Impact Pricing

Jim Kalbach, Chief Evangelist at MURAL and JTBD expert, helps teams uncover what customers truly need. He explains why people describe solutions instead of problems. He shows how removing solutions reveals unmet needs, how purchases are bets on future outcomes, and how aligning messaging to real problems makes buyers stop searching.

Rebecca Kalogeris, a pricing and value professional who explores buyer decision-making, joins to unpack how to make value believable. They discuss the Value Table that links features to KPIs. They explain why articulating real problems matters. They show how guiding buyers to use their own numbers builds trust and why polished ROI tools can backfire.

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on January 12, 2026, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/ai-didnt-kill-per-user-pricing-it-exposed-it/ 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: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/

Rebecca Kalogeris, a pricing and sales pro who helps companies decode buyer behavior, joins to unpack why buyers skip problem diagnosis. They explore why people jump to solutions, the drill-aisle mistake, and how asking diagnostic questions reveals real needs. Conversations compare feature-focused choices to a doctor-like approach that builds trust and raises buying confidence.

A concise take on why price often hides deeper value problems. Short scenes explain price as the visible tradeoff and value as the real reason buyers accept deals. Hear when discounts actually help and when they only mask uncertainty. Practical guidance on diagnosing price issues and making prices defensible by clarifying the buyer’s trade.

If buyers are predicting the future… and confidence determines when they act… what are they actually paying for? In Episode 3 of the Buyer Decision Series, Mark Stiving and Rebecca Kalogeris explore the next piece of the puzzle; and challenge a common assumption about value. Because what buyers pay for may not be what you think. Discover what buyers are really evaluating; and why understanding it can completely change how you talk about value and pricing. Why You Have to Listen: Understand what buyers are really paying for—and why it's rarely the product itself Learn the Second Law of Value and how it reshapes the way pricing conversations work See how B2B buyers think about results through revenue, cost savings, and risk Recognize the hidden personal outcomes buyers consider—even in business decisions Build the next layer of the Buyer Decision framework introduced in Episodes 1 and 2 Catch Up on the #buyerDecisionSeries: Episode 1: Buying Is a Prediction of the Future https://impactpricing.com/podcast/buying-is-a-prediction-of-the-future/ Episode 2: Buyers Buy Futures, Not Features https://impactpricing.com/podcast/buyers-buy-futures-not-features/ "Value is the result of solving problems." — Mark Stiving Topics Covered: 00:22 - Recapping the First Two Episodes. Buying is prediction, and confidence determines when someone acts 01:32 - Confidence Threshold in Buying Decisions 02:11 - Introduction to Laws of Value 02:42 - Umbrella Law: Buyers Trade Money for Value 03:14 - Law One: Buyers Make Predictions 04:02 - Law Two: Value is the Result of Solving Problems 05:02 - Confidence Components: Payoff, Probability, Anticipated Regret 06:07 - B2B Results: Incremental Profit + Reduced Risk in B2B 08:22 - Results in B2C: Functional, Social, and Emotional Value. Consumers buy outcomes like better performance, social perception, or emotional satisfaction 10:43 - Why Individual Buyers Still Matter in B2B. Even business decisions include personal outcomes like reputation and career impact 12:50 - What Comes Next: Quantifying Value. How sellers can help buyers understand the payoff they expect Key Takeaways: "Value is the result of solving problems." — Mark Stiving "Individual buyers inside companies still care about how decisions make them look and feel." — Rebecca Kalogeris Connect with Rebecca Kalogeris: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-kalogeris Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

A lively take on why listing features fails to convince buyers. It explores how buyers hear fragments and must infer outcomes. It explains that buyers judge the trade, not the build, and why adding features or benefits often does not fix hesitation. It warns that feature-focused thinking spreads across a company and that failing to connect dots makes price the scapegoat.

Rebecca Kalogeris, a pricing and go-to-market practitioner, joins to unpack why buyers stall and say “let me think about it.” She explains buying as a prediction and compares it to gambling. Short, punchy segments cover confidence as payoff plus probability, the role of belief over facts, anticipated regret, and why people buy futures not features.

Before we talk about confidence. Before we talk about willingness to pay. Before we talk about buyer disconnect. We need to question something far more fundamental: What are buyers actually doing when they decide? In this pilot episode of the Decision Series, Mark Stiving and Rebecca Kalogeris unpack a deceptively simple idea that reframes how every purchase works; especially in B2B. They explore why value isn't as concrete as we assume, why certainty is often an illusion, and why so many pricing conversations miss what's really driving the decision. If pricing sometimes feels disconnected from buyer behavior, this episode starts to reveal why. Why You Have to Listen: Understand why value doesn't exist at the moment of purchase; and what buyers are actually evaluating instead. Reframe perceived value as a belief about the future, not a fact in the present. Lay the foundation for everything that follows in the Buyer Decision series. "Buying is a prediction of the future." – Mark Stiving Topics Covered: 00:00 – Buying Is a Prediction of the Future. The foundational idea that reshapes how we think about value 01:40 – What Is Buyer Disconnect? The gap between how buyers perceive value and how sellers think buyers perceive value 04:30 – The Drill Example: When Does Value Actually Happen? Value doesn't exist at purchase — it only exists if the future plays out as expected 06:20 – Perceived Value vs. Real Value. Why perceived value is all buyers have when they decide 09:45 – Why B2B Raises the Stakes. Business buyers are predicting both product outcomes and reputational consequences 11:40 – What Comes Next: Confidence. If buying is prediction, the next question is obvious — how do buyers build enough confidence to act? Key Takeaways: "Value doesn't exist at the time of purchase." – Mark Stiving "Buyer disconnect is the gap between how buyers perceive value and how sellers think buyers perceive value." – Mark Stiving "In B2B, buyers aren't just predicting product outcomes — they're predicting what happens to their reputation." – Mark Stiving "There are two predictions in every purchase; I assume the product will behave the way I expect, and I assume I'll behave the way I expect." – Rebecca Kalogeris Resources and People Mentioned: Yogi Berra Buyer Disconnect (Mark Stiving's Upcoming Book) Connect with Rebecca Kalogeris: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-kalogeris Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com

This is an Impact Pricing Blog published on December 22, 2025, turned into an audio podcast so you can listen on the go. Read Full Article Here: https://impactpricing.com/blog/pricing-ai-when-algorithms-replace-buyers/ 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: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/