S1E6 – 10 Years Strong: RML’s Evolution

Key takeaways

• Strong pricing work starts with accurate numbers and useful insight, not polished slides alone.
• Implementing change requires an understanding of people, incentives, and organizational culture.
• Pricing decisions can become emotional, so leaders need a way to discuss them without blame.
• Deep analysis and hands-on execution remain central to RML’s approach.
• Growth has changed how Revenue Management Labs works, but not its commitment to clear, actionable advice.

From rough slides to sharper communication

Looking back at the company’s early presentations, Michael and Avy admit that some of the slide decks were not exactly polished. The visual design was basic, and the way information was presented has improved significantly over the years.

Still, there was something important underneath those rough decks: the insight was there.

The team understood the customer, the business, and the numbers at a detailed level. That foundation helped clients make decisions, even when the delivery was not as clear or professional as it is today. It was a little like driving an old car held together with duct tape. It may not look great, but it gets you where you need to go.

That lesson continues to shape RML’s work. A pricing analysis should not be judged by how much data it contains or how impressive the presentation looks. The real test is whether decision-makers can understand:

1. What is happening?
2. Why is it happening?
3. What should the business do next?
4. How will the action affect revenue, margin, customers, and teams?

AI can help pricing teams find patterns faster and analyze more information, but it does not replace business context. The insight still has to be interpreted by people who understand the industry, the data, and the decisions the organization can realistically make.

The people side of pricing change

One of the biggest lessons from the past 10 years has been that a good pricing recommendation is only the beginning. The harder part is often getting an organization ready to act on it.

Michael and Avy describe their early working style as direct and highly action-oriented. That approach worked well in an aggressive business environment, but not every organization responds to blunt advice in the same way. Some teams need more time, education, and alignment before they can move forward.

This does not mean avoiding hard truths. It means understanding how to communicate them so the organization can absorb and use them.

Pricing affects many functions at once. Sales may worry about customer reactions. Marketing may have concerns about positioning. Finance may focus on the forecast. Operations may be thinking about service levels or delivery costs. If these groups are not aligned, even a sound pricing strategy can stall.

A practical change process often includes:

• Explaining the business case in plain language
• Connecting the pricing decision to each team’s priorities
• Addressing concerns before they become resistance
• Creating clear ownership for implementation
• Giving teams tools and guidelines they can use after the project ends

Revenue Management Labs has built its model around this connection between strategy and adoption. The goal is not simply to identify an opportunity. It is to help the client put the change into practice and measure whether it is working.

Pricing decisions are often personal

The episode also highlights how much emotion can sit behind a pricing decision. In one example, a leader resisted a change even though the analysis supported it. The issue was not really the math. It was the person’s reaction to being challenged.

That may sound unusual, but it is common. People are often connected to past decisions. They may have made a pricing choice because of customer pressure, internal politics, or information that seemed reasonable at the time. Telling someone that the decision should change can feel like criticism, even when that is not the intention.

The better approach is to treat past decisions as learning opportunities. The question is not, “Who made the mistake?” It is:

• What did we know at the time?
• What has changed since then?
• What can the business learn?
• What guardrails should be put in place going forward?

This is especially important when pricing has not been treated as a formal business discipline. Leaders may need education before they can confidently evaluate a pricing recommendation. Teams also need a safe way to challenge assumptions without turning every discussion into a personal debate.

Why hands-on expertise matters

As RML grew, the team learned another important lesson: not every experienced consultant is the right fit for detailed pricing work.

Some people are comfortable staying at a high level, building strategy, and presenting recommendations. Those skills matter. But pricing also requires a willingness to open the spreadsheet, test the numbers, examine customer behavior, and work through the details.

RML found that successful team members tend to come from one of two backgrounds. They are either experienced practitioners who understand how businesses operate, or they learn the RML way through close training and hands-on work.

That player-coach mindset remains important. Strong pricing professionals need to guide clients and develop teams, but they also need to understand the mechanics behind the recommendation. A strategy that cannot survive contact with the data, the sales team, or the customer is not much of a strategy.

Ten years of evolution, with the same core commitment

Revenue Management Labs has changed since its early days. The presentations are better. The processes are more complete. The team has learned how to adapt its style to different cultures and organizations.

What has not changed is the focus on real insight, clear business decisions, and practical execution.

For senior leaders, that is the larger anniversary lesson. Pricing improvement is not created by analysis alone. It comes from combining accurate data, industry knowledge, honest discussion, and follow-through. Whether the opportunity involves tariffs, customer segmentation, price increases, discounting, or margin improvement, the work has to fit the business in front of you.

After 10 years, RML is still focused on helping organizations find those opportunities and turn them into lasting results. The next decade will bring new tools, new market pressure, and more advanced AI. But the fundamentals will remain: understand the business, tell the truth about the numbers, and help people act on the answer.