The Pricing Roadmap: How to Design B2B SaaS Pricing Models That Your Customers Will Love

by Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt

"The definitive resource on SaaS pricing—I absolutely can not recommend this book enough."

— Viktor Heide, COO of Contractbook.com, Forbes "30 under 30"

A foolproof method to achieve skyrocketing sales, growth, and profits for your software as a service (SaaS) product starts with strategic pricing.

Designed specifically for founders and executives in medium to large B2B tech companies, "The Pricing Roadmap" is your ultimate guide to crafting pricing strategies that drive success in the competitive SaaS market, dropping acquisition costs and exploding growth

Whether you're a startup, pre-revenue venture, or an industry leader, this step-by-step guide will help you will learn how

Design pricing models that resonate with both your customers and sales teamChoose pricing metrics that fuel demand and expansion within the SaaS ecosystemIdentify lucrative niche markets overflowing with cashMaximize your product's appeal within your customers' budgets while ensuring profitabilityValidate new pricing strategies and seamlessly transition existing SaaS customersCreate offers so irresistible that prospects feel compelled to say yesBenefit from real-world insights gained from assisting countless B2B SaaS businessesLeverage the virtuous cycle of price to outspend competitors and attract top talentEnhance product quality to the point where prospects eagerly invest without hesitationWritten from the trenches of hands-on experience, "The Pricing Roadmap" has empowered 1000’s of B2B business owners to take charge of their pricing strategy with confidence in the dynamic world of SaaS and how to effectively showcase the full potential of their SaaS products.

Using this book as your blueprint, you'll create offers that prompt immediate action and drive conversions.

Revolutionize your pricing strategies and achieve unprecedented success in the market – TODAY! This is your Pricing Roadmap.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Business Strategy

278 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 25, 2023

Reviews

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a highly informative book. I certainly won’t retain everything I’ve read but this book has given me a huge appreciation for the complexities of pricing. His experience and examples were just specific enough to be clear and the flow of the book worked well.

It’s a book worth owning because I’ll be referring to it for years.

[Maciek Wilczyński · Rating 5 out of 5]

I make my living dealing with B2B SaaS Pricing, and this book is like "Sapiens" for SaaS.

Don't read it, otherwise my job won't be needed ;)

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing intro to Pricing. It might even be better than an intro, but coming from only the most basic understanding, I found this to be deeply insightful along with strategies that can be followed. He lays out a variety of frameworks and also offers examples of how to apply them. There's some of the basic math included as well, helping to show exactly what you need to do for profitable and optimized pricing decisions.

If there's one place I think he could have gone further, it would be sorting out the churn issue. Figuring out what to use for lifetime value of customers depends on the churn. And there are various ways to calculate that. There may be some obvious choices from monthly to annually and so on, but some companies have seasonal issues or varying customer cohorts that may churn at different rates. In fairness, that's not the core topic of the book. But insofar as pricing to some degree should depend on lifetime value, it could maybe have used some more treatment.

Still, overall I found this to be hugely useful to me as a product manager who's only had to deal with basic pricing for a few types of products so far. This has given me a great framework for some next steps I need to consider on the finance side of things. There may be other pricing-specific training out there, but when I've read up on some pricing issues as part of general product management, (nothing came close to this level of depth.

[Pedro Pinto · Rating 4 out of 5]

