Give it up, you’ve lost the current battle, and yet the war still rages on. It sure sounds like it’s time to roll out another release of your product or, if permitted, another product. In all honesty, the “new” product doesn’t really have to be all that new – it just has to have a higher version number (e.g. “Windows 7″). Once you do this, you can assign it premium pricing and the current product that is a reminded of the battle that was lost will quickly become a distant memory.

Not easy, not fun, but definitely possible. In the end, Product Mangers always get their way.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
The Accidental PM Blog
“Home Of The Billion Dollar Product Manager”
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Hasn’t anyone ever told you that microeconomics is best left to middle-aged balding men who’ve never sold or marketed anything or employed anyone ever?

I almost barfed from laughing so hard when I saw “price elasticity”. The CPM needs a vacation. As your attorney, I advise you to fly to Vegas, rent a big Caddie convertible, pose as a journalist covering a motocross event, and…

blatant attempt to use world-class education = guaranteed futility*

When a PM resorts to pure logic and reason, an intervention is necessary. Realize there are people how love/fear you and who never want to see a three-dimensional scattergram of pricing data again in their lifetimes. If you love/loathe these people at all, you owe it to them to never be so blatantly logical and straight-forward ever again.

covert use of brainpower while appearing drunk = jedi mind trick**

When it comes to persuasion, I think the PM arsenal is ranked thusly (and I believe ‘thusly’ should be a real word):

1. Box seats for a play-off game
2. Ridiculous bar tab
3. Ridiculous sushi tab
4. Indulging in other party’s favorite legal activity (e.g. karaoke)
5. Referring to “those videos” you found on other party’s laptop
6. Indulging in other party’s favorite illegal activity (bring your camera-phone)
7. Random acts of musical violence (e.g. West Side Story)
8. Roshambo
9. A really well-crafted and data-rich spreadsheet
10. Voodoo (the real stuff with a dead chicken, not the stupid stuff with the dolls and needles)

I’m glad you didn’t resort to #10, though I suspect you’re dangerously close to doing so. Which leads me to reiterate – as your attorney, I advise you to take a vacation :)

*This formula holds true when you’re smarter than the people you work for.
**These aren’t the sales droids you’re looking for…

After reading this post, the Cranky Sales Engineer has concluded that those sales droids suck. In his experience, price has never been a serious factor in the sales process unless one of two things happens:

1. The price is WAY (5x-10x) above any justifiable ROI.

2. The product is undifferentiated and has competitors.

Without one of those the CPM was right to stick to her guns, and the resulting loss in revenue was easily predictable.

But we all know what being right gets us—frustrated.