Revenue Management Labs Founder and Managing Partner, Avy Punwasee, Partner at Revenue Management Labs, was recently featured in Forbes Business Council discussing a pattern many leadership teams are quietly experiencing:
When pricing is driving your growth story, you may be running out of room.
In the article, “Pricing Is Carrying Growth — That’s The Problem,” Avy explores what happens when price increases become the primary engine of performance — and why that should concern executives, not reassure them.
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Pricing looks strong right now. Net prices are rising by roughly 7.5% across industries, and more than 40% of companies report that growth in 2025 was primarily price-led rather than volume- or mix-driven. In many boardrooms, those results are being read as signs of resilience and discipline.
I believe they should be read differently.
Pricing is carrying growth not because pricing has suddenly become more powerful, but because other growth engines are under strain. Volume is softer than planned. Mix improvements are harder to sustain. New customer acquisition is taking longer. The benchmarks show that net price increases now exceed overall revenue growth, a clear signal that pricing is compensating for weaker demand rather than amplifying it.
That distinction matters.
A Shifting Balance
Historically, revenue growth was supported by a balance of volume, mix and price. When one lever underperformed, others could compensate. That balance has shifted. In 2025, pricing overtook volume and mix as the dominant driver of growth across many industries. On paper, this looks effective. In practice, it creates fragility.
Price-led growth behaves differently over time. It is harder to repeat year after year. It increases customer sensitivity, especially when value communication does not keep pace. It also reduces margin for error when market conditions change. Once pricing headroom is used, there are fewer levers left to pull.
Pricing can absorb pressure, but it cannot manufacture demand indefinitely.
The Illusion Of Strength
Strong net price results can mask declining volumes, stalled customer acquisition or inconsistent execution in the field. Leaders see revenue holding up and assume the underlying business is healthy. In reality, pricing is often doing all the heavy lifting.
The risk is delayed recognition.
When volume erosion persists, the consequences extend beyond near-term revenue. Brand relevance starts to weaken as customers reassess alternatives. Lower volumes reduce economies of scale, quietly increasing unit costs over time. Customers who leave do not disappear. They build habits and loyalty with someone else. Winning them back later requires deeper concessions, heavier marketing investment and more complex offers than retaining them would have in the first place.
By the time pricing stops compensating for demand weakness, the underlying issues have usually compounded. Sales behaviors have adapted to higher prices rather than stronger value articulation. Product and offer complexity has increased. Discount discipline becomes harder to enforce as resistance builds. Fixing the root causes becomes more expensive and more disruptive.
A Concerning Outlook
The outlook for 2026 amplifies this concern. Revenue growth targets are rising again, and EBITDA expectations (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) are increasing even faster. Many leadership teams are assuming net price increases of roughly 8% will continue to deliver a meaningful share of that improvement. Price-led growth is expected to remain the dominant model, even as leaders talk about restoring balance.
That is not a durable foundation.
The problem is not price-led growth itself. Pricing has always been a legitimate and necessary lever. The problem is mistaking price-led growth for a sign of underlying strength. When pricing becomes the primary driver of growth, it is a signal that demand, mix or execution needs attention.
Too often, that signal is ignored.
Asking The Right Questions
Instead of asking what pricing is compensating for, leaders celebrate the result and move on. The short-term numbers look good enough. The harder questions get deferred. Is demand actually recovering, or are customers simply paying more? Are volumes stable, or quietly eroding? Is pricing repeatable, or dependent on one-time actions and exceptional discipline?
These questions matter because pricing outcomes compound. A year of price-led growth can be absorbed. Multiple years begin to change customer expectations, sales behavior and competitive positioning.
The strongest performers recognize this dynamic. They treat pricing as part of a broader growth system, not a substitute for it. Pricing supports demand rather than replacing it. It is paired with regular review cycles, stronger analytics and tighter cross-functional alignment. When pricing performance improves, it is reinforced by better execution elsewhere in the business.
Pricing should support growth, but it should not be carrying it.
When pricing becomes the primary reason growth targets are met, leaders should pause. That is a warning that the system is out of balance.
Pricing is a powerful tool. Used well, it reinforces value, discipline and strategic clarity. Used as a crutch, it delays hard decisions and magnifies future risk. The difference is how leaders interpret what pricing performance is really telling them.
