Mark Stiving - Win, Keep, Grow: How to Price and Package to Accelerate Your Subscription Business

Mark masterfully removes the complexity from subscription pricing strategies and distills it into frameworks anyone can understand and apply to their business. If you are growing your subscription business or looking to shift your revenues from cost-plus pricing to value-based pricing strategies, this book will be your handy guide. I am a subject matter expert in subscription pricing and Mark has given me a structured way to think about and communicate my pricing strategies to the colleagues and stakeholders I work with. I continually find myself going back to his frameworks throughout my career.

Natalie Louie , Pricing Strategist and Senior Director of Product Marketing at Zuora

The world is changing at an incredible pace. To avoid disruption and survive, business leaders need to innovate quickly and create monetization models that support their innovation strategy. Thats where Win Keep Grow comes into play. Mark Stiving has developed a robust and comprehensive guide to subscription models. He goes beyond the hype and dives deep into the benefits and the mechanics of implementing a subscription. Whether your company focuses on software, hardware, or both (such as IoT), this book is a mandatory read for any leader driving innovation.

Daniel Elizalde , Former VP, Head of IoT at Ericsson & Instructor at Stanford University

Comprehensive, yet concise, Mark Stivings Win Keep Grow distills what every business needs to know to make the transition to subscription based pricing. In his clear style, Mark challenges the reader to think along with him throughout the book. I found myself running through the exercises and having lightbulbs flash like the sky during a fireworks show. This book wont just sit on a shelf, but be your companion on your desk.

Ed Kless , Co-host of The Soul of Enterprise

This book is a must-read for anyone considering a subscription model for their software product. It exposes the reader to the fundamentals like pricing. It also contains the not-so-fundamentals like transitioning your organization or your customers to a subscription-based business. The book is chock full of practical advice and suggestions. Read it to increase your chances of success. Ignore it youre doomed. Dont ignore it.

Jim Geisman , Founder of Software Pricing Partners and Growth-Helper

Win, Keep, Grow is a brilliant and thoughtful guide for anyone pursuing success in the world of subscriptions. Mark invites and challenges the reader to consider more than just the subscription business model itself, but also the critical roles of pricing and value. As an educator at heart, his approach has produced a book that is as supportive as it is informative, and as practical as it is theoretical calling on decades of experience and insight.

Courtney Rogers , CEO of Court & Co.

For over 10 years, Mark Stiving and his work in pricing has been an influential asset to my executive career. If you get it right, pricing is an incredibly powerful tool. When you get it wrong, you find out quickly how this power is balanced by incredible product, business, fiscal and career risk. For myself, my teams, advisory clients and for dozens of my colleagues, Mark, his courses, his first book, and his Podcast have helped me control risks and win in pricing, whether it was for one product or for my entire portfolio. Win, Keep, Grow: How to Price, Package and Manage Subscriptions is packed with wisdom, stellar examples and clear guidance that will help everyone, at all skill levels, with making the most out of the subscription business model. A few hours with this book will not only save you time and make you and your customers more successful, but you will also find it to be a quick and enjoyable read a rarity in business books these days.

Michael Fox , VP Product, Author, SaaS & Mobile Entrepreneur

I cant think of a more misunderstood and poorly executed pricing tactic between a customer and a vendor than subscription-based pricing. As always, Marks book is at the forefront of addressing a need so timely in todays turbulent and chaotic economic environment. Marks message is clear and concise by reminding readers that subscription pricing is about capturing experiential value as perceived by customers followed by the need to understand their willingness-to-pay. In a way, Marks insights remind us that Subscription pricing is an ongoing covenant between two parties extending beyond the initial sale. To succeed, a vendor must continue to innovate and communicate value and, in return the customer reciprocates with payments often extending over a 2 or 3 year commitment. Marks book is a must read for anyone considering a viable alternative to traditional pricing approaches.

Michael N. Hurwich , President Strategic Pricing Management Group

The book title explains it all: WIN, KEEP, and GROW. Each represents a different stage in the product life cycle; each must be priced, packaged and measured differently. In particular, focus your attention on the three value levers: market segments, pricing metrics, and packaging. These are often chosen tacitly without understanding their impact on the business, which is why the chapter on Value Levers is a must-read. Subscription isnt just a pricing decision; its a strategic business model decision. Thats why product leaders need to read Win Keep Grow, the latest book from pricing expert Mark Stiving.

Steve Johnson , Chief Product Officer Under10 Consulting

Mark Stiving is a pricing expert, but Win Keep Grow: How to Price and Package to Accelerate Your Subscription Business showcases his expertise in the subscription business model. Subscription business isnt a payment plan, its a business model; different expertises become critical to success. The one that strikes closest to home for me is that subscription businesses need to become crystal clear on their customers business, and the outcomes that their product helps customers achieve. Outcomes are the foundation of your value. Knowing your customer outcomes drives sales, marketing, pricing, product, packaging, and your product development/enhancement strategies, and Marks book describes how. Great Read!

Mark Boundy , Author of Radical Value

If youre thinking about adding a subscription channel to your business, this book is a Must Read. Mark Stiving shares the behind-the-scenes insights that differentiate successful subscription companies from those that disappear overnight. The key is how Mark expertly establishes the critical link between price and value that so many miss. With the exercises included at the end of each chapter, readers can identify real-life best practices and then apply them to their own business. I learned a lot and Im sure others will too.

Brian Doyle , President, Holden Advisors

Disruptive threats come not from new technology but from new business models. Fairly soon, you will have the option to subscribe to nearly everything, from boats and cars, to guitars and clothes. Your business will have to deal with this reality, regardless of whether or not it offers a subscription relationship. In Win Keep Grow, pricing expert Mark Stiving offers exceptional counsel on how to navigate in these new waters. We simply have to change our mindset from selling guitars to helping our customers play the guitar better; teasing out what it is our customers truly value, and constantly innovating to enhance our customers success.

Ronald J. Baker , Radio-Show Host, The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Knowledge Economy, and author of the best-selling book, Implementing Value Pricing: A Radical Business Model for Professional Firms www.thesoulofenterprise.com

Marks skill as an instructor comes through in this well-written, actionable book. Id recommend it for any subscription practitioner wanting to build a forever transaction with their customers. Its easy to understand and full of specific exercises to bring complex concepts to life.