of 13 symptoms that indicate the need to fix pricing, billing and monetization. The insight was presented as 13 DEADLY SINS OF MONETIZATION, by Andrew Dailey, MGI Research:

1. Takes longer than 90 days to introduce new offers
2. Unable to handle subscription/recurring or usage pricing
3. Have to recode billing system for each new offering
4. Significant revenue leakage
5. Heavy use of Excel
6. Financial Close longer than 7 days
7. Challenges in producing accurate financial forecasts
8. SKU sprawl
9. No single product catalog
10. No single price book or price list owner
11. No Single Source of Truth (SSOT)
12. Brand damage due to billing disputes + fulfillment problems
13. Sales spends more time servicing accounts rather than selling

Top pain points in services pricing and billing

It is our experience at Good Sign, that service businesses recognize great many of the above 13 symptoms. What would you name as top 3 for your service business?

We have seen it vary what is the greatest pain that leads a company to act on upgrading pricing and billing systems for better monetization capabilities. 

Sometimes the greatest problem is in continuous billing errors, handling customer complaints and lack of single source of truth, which cause low customer satisfaction. Sometimes it is long time-to-market for new offerings or pricing models. And sometimes excess manual work in billing and revenue recognition, to mention a few.

At the event it was a common understanding, that if a company desires to seize new service opportunities and acts on it, it can well profit from the digital economy.

Key learnings in monetizing services

The second highlight is Andrew Dailey’s list of Key learnings of Monetizing Services:

- Speed and agility are new competitive weapons
- Leading organizations focus on monetization as a primary opportunity
- And they are applying new methods and approaches
- The cost of doing nothing is increasing

Business transformation

The last thing I wish to share for now, is an interesting insight from our customer DLL, leading vendor financing company operating in over 30 countries. DLL’s Business Consultant Dennis van Waas shared his views on stage, as best practices example, on how DLL now has flexible system support to move fast in launching new services to market. See the Picture below. 

Besides discussing current best practices, Dennis stated an example of quite a business change that many businesses have ahead: While currently only 1% of financing is pay-per use, it may grow to 60% in 10 years.

DLL’s Business Consultant Dennis van Waas and Andrew Dailey from MGI Research on stage at Monetize11 Event discussing flexible pricing and billing of financing services. 

If it’s time for your company to move forward, we at Good Sign Solutions are here to help you to take the opportunities and thrive in the digital economy. Contact us

Check out the event video about service business monetization:

Thank you:
DLL’s Business Consultant Dennis van Waas
MGI Reseach’s Managing Director Andrew Dailey