A recession is no time for pricing as usual. In a cycle of collapsing demand, volatile sourcing costs, and increasingly intense competition, you need all hands on deck to protect prices. And because these conditions are likely to remain (to some extent) throughout the anticipated slow recovery, it is imperative that companies stay in crisis-alert mode well into the new normal.
Most companies are uncertain about managing pricing as they come out of a downturn. Few plan for a recovery or pull the right pricing levers at the right time. They aren’t prepared to price—either up or down—in response to changing market conditions or competitive dynamics. The companies that emerge from this recession as winners will be battle ready to defend their prices with disciplined processes that give them a competitive advantage when the economy turns around.