Pricing and margins, industry by industry
You cannot price well without knowing your true cost. Pricing and margin work changes shape by sector, but rests on the same foundation: the real cost to make and serve. Here is how it lands in each industry.
Cost-based pricing sets price against the true cost to produce and serve, not a blended average. The principle is constant across industries; what differs is the cost driver, a product in manufacturing, an account in IT and financial services, a payer mix in healthcare.
PRICE BUILT ON REAL COST
Illustrative. The same method, different drivers by sector.
Price is a decision. Without the true cost beneath it, it is a guess dressed as a number.
Common questions
- What is cost-based pricing?
- Cost-based pricing sets price against the true, fully loaded cost to produce and serve a product or customer, rather than a blended margin target. It protects margin by making the real cost visible before the price is set.
- Why does pricing differ by industry?
- The principle is the same, but the cost driver and margin structure differ: a product cost and order profile in manufacturing, a delivery cost per account in IT and financial services, a payer mix and service line in healthcare.
Price to your true cost.
The Profit Check shows where margin is leaking, in 12 to 15 minutes.
- Duration
- 12 to 15 minutes
- You receive
- Score, 7 dimensions, sector benchmark
- Price
- Free, no email needed
Proof
A distributor in New Zealand. €1.335M of cost-to-serve made visible, then halved, and 830 loss-making customers brought down to 295.
Read the case study →Who you would be talking to
Miguel Guimarães, Founding Partner
Cost and profitability practitioner for 25+ years. Presented the Damco cost-to-serve case at Managing for Profit (Amsterdam RAI, December 2009), on the same programme as Robert S. Kaplan.
Call +351 910 313 731
