The Acustrategy Difference: A Summary
Dimension |
Traditional Consultants |
Acustrategy |
|---|---|---|
Focus
|
Broad strategy, pricing as afterthought
|
Pricing-first with strategic breadth
|
Engagement Style
|
Large teams, long timelines, high overhead
|
Lean teams, accelerated delivery, agile approach
|
Engagement Model
|
6-18 months, extensive documentation
|
7-12 weeks, focused execution
|
Deliverable
|
200-slide deck, recommendations
|
Implementation + capability building
|
Technology
|
Excel models, PowerPoint
|
PricePro© AI-powered platform
|
Team
|
Junior consultants, academic training
|
Experienced operators + top-tier consultants
|
Success Metric
|
Completed project, satisfied client
|
EBITDA improvement, measurable ROI
|
Post-Engagement
|
Hand-off, ongoing retainer
|
Sustainable capabilities, autonomous client, software assisted
|
Implementation
|
"We recommend and leave"
|
"We stick with you to guide you through implementation"
|
The Acustrategy Difference: The Details
Pricing-First Strategic Lens
What Others Do:
- Treat pricing as afterthought or narrow tactical lever
- Focus on growth strategy, M&A, operations and miss a giant profit driver
- Lack deep pricing expertise to unlock value effectively
What We Do:
- Lead with pricing and 25+ years of specialized expertise
- Extend into digital transformation, organizational alignment, go-to-market strategy
- Address the full commercial ecosystem, not just one piece Why It Matters: Pricing improvements deliver more profit impact than cost cutting or volume increases, yet most companies leave money on the table due to lack of expertise. Pricing is a key path to profitability (100-500 basis points improvement).
Why It Matters: Pricing improvements deliver more profit impact than cost cutting or volume increases, yet most companies leave money on the table due to lack of expertise. Pricing is a key path to profitability (100-500 basis points improvement).
Agile & Results-Driven, No Matter Your Size
What Others Do:
- Design engagements around their economics, not yours
- 6-18 month timelines with ambiguous deliverables
- Large teams, extensive documentation, high overhead
- Specialized boutiques lack breadth for adjacent strategic issues
What We Do:
- Serve growth-stage companies to multi-billion dollar enterprises
- Right-sized engagement models: lean teams, compressed timelines
- Pricing reflects value delivered, not consultant headcount
- $50M PE portfolio company or $4B enterprise, we adapt to your needs Why It Matters: If you're frustrated with consultants who study problems for 18 months without results, we're your answer. Top-tier expertise without bureaucracy or timeline bloat.
Why It Matters: If you’re frustrated with consultants who study problems for 18 months without results, we’re your answer. Top-tier expertise without bureaucracy or timeline bloat.
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Implementation-Focused, Not Deck-Focused
What Others Do:
- Deliver 200-slide PowerPoint decks, hand off execution
- Recommendations never implemented
- No support for change management, sales enablement, systems integration
What We Do:
- Execution partners, not just advisors
- Work alongside your team to implement pricing changes
- Build capabilities, train sales teams, integrate data systems, establish governance
- Don't leave until results are measurable and sustainable Why It Matters: Ideas without execution are worthless. We measure success by EBITDA improvement and margin gains, not slide count.
Why It Matters: Ideas without execution are worthless. We measure success by EBITDA improvement and margin gains, not slide count.
Proprietary Technology: PricePro©
What Others Do:
- Use Excel models and PowerPoint which are static tools that become obsolete
- Offer expensive enterprise software requiring dedicated IT resources
- Complex to implement, difficult to maintain
What We Do:
- Include PricePro© as part of engagements
- AI-powered continuous pricing management platform
- Embeds decades of best practices into day-to-day operations
- Real-time insights that scale with your business Why It Matters: Pricing requires ongoing attention and optimization. PricePro© institutionalizes excellence and is not dependent on individual expertise or consultant availability.
Why It Matters: Every month of delay is lost EBITDA. Our accelerated approach delivers value quickly while building capabilities for long-term sustainability.
Accelerated Timelines, Measurable ROI
What Others Do:
- 4-9 month engagements with multiple phases
- High burn rates, ambiguous ROI measurements
- Boutiques faster but lack breadth
What We Do:
- 7-12 weeks for core transformations
- Measurable results within weeks of implementation
- Focused sprints prioritizing high-impact initiatives
- Scrupously track and prove ROI
Why It Matters: Every month of delay is lost EBITDA. Our accelerated approach delivers value quickly while building capabilities for long-term sustainability.
Experienced Operators, Not Just Consultants
What Others Do:
- Staff projects with inexperienced analysts who've never operated businesses
- Pricing expertise from textbooks and frameworks, not real-world experience
- Junior team members who haven't managed P&Ls
What We Do:
- Team combines top-tier consulting backgrounds with actual operating experience
- Former CEOs, CROs and Pricing Leaders who've managed teams and owned revenue targets
- Driven transformations from the inside because we've sat in your seat
Why It Matters: Real-world operating experience makes us better consultants. We understand organizational dynamics, political realities, sales force concerns, and implementation challenges because we’ve lived them.
Holistic Commercial Excellence | Pricing Never Lives in Isolation
What Others Do:
- Operate in silos and focus narrowly on price levels and discount structures
- Ignore whether sales teams can sell value or packaging aligns with customers
- Strategy firms address growth but miss pricing lever entirely
What We Do: Take an integrated view of your entire commercial system. Our approach connects:
- Pricing Strategy ↔ Value Communication: Sales teams articulate differentiation confidently
- Packaging ↔ Customer Segmentation: Product/service bundles match how segments buy
- Discount Governance ↔ Sales Compensation: Incentives reward value selling, not discounting
- Channel Strategy ↔ Price Architecture: Pricing works across channels without conflict
- Go-to-Market Motion ↔ Pricing Model: Match PLG vs. sales-led to customer buying preferences
- Product Strategy ↔ Monetization: Monetize features before committing development resources
- Data & Systems ↔ Decision-Making: Deal-level visibility and analytics enable informed decisions
Real-World Example: Client implemented value-based pricing that looked perfect on paper but failed in execution. Why? Sales comp rewarded volume over margin, CRM couldn’t track discounts, marketing emphasized features over value, sales teams lacked confidence. We fixed the entire ecosystem, not just pricing. Result: 12% margin improvement in 6 months.
Why It Matters: The best pricing strategy fails if:
● Sales teams default to discounting (don’t know how to sell value)
● Packaging doesn’t align (customers confused which tier to buy)
● Incentives work against discipline (comp rewards volume over margin)
● Marketing communicates features (customers see commodity)
● Systems can’t track patterns (can’t manage what you don’t measure)
● Channel partners undercut direct sales (internal competition erodes margin)
We fix the entire commercial engine, not just one component. That’s why our results stick.
The Five P Framework: Our Proprietary Methodology
What Others Do: Use our flexible proprietary Five P Framework to systematically address every critical element of sustainable growth:
- Apply generic frameworks that don't account for company-specific realities
- Focus on one or two levers in isolation
- Leave implementation gaps that prevent sustained results
What We Do: Take an integrated view of your entire commercial system. Our approach connects:
- Pricing: Value-based pricing models, price architecture, monetization strategy, discount governance
- Product: Portfolio optimization, packaging strategy, feature prioritization, product-market fit
- Prioritization: Resource allocation, strategic focus, roadmap alignment, initiative sequencing
- Process: Sales enablement, deal workflows, pricing operations, governance mechanisms
- People: Organizational alignment, capability building, incentive design, change management
This integrated approach ensures all five elements work in harmony to drive sustainable growth.
Why It Matters: Most transformations of any kind fail because companies fix one element but ignore the other four Ps. For example, you can’t sustainably improve pricing without:
● Product that delivers differentiated value worth premium pricing
● Prioritization that focuses resources on highest-value initiatives
● Process that enables consistent execution and discipline
● People who are aligned, incentivized, and capable of executing
The Five P Framework is our systematic approach to holistic value creation.
