Pricing with Confidence, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 2Rule Two

An Ounce of Execution Is Better Than a Pound of Strategy

The most critical responsibility of executives is to execute. Unfortunately, corporate leaders spend more time formulating strategy and less on execution. The businesses that achieve consistent profitability are usually led by executives who, first, manage an effective price policy (the strategy) and, second, ensure that the prices set by the policy get implemented well by the sales professionals and commercial teams (the execution). They make sure that the sales teams are well prepared with the right value conversations so that customers understand the prices as fair relative to the value the customer receives.

Would you rather have better strategy or better execution? It's a question that many leaders wrestle with, although in truth we are here to tell you that no leader has to make that choice. It's a false dichotomy. You don't have to choose one or the other. Well-prepared leaders can create the conditions for deploying equally successful strategy and execution. Yet because so many leaders believe they must choose one at the expense of the other, it's useful to dispel that myth. As always, the place to start in dispelling a myth is to define terms.

Strategy is all about achieving objectives effectively. Strategy is effective when it reflects an inspired vision of the future. At the C-suite level, strategic decisions include defining such fundamental “should” questions as:

• What business should ...