As part of a book club (#BOP) that I’m a member of, I was invited to read The Pricing Roadmap a few weeks ago.
I must confess: when the title was selected, my expectations were low—borderline apprehensive. I feared this might turn out to be “wasted” time. But, having committed to the group, I dove in—albeit reluctantly.
To my surprise and delight, this journey turned out to be anything but a waste. This book offers tremendous value—not only for pricing professionals in B2B SaaS, but for anyone working in pricing or revenue management.
Lehrskov-Schmidt writes as a seasoned practitioner. The concepts he presents are not just theoretical; they’re battle-tested and grounded in real-world experience. His approach is highly practical, yet anchored in solid theoretical frameworks that prompted me to pause, reflect, and reconsider some of my long-held assumptions—both in familiar areas and from entirely new angles.
A particular highlight for me was his use of Clay Christensen’s “Jobs to Be Done” framework, which immediately caught my interest and added depth to the discussion.
Key Learnings & Takeaways:
1. Pricing is inherently complex—but that doesn’t mean your customers need to experience it that way.
2. The value lies in the pricing structure, not the price point. Don’t just price the product—price the customer.
3. Invest in designing a pricing process that enables segmentation through product packaging and pricing metrics.
4. Understand your business’s economies of scale, which can provide a sustainable competitive advantage by keeping profits above your weighted average cost of capital (WACC).
5. A business can scale through:
o Unit Sold
o Unit Price
o Unit Cost
Each of these can reveal different scalability patterns—linear, critical mass, and diminishing returns.
6. Unit cost decreases with volume—up to a point, per Economics 101.
7. Unit price or network effects reflect increasing product value as user numbers grow.
8. Units sold can drive down selling costs as customer numbers increase.
9. Pricing strategy should align with scale patterns and always be grounded in overall business strategy.
10. The CUPID framework (Customers, Users, Products, Iteration, and Distribution) helps define key product attributes and stakeholders, guiding the pricing process.
11. Two key concepts tied to the product model:
o Fencing (akin to segmentation, aligned with Jobs to Be Done)
o Laddering (the customer journey within a segment—enhancing and monetizing value)
12. Every pricing model should contain:
1. The mechanism that determines what the customer pays
2. A structure for differentiating prices across segments
13. Pricing mechanics are based on pricing metrics, which should meet these criteria:
o Operational viability
o Relevance in the customer value chain
o Willingness to pay and fairness
o Metric density and monetization clarity
14. Metric density stood out to me: your pricing metric should be unambiguous and tightly aligned with customer value.
15. Wallet structure is a fascinating (though challenging) concept—tailoring your value proposition to multiple stakeholders within a customer to unlock monetization opportunities.
16. Price points are relative, influenced by competitors and customer sophistication. Anchoring strategies include:
o Cost-based
o Niche-based
o Perceived value-based
o Fair value-based
17. Establish a clear discount structure, distinguishing between structural and sales-driven discounts—governed by clear rules.
18. Raising prices should be demystified. Treat it as a normal part of doing business—communicate clearly, transparently, and consistently.
If this has sparked your curiosity, I recommend checking out the author’s YouTube channel for further insights into his thinking.
This book may not have the hype or social media buzz of more mainstream titles, but it’s a must-read for anyone serious about pricing and revenue management.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great crash-course on price setting for B2B SaaS. I found some chapters more insightful than others, but overall a very good source of information that was very well written, exactly what I needed.

The book goes through Ulrik’s step by step approach to price setting, with case studies from his years of experience. This includes: how to have a product that scales, different options (lego building blocks) to create a pricing and packaging model, how to set price points, validate them and the very important and often left out options for discounting a product and raising prices on it.

I found the first chapters less enjoyable, seeming slightly rushed and less to the point of the book (chapters 2/3), but from them onwards this is pure gold for anyone who wants to learn the basics of price setting and leave with a few new ideas to try out and the logic behind them.

I specially enjoyed the last third of the book with clear guides on how to validate prices and modify them in a real market place, insights that aren’t easy to come by.

[Rama Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

B2B design has its own challenges, so I’m always looking for agencies that understand long sales cycles and detailed workflows. This list explains each team’s strengths without overdoing it. While reading through b2b design agency. I appreciated how they highlight projects tied to enterprise tools, dashboards, and internal systems. It gives you a clearer picture of who knows B2B and who mainly works with consumer products. If you’re dealing with complex software and need someone who can handle dense interfaces, this is a useful starting guide.

[Mad Hab · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is likely the best book on pricing I have ever read. It's not just knowledgeable and insightful, but also incredibly entertaining. Reading it feels akin to diving into a classic thriller or detective novel by Conan Doyle. I would highly recommend this book to anyone involved in pricing, or simply to those desiring a quality read from the world of business.

[Italo Mendez · Rating 4 out of 5]

So good! A really detailed and complete guide on pricing. As a product manager, this is a book I’ll be referencing often. 4 stars because at some points it felt a bit too much and I had to put it down, but I guess you should be approach this in more of a textbook mindset. Also, kudos for the summary in the end, it made me feel less anxious that I missed some golden nuggets

[Cameron McClellan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly informative book, full of useful information. Absolutely recommended for anyone thinking about SaaS pricing models - and especially for new starters who maybe are not thinking about their pricing models, and ought to be.

For a professional development book, it was jarringly devoid of run-on anecdotes, stories, and arrogant self-adoration. Truly a breath of fresh air.

[Kjael Skaalerud · Rating 5 out of 5]

pricing bible for b2b saas with actionable frameworks for every step of the way

Highly recommend for operators and investors alike. Ulrik does an excellent job distilling a topic that scares most and provides very useful / actionable frameworks to put the concepts into action

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should be required reading for anyone in sales, marketing, product or leadership of a SaaS company. More companies would be better served aligning with their clients/customers, and this is the playbook for doing that.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smart person but not a very clear writer

[Zane Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good and highly recommended.

[Keith Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far the best thing I have read in years on pricing. Ignore the SaaS and focus on all the awesomeness that your own business, whatever you do , could be making.

[Ethan J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty informative and comprehensive on SaaS pricing. Definitely helped open my thinking.

[Andrew Berkowitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal!