Jälkimarkkinatuotteiden hinnoittelun hallinta globaalissa B2B-yrityksessä

The main objective of this thesis is to improve the pricing process of the case company by assessing its current level compared to literature and propose improvement points. The research problem is divided further into sub-problems: How prices can be maintained and how they can be realized to greatest extent and finally how these two should be applied to the case company considering industry’s and company’s unique characteristics. Theory simplifies that 1 % increase in average realized price improves company profitability by 10 %. Price setting is analyzed briefly to explore pricing possibilities and understand the current practices although price setting is out of scope of this thesis. Price realization is analyzed more deeply on the theory side especially focusing on tools which can be used to identify where the money is lost. This part of theory uses a lot of six sigma terminology and tools more commonly seen in operations management. The results show that biggest gains in controlling prices are gained by training sales representatives and their assistants who place the sales orders into ERP. Globally standardized practices in placing and processing sales orders in ERP make following them easier and is less prone to confusion. Finer segments should be measured independently and later treated differently from one another to set multiple price points to gain more market and more profit. When such segmentation and fact-based intelligence gathering is in place, educated price adjustments can be made