Your Customers Don’t Care About AI (And That’s Your Pricing Problem) with Dan Balcauski
Release Date: 05/18/2026
#LivePricingCoachingWithMarkStiving: From 35% to 70% Win Rates, Mark Richman's Pricing Transformation
Impact Pricing
What happens when a former client returns for a live pricing coaching session? Mark Richman, CEO of Skeleton Key, shares how applying Mark Stiving's value-selling principles helped increase his close rate from 35% to 70% by focusing on customer outcomes instead of pitching solutions. Now, he returns to the hot seat to workshop his toughest pricing challenges in real time—from buyers who can't quantify value to outcome-based pricing and pricing for emotional outcomes. This isn't another pricing interview; it's a front-row seat to a CEO getting his sales strategy challenged, refined, and...
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Buyer Insight: You Didn’t Lose the Deal. You Lost the Commitment.
Impact Pricing
This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on May 25, 2026, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: LinkedIn:
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Michael Barbarita is the founder of Next Step CFO, strategic CFO, and author of Powerful Business Strategy. After more than four decades of helping businesses grow through smarter financial and business strategies, he's learned that the biggest pricing challenge isn't price—it's trust. In this episode, he reveals why buyers instinctively trust salespeople who aren't attached to the outcome, how transformational conversations outperform transactional ones, and the practical sales strategies that keep buyers focused on value instead of price. Why You Have to Check Out Today's Podcast: ...
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Buyer Insight: How Buyers Actually Buy (And Why AIDA Isn’t The Answer)
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This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on May 18, 2026, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: LinkedIn:
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The Price of Influence: Why People Don't Buy Your Ideas with Claire Wang
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Claire Wang is a pricing strategist, speaker, and author of The Price of Influence. With a background spanning insurance, consulting, and commercial strategy, she helps organizations shape willingness to pay by understanding how people perceive value. In this episode, she shares why pricing professionals need to think beyond numbers, how empathy shapes influence, and why your next great pricing skill may have nothing to do with pricing at all. Why You Have to Check Out This Episode: Learn why great ideas often fail—not because they're wrong, but because people don't see their...
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Buyer Insight: What Is a Pig Worth?
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This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on May 11, 2026, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: LinkedIn:
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Adrienne Gordon is the CEO of PriceSpace and founder of Pricing Empowered. With more than 25 years of pricing experience, she helps organizations combine pricing strategy, organizational change, and AI adoption to improve commercial performance. In this episode, Adrienne and Mark explore what happens when pricing teams become half human and half AI. They debate whether AI can ever make pricing decisions on its own, why "humanless negotiation" may be closer than most companies realize, and how pricing leaders can use AI to strengthen—not replace—human judgment. Why you have to...
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This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on May 4, 2026, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: LinkedIn:
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Why Buyers Don't Buy (Hint: It's Not Your Price) with Ted Olson
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Most sales conversations assume buyers make rational decisions. Ted Olson argues that's exactly why so many deals stall. Ted Olson is a sales strategist who helps founders, consultants, coaches, and sales teams use behavioral science to improve how buyers make decisions. He is the author of Feel Good About Selling and the upcoming book, Distinct, where he explores what happens between a buyer saying, "This makes sense," and actually saying, "Yes." In this episode, Ted and Mark challenge one of sales' biggest assumptions: why buyers hesitate. Is it fear or a lack of confidence? Their...
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Buyer Insight: Being Chosen Isn’t Winning
Impact Pricing
This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on April 27, 2026, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach us at mark@impactpricing.com. Now, go make an impact. Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: LinkedIn:
info_outlineDan Balcauski is the founder of Product Tranquility, where he helps B2B SaaS companies improve pricing, packaging, and monetization strategy.
In this episode, Dan breaks down the uncomfortable reality behind today’s AI gold rush: buyers are tired of “AI-powered” hype, SaaS companies are struggling to monetize features nobody uses, and pricing teams are rewriting their strategies in real time.
If your company is trying to monetize AI without becoming another forgettable AI feature, this episode will change how you think about pricing, adoption, and customer value.
Why You Have to Listen:
- Learn why AI features alone don’t drive purchases — and how to position AI around customer outcomes people actually value.
- Discover the biggest AI pricing mistake SaaS companies are making — charging for features before customers build adoption habits.
- See how smart SaaS companies roll out AI strategically — using adoption-first pricing, early access models, and workflow-driven product design.
“Prove value with your new AI features before you throw a paywall in front of it.”
— Dan Balcauski
Topics Covered:
02:10 - “Freemium Is a Terrible Idea for Most SaaS Companies”. Why most freemium models fail before companies fully understand the real costs behind them.
06:48 - Why AI Can’t Automatically Set Your SaaS Prices. Dan explains where AI can help pricing teams and where human judgment still matters most.
09:53 - The Dangerous Truth About AI Pricing Advice. Most LLMs learned pricing strategy from bad SEO content and outdated thinking.
13:35 - The Adoption vs. Monetization Framework. The simple 2x2 model every SaaS company should use before pricing AI features.
17:34 - Margin Percentage vs. Margin Dollars. A smarter way for CFOs and SaaS leaders to think about AI profitability.
18:32 - “Buyers Don’t Care That Your Product Uses AI”. Why customers care more about outcomes and workflows than your AI technology.
24:31 - Why SaaS Companies Keep Changing AI Pricing. Most AI pricing models don’t survive their first 18 months.
26:07 - The “Early Access” AI Pricing Strategy. How smart SaaS companies introduce AI features without hurting adoption.
29:24 - “Earn the Right to Monetize”. Why proving customer value should happen before putting up a paywall.
Key Takeaways:
“We need to prove our value first before we can monetize it.” – Dan Balcauski
People / Resources Mentioned:
- Steven Forth — Mentioned as a trusted source of pricing expertise and strategic thinking.
- Anthropic Claude Code — Dan’s primary AI workspace for research synthesis and pricing analysis.
- Readwise — Tool Dan uses to ground AI outputs using trusted expert highlights and notes.
- Salesforce — Referenced as an example of rapidly evolving AI pricing strategies.
- Pragmatic Institute — Mentioned during the discussion on product adoption and feature prioritization.
Connect with Dan Balcauski:
- Website: https://www.producttranquility.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/balcauski/
- X: https://x.com/dan_balcauski
- Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/saas-scaling-secrets/id1682338188
Connect with Mark Stiving:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
- Email: mark@impactpricing.com