1 00:00:01,360 --> 00:00:02,720 All right. Well, hello and thank you all so 2 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:04,920 much for tuning in to another episode of the Professional 3 00:00:04,920 --> 00:00:09,240 Pricing Society podcast. My name is Terrence and we have 4 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:11,080 a great conversation ahead of us today. 5 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:14,840 Today we're going to be talking about the expert guide to retail 6 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:18,600 pricing and that is going to be spearheaded by our good friend 7 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:21,760 Kieran Gangay. Kieran is the CEO and founder of 8 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:26,150 an A I based company called Rapid Pricer and he has done a 9 00:00:26,150 --> 00:00:29,750 lot of work around the globe with successful ventures in the 10 00:00:29,750 --> 00:00:34,510 Silicon Valley area, Mexico City, Bangalore, Amsterdam and 11 00:00:34,510 --> 00:00:37,790 New Delhi, India. Kieran, how are we doing today? 12 00:00:38,870 --> 00:00:40,110 Doing great. How are you, James? 13 00:00:40,590 --> 00:00:42,710 Doing well, doing well. Good to speak with you once 14 00:00:42,710 --> 00:00:44,670 again. Good friend of PPS. 15 00:00:44,990 --> 00:00:48,110 I was able to see you at our at our latest conference which was 16 00:00:48,110 --> 00:00:51,030 back in Dallas and it seems like you had a good time while you 17 00:00:51,030 --> 00:00:53,570 were there. Absolutely, absolutely. 18 00:00:53,570 --> 00:00:56,170 It was a pleasure being with everybody and the session was 19 00:00:56,170 --> 00:00:59,730 quite nice also as well. Good, good, good. 20 00:01:00,170 --> 00:01:03,890 Now we have you on today to discuss something that's very 21 00:01:03,890 --> 00:01:06,850 exciting, which is you have a new book out, correct. 22 00:01:06,850 --> 00:01:09,890 And if you wouldn't mind, let us know what the name of your book 23 00:01:09,890 --> 00:01:12,850 is and you know, I'll kind of, I'll kind of go into some 24 00:01:13,130 --> 00:01:16,530 questions about what we can expect from the content content 25 00:01:16,570 --> 00:01:18,750 of it. Absolutely, yes. 26 00:01:18,750 --> 00:01:23,070 The name of the book is the Expert Guide to Retail Pricing. 27 00:01:23,870 --> 00:01:28,350 It's about an analytics based approach to maximizing margins 28 00:01:28,750 --> 00:01:31,990 for retailer. Nice okay. 29 00:01:32,590 --> 00:01:34,190 Now how did you come about writing this book? 30 00:01:34,190 --> 00:01:36,270 I know you said it was a long time in the making. 31 00:01:36,750 --> 00:01:40,590 A lot of, a lot of your expertise and insights went into 32 00:01:40,590 --> 00:01:41,710 this book. So how did you kind of come 33 00:01:41,710 --> 00:01:45,610 about writing it? So I've been in pricing for 34 00:01:45,610 --> 00:01:48,610 retail now for about 18 years, right? 35 00:01:48,610 --> 00:01:53,610 So after the first few years, what I started noticing is we 36 00:01:53,610 --> 00:01:55,250 were going through the same steps. 37 00:01:55,930 --> 00:01:58,770 We would go to retail organizations as a consultant. 38 00:01:58,770 --> 00:02:02,210 I first used to work with other consulting companies and then I 39 00:02:02,210 --> 00:02:04,170 started my own company to do the same. 40 00:02:04,730 --> 00:02:07,610 But time and again, Terrence, in different countries, in 41 00:02:08,210 --> 00:02:10,889 different parts of the world, it's the same challenge we would 42 00:02:10,889 --> 00:02:13,840 go through. Selection of data understanding 43 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:16,960 strategy. Let's fix the strategy, let's 44 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:20,800 fix the prices, and then let's leave behind the process to do 45 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:24,040 okay. And then I get bored quite 46 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:27,480 easily, right? I want new, I want new 47 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:31,120 challenges. So as much as we could, we tried 48 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:34,560 to make this into a more automated process, build 49 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:37,160 algorithms to do all of the work, so on and so forth. 