We sold workflow automation. Customers paid forms-tool prices.
A capable platform, priced against tools that solved a much smaller problem. Here's how we changed what buyers compared it with, and roughly tripled average contract value.
We need to raise our contract value. But every deal turns into a price fight with cheaper forms tools.
The company was under-monetised. The product could run complex operational work, but buyers judged it against simpler, cheaper forms tools. Price came up on every sales call, and contracts stuck at the low end.
The deeper problem was what buyers thought they were buying. Because they filed the product under digital forms, they compared it with cheaper forms tools and expected a forms-tool price before a sales call even started. That label decided which problems Sales led with, which alternatives buyers weighed, and what counted as a reasonable contract value. Better sales scripts would never change that.
The question changed from “Why are we closing at forms-tool prices?” to “What should buyers be comparing us against?”
This is where the company could have spent money on discounts, new features or sales training. None of it would have worked. Buyers had set the price in their heads before the first call, based on what they thought the product was.
Change the shelf, then the price.
The decision was to change the basis on which buyers judged the product: sell it as workflow automation, a bigger problem with bigger budgets, instead of raising prices or adding features.
Moved the competitive frame from digital forms to workflow automation.
Rebuilt the story around work moving faster, fewer lost handoffs and clearer approvals, future-proofed against AI.
Rewrote the tiers around the value each delivers, with enterprise guidance for Sales.
Set up a Product Marketing function with leadership to own the category, story and pricing.
Same product. A different shelf, a different price.
Before and after the move into workflow automation.
Roughly tripled, because buyers now compared it against workflow automation, not forms tools.
Fewer objections, because the value story came before the price.
A bigger category brings a bigger problem, and a bigger budget.
Check what they're comparing you with.
If customers see your product as expensive despite everything it can do, the problem may be the value they're comparing it against. I find what customers will pay more for and change how they judge you, so pricing power and contract values follow.
Buyers compare you with cheaper tools, deals stall on price, or your tiers read like a feature list.
Fresh thinking on product marketing, GTM and growth.
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