.png)
Frameworks, core principles and top case studies for SaaS pricing, learnt and refined over 28+ years of SaaS-monetization experience.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
In the high-stakes world of SaaS, pricing isn't just a number—it's a strategic lever that directly impacts acquisition, retention, and ultimately, your company's valuation. Yet as organizations scale from startup to growth stage and beyond, the question of who should own pricing strategy becomes increasingly complex and consequential.
According to OpenView Partners' 2023 SaaS Benchmarks report, companies that have dedicated pricing resources achieve 26% higher growth rates than those without. Despite this compelling statistic, less than 20% of SaaS organizations have clearly defined pricing ownership. This disconnect represents both a challenge and an opportunity for scaling companies.
The Pricing Ownership Challenge
As your SaaS organization evolves, pricing decisions that were once made informally by founders over lunch transform into sophisticated exercises requiring cross-functional alignment, customer data analysis, and market intelligence. Without clear ownership, pricing initiatives often stall due to:
- Competing priorities across departments
- Inconsistent methodologies for pricing decisions
- Lack of accountability for pricing outcomes
- Analysis paralysis from too many stakeholders
Resolving the ownership question isn't simply about assigning a title—it's about creating the right structure for your organization's stage and complexity.
The Evolution of Pricing Ownership
Early-Stage (Pre-Product Market Fit)
In early-stage companies, pricing typically falls to the founders and executive team. This makes sense when:
- Customer acquisition is the primary focus
- The product and market positioning are still evolving
- The company has limited data on customer value perception
At this stage, pricing decisions tend to be more intuitive than data-driven, informed by founder conversations with prospects and competitive analysis.
"The goal at this stage isn't pricing optimization—it's pricing validation," notes Patrick Campbell, founder of ProfitWell (now Paddle). "You're testing whether customers will pay what you need them to pay for your solution to be viable."
Growth Stage (Post-Product Market Fit)
As companies achieve product-market fit and begin scaling, pricing complexity increases exponentially. This is often when ownership questions become challenging.
Three common ownership models emerge:
- Product-Led: Product teams own pricing based on feature value and usage metrics
- Marketing-Led: Marketing owns pricing as part of overall positioning and packaging
- Revenue-Led: Sales or revenue operations takes ownership of pricing to optimize deal closure and expansion
Each approach has merits, but also potential blindspots. According to a 2022 study by Simon-Kucher & Partners, cross-functional pricing committees become increasingly common at this stage, with 65% of high-growth SaaS companies employing this approach.
Enterprise Scale (Established Market Position)
At enterprise scale, leading SaaS organizations typically invest in dedicated pricing expertise through:
- A dedicated pricing team within product marketing or revenue operations
- A pricing center of excellence that serves multiple business units
- Executive-level oversight through a Chief Revenue Officer or Chief Commercial Officer
Salesforce, for example, maintains a dedicated pricing strategy team that coordinates global pricing initiatives while working closely with regional sales operations.
Who Should Own Pricing at Your Stage?
While there's no one-size-fits-all answer, certain indicators can help determine the right ownership model for your organization:
Product Team Ownership Makes Sense When:
- Usage-based or consumption pricing is your primary model
- Feature differentiation drives your monetization strategy
- Product analytics provides clear insights into value metrics
Stripe exemplifies this approach, with product teams deeply engaged in pricing based on detailed usage analytics and value metrics closely tied to product features.
Marketing Ownership Makes Sense When:
- Brand positioning and competitive differentiation drive pricing
- Packaging and bundling represent significant opportunities
- GTM messaging and pricing need tight alignment
HubSpot's evolution from a simple marketing tool to a platform with sophisticated good-better-best packaging demonstrates effective marketing-led pricing strategy.
Sales/Revenue Ownership Makes Sense When:
- Deal customization and discounting are common
- Enterprise sales cycles dominate your revenue stream
- Sales compensation and pricing incentives need alignment
Workday's success with enterprise deals showcases how revenue-led pricing can scale effectively in complex B2B environments.
The Case for Cross-Functional Pricing Teams
Regardless of the primary owner, high-performing SaaS companies increasingly implement cross-functional pricing committees that bring together:
- Product leaders who understand feature value
- Marketing executives who manage positioning
- Sales leaders who navigate customer objections
- Finance representatives who model margin impacts
- Customer success advocates who understand retention implications
According to research from Paddle, companies that implement cross-functional pricing teams achieve 14% higher net revenue retention compared to those with siloed pricing ownership.
Kyle Poyar, Partner at OpenView Venture Partners, advises: "The question isn't really who should own pricing—it's how to ensure pricing decisions incorporate all the right perspectives while still moving forward efficiently."
Building Your Pricing Function
For scaling SaaS organizations looking to formalize pricing ownership, consider these steps:
- Assess your pricing maturity: Map your current approach against industry benchmarks
- Document existing processes: Understand how pricing decisions happen today
- Define clear objectives: Establish what you want your pricing strategy to achieve
- Assign primary ownership: Choose the function best positioned to lead pricing initiatives
- Establish cross-functional guidelines: Create clear roles for supporting functions
- Implement governance mechanisms: Set cadences for pricing reviews and approvals
Conclusion: Pricing as a Strategic Discipline
As your SaaS organization scales, pricing strategy should evolve from an ad-hoc activity to a structured discipline with clear ownership. Whether that ownership sits with product, marketing, revenue teams, or a dedicated pricing function depends on your specific business model and organizational structure.
What matters most isn't the specific title of who owns pricing, but rather ensuring that pricing decisions incorporate the right data, align with company strategy, and have strong executive sponsorship.
The companies that will win in the next generation of SaaS will be those that recognize pricing not as a mere tactical exercise but as a strategic capability requiring intentional ownership and continuous refinement as the organization scales.