Recently, Conga hosted a leadership event in Sweden, in conjunction with our partner in pricing, Articulate IT. Throughout the discussion, one theme came up repeatedly: organizations are changing the way they make pricing decisions.
This change is not driven by technology alone. Instead, their approach to pricing is starting to show its limits.
In many organizations, pricing still sits across spreadsheets, local rules, and individual judgment. Sales teams negotiate based on experience, pricing teams provide guidance where they can, and decisions are often made under pressure rather than with full visibility.
That leads to familiar issues: different prices for similar customers, slow turnaround on quotes, and margin being given away without a clear view of the impact.
None of this is new. What's changing is how seriously companies are starting to treat these concerns.
Why Pricing Remains a Consistent Priority
The fact is, pricing has a significant impact compared to other initiatives. There aren’t many areas in a business where a small improvement makes such a noticeable difference. As the often-cited McKinsey example states, a 1% improvement in price can translate into an 8% increase in operating profit.
As Nick Boyer, Pricing Consultant at Conga, put it, “If you're going to do AI in the commercial space and B2B sales, it's the most obvious place to start where you get the most return on your investment.”
And yet, many organizations are still working with basic tools and processes, including spreadsheets, manual approvals, and individual judgment. That gap is starting to show.
The Shift is Already Happening—Just Not All at Once
The evolution of pricing isn’t a sudden overhaul. It’s happening gradually, and in many cases starts with how pricing decisions are framed.
In many businesses, the primary question is still, “What do we need to do to win this deal?” But that question is slowly being replaced with something slightly different: “What price gives us the best chance of winning while still protecting margin?”
That shift sounds simple, but it changes behavior. It means looking beyond the immediate deal and bringing more context into the decision: what similar customers have paid, how sensitive this customer is to price, and what has worked (or not worked) before. It doesn’t remove judgment, but it makes that judgment more consistent.
The Importance of Speed
The topic of speed resurfaced often throughout the event—not just pricing accuracy, but how long it actually takes to respond. As Jochen Schwarplies, RVP North & South EMEA at Conga, summed it up, “It’s about the time that you need to prepare for your offer.”
One example shared was a quote that took 21 days to produce. By the time it was ready, the customer had already moved on. That’s not unusual in complex environments, but it highlights something important: slow internal processes can lose deals just as easily as poor pricing. Reducing that turnaround time even by a few days can make a real difference.
Trust is Still the Sticking Point
Trust is one area where event participants continue to tread lightly. Pricing decisions are closely tied to customer relationships. If something feels inconsistent or difficult to explain, it quickly creates friction—both internally and externally.
As Jonathan E. Pautler, CEO at Articulate IT, put it during the discussion, “Pricing can erode trust, but good pricing is comforting, creates trust, and makes businesses succeed.”
People don’t just want a number. They want to understand where the number came from and have the context to stand behind it. Jonathan also emphasised that these tools need to support how people work—not override it. If technology feels like a black box, it won’t be used regardless of how good it is.
It All Comes Back to the Basics
Our discussion consistently showed that hard work isn’t about advanced technology. It’s about getting the fundamentals right. Data quality, consistent processes, and clear ownership of pricing all came up repeatedly. Without those in place, it’s difficult to build anything more advanced.
Tue Larsson, Group Pricing Manager at BORG Automotive Group and Conga client, shared a practical approach: focus first on building consistency and trust in pricing, then layer in more capability over time. It’s not complicated, but it does require discipline.
What Comes Next
It’s clear from our discussion that pricing evolution isn’t a short-term shift. The organizations making the most progress are treating pricing as an ongoing capability, not a one-off project. They’re putting more structure around it, using more data to support decisions, and gradually improving how pricing works across the business. Over time, that leads to more consistent decisions, stronger margins, and fewer missed opportunities.
The key takeaway from this session wasn’t that everything needs to change overnight. Instead, small, deliberate improvements in how pricing decisions are made can have a meaningful impact. And for many organizations, that’s where the real opportunity sits.
If you're looking to bring more structure and consistency into pricing, it’s worth continuing the conversation. Get in touch with the Conga team to explore how this could apply in your organization.
You can also download The Executive’s Guide to AI Pricing Optimization for a more detailed view of how leading organizations are approaching this and the results they are seeing.
