How does a member-oriented organization price new and expanded offerings within an existing line of professional credential and developmental achievements?
SPMG was hired by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to develop and recommend pricing targets for several new credentials/certifications. The AICPA is the largest professional organization for all Certified Public Accountants in the United States, and provides members with a variety of credentials and specialty learning areas. Through its advocacy, the AICPA offers one of the most trusted and influential voices of the accounting profession, supporting important public interest issues, working to protect the profession, communicating the value of CPAs and raising the profile of the profession, while also giving members the inside track on key developments, new rules, hot topics and emerging trends in the CPA profession and the ever-changing accounting world. It also provides members with professional development opportunities through continuing professional education (CPE) offerings on the latest issues and topics to improve members’ skills, knowledge and business success.
SPMG was asked to help AICPA evaluate current pricing practices and to review and validate non-traditional pricing approaches to effectively support its strategic objective of introducing specific new credential offerings. Through our comprehensive process that included field surveys, focus groups, and advanced modelling techniques, SPMG provided the AICPA with best-in-class pricing recommendations covering the critical periods of the new credentials’ launch and acceptance stages. SPMG employed highly segmented field research to identify and quantify distinct pricing opportunities, developed tools to provide initial and on-going pricing-based financial evaluation analysis, and offered techniques for monitoring the success of and adjusting pricing policies to the adoption rates of the new credentials’ roll-out, growth, and industry-leading phases.
One of the key elements of SPMG’s effort was an attempt to bring into focus the dollar-based value proposition for the new credential offerings. Through our research and experience in the financial markets/institutions and risk-management industries, we were able to provide benchmarks which offered discrete financial targets for the benefits associated with each of the credentials considered, thereby supporting the offerings’ distinct value propositions and the pricing upon which it is built.