50 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:39,080 And then finally, I was like, okay. 51 00:02:39,890 --> 00:02:41,970 I need to, I need to do something different and I 52 00:02:41,970 --> 00:02:43,970 started doing fresh produce pricing. 53 00:02:44,210 --> 00:02:47,690 With all of this knowledge I had gathered with this, pricing was 54 00:02:47,690 --> 00:02:50,170 still in my head and I could see that there was still a lot of 55 00:02:50,170 --> 00:02:53,970 interest from retailers, from young professionals, from 56 00:02:53,970 --> 00:02:57,290 startups, from consulting companies on how exactly pricing 57 00:02:57,290 --> 00:02:59,170 is done. So that's when I thought about 58 00:02:59,170 --> 00:03:01,410 Okay. I I do enjoy teaching. 59 00:03:01,450 --> 00:03:03,970 I teach part time in many universities. 60 00:03:03,970 --> 00:03:07,410 Last year I coached 103 Startups on how to expand 61 00:03:07,410 --> 00:03:10,410 internationally. I love this purpose of 62 00:03:10,410 --> 00:03:12,650 transferring information basically, right? 63 00:03:12,650 --> 00:03:16,330 So this was in the middle of the lockdown where I was getting 64 00:03:16,330 --> 00:03:19,490 bored. I I wrote a few books, This was 65 00:03:19,490 --> 00:03:22,210 one of them. And then I'm really happy I 66 00:03:22,210 --> 00:03:25,130 could get route list to publish it for me. 67 00:03:26,050 --> 00:03:29,930 And it kind of feels good like you know, you all these years 68 00:03:29,930 --> 00:03:33,250 you spent in learning and perfecting something and now 69 00:03:33,250 --> 00:03:36,490 you're able to leave it behind. And it's not just me, right. 70 00:03:36,490 --> 00:03:39,650 It's my colleagues, all the partners I've worked with, all 71 00:03:39,650 --> 00:03:43,090 of the employees work with, we've all contributed to it. 72 00:03:44,370 --> 00:03:48,970 So that was the goal is to is to kind of you know leave something 73 00:03:48,970 --> 00:03:54,290 behind for the new generation of entrepreneurs, startups, 74 00:03:54,290 --> 00:03:58,510 retailers to use. What we have discovered, that's 75 00:03:58,510 --> 00:04:01,830 awesome, That's amazing. You mentioned that you've worked 76 00:04:01,830 --> 00:04:04,830 with, you know in the past 18 years of your career, you've 77 00:04:04,830 --> 00:04:07,670 worked in different countries, worked with different countries 78 00:04:07,670 --> 00:04:10,550 regarding pricing. And then of course you've you've 79 00:04:10,550 --> 00:04:15,390 recently coached 103 Startups, which is phenomenal in itself. 80 00:04:15,710 --> 00:04:19,899 Now, when you think about those who may have interests in this 81 00:04:19,899 --> 00:04:23,460 book, who is this book more suitable for or most suitable 82 00:04:23,460 --> 00:04:26,620 for, if I can say it that way? And what can they expect to 83 00:04:26,620 --> 00:04:28,740 learn from this piece of writing? 84 00:04:29,620 --> 00:04:32,100 Yes. So this book is primarily 85 00:04:32,100 --> 00:04:36,660 written for pricing professionals, more so in the 86 00:04:36,660 --> 00:04:39,260 retail space. There are lots of elements of it 87 00:04:39,260 --> 00:04:42,940 which is also relevant to other B to B pricing, say for example. 88 00:04:43,610 --> 00:04:48,650 But it's mainly for retail and ideally it would be somebody who 89 00:04:48,650 --> 00:04:53,490 has some kind of an analytical mathematical exposure or pricing 90 00:04:53,490 --> 00:04:56,770 strategy exposure maybe like a pricing analyst, a category 91 00:04:56,770 --> 00:05:02,130 manager or a director, VP of merchandising within these 92 00:05:02,130 --> 00:05:05,450 functions in a retail establishment, right, Could be 93 00:05:05,450 --> 00:05:08,610 anywhere in the world some portions of it will be more 94 00:05:08,610 --> 00:05:11,700 relevant to. Let's say for example, if you 95 00:05:11,700 --> 00:05:15,980 take the United States, Latin America, this book will be very 96 00:05:15,980 --> 00:05:19,100 relevant in some portions of Europe. 97 00:05:19,140 --> 00:05:22,700 If you see a more mature operations of a retailer, they 98 00:05:22,700 --> 00:05:25,740 probably might have addressed some portions of it already. 99 00:05:26,500 --> 00:05:30,380 And if you go Asia and Africa, these things which are covered 100 00:05:30,380 --> 00:05:33,580 in the book have not happened yet in those countries yet. 101 00:05:33,900 --> 00:05:38,380 So this might be a learning for them on what might happen in the 102 00:05:38,380 --> 00:05:42,070 future. And to answer your questions, 103 00:05:42,070 --> 00:05:45,510 pricing professionals from around the world, especially in 104 00:05:45,510 --> 00:05:47,950 the world of retailers who this is for. 105 00:05:48,390 --> 00:05:54,230 OK, good, good for retail pricer is interesting no matter what 106 00:05:54,230 --> 00:05:56,990 the country. Now, can the concepts from this 107 00:05:56,990 --> 00:06:00,870 book be used for B to B pricing as well? 108 00:06:02,190 --> 00:06:05,230 Yeah, absolutely. So, So kind of like if you see a 109 00:06:05,230 --> 00:06:09,350 book on how to. To ride a car, you will be able 110 00:06:09,350 --> 00:06:13,030 to use it to ride, let's say a tractor. 111 00:06:13,350 --> 00:06:16,150 Yeah, it's a lot of aspect. It's similar, but it's not 112 00:06:16,150 --> 00:06:18,030 exactly the same. Okay. 113 00:06:18,790 --> 00:06:22,870 So say, for example, the science behind pricing, how do you put 114 00:06:22,870 --> 00:06:25,670 up a strategic framework? How do you measure the results? 115 00:06:25,670 --> 00:06:27,710 How do you react against competition? 116 00:06:28,110 --> 00:06:31,750 They're all the same, but there would be some modifications 117 00:06:31,750 --> 00:06:34,950 you'd have to do to leverage it in A B to B environment. 118 00:06:36,860 --> 00:06:40,740 Gotcha okay. Interesting now because this is 119 00:06:40,740 --> 00:06:45,820 your handwritten piece and your essentially your baby cuz you 120 00:06:46,060 --> 00:06:49,100 created this back during the lockdown when COVID first 121 00:06:49,100 --> 00:06:52,860 started around the world. What would you say are your some 122 00:06:52,860 --> 00:06:54,860 of your favorite chapters of this book? 123 00:06:56,140 --> 00:07:00,620 Yeah. So I like the base pricing 124 00:07:00,620 --> 00:07:02,300 chapter, right. So basically. 125 00:07:03,510 --> 00:07:05,310 This is like the crux of the book. 126 00:07:05,310 --> 00:07:08,830 If you, if you wish Terrence so all of the concepts you would 127 00:07:08,830 --> 00:07:11,270 have gathered, all of the strategy you put together in 128 00:07:11,270 --> 00:07:15,870 place, it's like it's like you know, chopping up vegetables, 129 00:07:15,870 --> 00:07:19,310 dicing it up and preparing your preparing your kitchen. 130 00:07:19,550 --> 00:07:23,390 But this is when you actually take your first bite and see 131 00:07:23,390 --> 00:07:24,910 what it is looking like, right? So. 132 00:07:24,910 --> 00:07:29,470 So I like that after it brings a lot of impact to retailers if 133 00:07:29,470 --> 00:07:34,960 you can use the concepts in it. I also like Funnily, the 134 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:37,160 smallest chapter I have is the conclusion. 135 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:40,920 I like it because it talks about what could be possible in the 136 00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:44,840 future, and I like. I like thinking about that too. 137 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:47,760 Good. OK, good. 138 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:52,080 Now, are there more venues to learn about pricing through the 139 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:54,640 science that you personally would recommend? 140 00:07:55,280 --> 00:07:57,280 Maybe within this book? Or maybe not? 141 00:07:58,730 --> 00:08:02,090 See one of the reasons why I wrote this book right when I was 142 00:08:02,090 --> 00:08:05,170 learning pricing, I asked so many people, do you have any 143 00:08:05,170 --> 00:08:07,450 books you could recommend that I could learn from? 144 00:08:08,090 --> 00:08:11,970 Almost all of them are like wish there was one, right? 145 00:08:12,410 --> 00:08:19,050 There is really not many books written about using science and 146 00:08:19,050 --> 00:08:24,530 mathematics for would yourself approach for pricing right? 147 00:08:24,530 --> 00:08:27,850 We have books about strategy. We have books about pure 148 00:08:27,850 --> 00:08:30,580 science. But how do you use these maths 149 00:08:30,580 --> 00:08:33,059 and analytics to do pricing on an everyday basis? 150 00:08:33,059 --> 00:08:37,419 I didn't see any book material, but there are lots of very 151 00:08:37,419 --> 00:08:43,020 useful blogs, articles written about it from pricing companies 152 00:08:43,020 --> 00:08:46,300 which specialize in this space. I do really like all of the 153 00:08:46,300 --> 00:08:50,580 content the Professional Pricing society puts out, attending a 154 00:08:50,580 --> 00:08:55,660 workshop, meeting, meeting some of the peoples who have done 155 00:08:55,660 --> 00:09:00,130 this pricing and in many cases. Actually implementing some of 156 00:09:00,130 --> 00:09:02,410 these solutions, whether you do it through a complicated 157 00:09:02,410 --> 00:09:06,330 software or an Excel, is the best ways to learn, right? 158 00:09:06,330 --> 00:09:08,890 Is actually to jump into the swimming pool, basically. 159 00:09:09,210 --> 00:09:13,210 Sure, jump into swimming pool, Swimming pool head first, if you 160 00:09:13,210 --> 00:09:15,330 will. Absolutely, yes. 161 00:09:15,330 --> 00:09:17,810 Well, with this book, maybe you can go feed first. 162 00:09:18,090 --> 00:09:22,530 Yeah, OK, test the waters. OK, For those who are 163 00:09:22,530 --> 00:09:25,370 interested, where can they look to purchase this book or just to 164 00:09:25,370 --> 00:09:29,400 read more about it? So if you go to Amazon and 165 00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:32,760 search this book up, there is a big sizable chapter which is 166 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,200 kind of like an excerpt. You can read about this book 167 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:40,160 already without having to buy. Then you can purchase this book 168 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:43,760 on any country's Amazon website. It should be in Barnes and 169 00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:47,200 Noble. It's definitely also on The 170 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:50,040 Route Ledge, which is the publication Taylor and Francis 171 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:54,080 website, which you could use also as well. 172 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:59,160 Good, good. Now, before I let you go for for 173 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:05,480 today, where can people learn more about you or your story? 174 00:10:05,520 --> 00:10:07,640 What the resources are that you have to offer? 175 00:10:07,640 --> 00:10:08,680 Where can they learn more about you? 176 00:10:10,300 --> 00:10:12,980 So I do a couple of things actually three or four things is 177 00:10:12,980 --> 00:10:16,140 what I do right now. Number one is rapid pricer, 178 00:10:16,140 --> 00:10:19,220 right? So we reduce prices of fresh 179 00:10:19,220 --> 00:10:22,140 produce before they go bad using a eye. 180 00:10:22,140 --> 00:10:24,700 We take a look at what is the color of a banana, say for 181 00:10:24,700 --> 00:10:28,900 example, and those from green to yellow, we change the price from 182 00:10:28,900 --> 00:10:31,420 $1.00 to $0.75 or whatever it is, right? 183 00:10:31,940 --> 00:10:37,580 So that's what I do. Www.rapidpricer.com That's my 184 00:10:37,580 --> 00:10:39,940 company. You could also visit. 185 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:44,120 Kirangangay.com I have more information about what else im 186 00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:47,120 up to. I have another startup in India 187 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:52,320 through which we help companies grow internationally and I also 188 00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:55,920 like I was saying I teach and coach startups to the Dutch base 189 00:10:55,920 --> 00:10:59,560 camp. What I do turn so any of these 190 00:10:59,560 --> 00:11:00,960 places or or open me up.