Many businesses lag in pricing capabilities
A new survey indicates a disconnect between organizations’ confidence in their pricing functionality and their actual execution.
More than eight-in-10 (84%) senior pricing executives across industries surveyed by Zilliant said they have strong or very strong pricing power. Yet almost six-in-10 (58%) respondents to “2025 Pricing Technology Trends: Bridging the Gap Between Strategy and Execution” realize less than half of their intended price increases.
And while 56% of respondents 56% use some form of pricing management software, 42% mostly use Excel and 19% use it exclusively. More than half (52%) of respondents need 31-60 days to implement price increases, while one-in-five (21%) require more than 60 days.
Pricing tools drive revenue growth and profits
The survey also revealed correlations between specific pricing tools and business performance:
- Respondents managing their pricing activities using mostly technology are 20% more likely to declare better profit performance relative to their competitors, compared to those using mostly manual methods.
- Respondents managing their pricing activities using mostly technology are 5% more likely to declare better revenue growth relative to their competitors, compared to those using mostly manual methods.
People are the main adoption barrier
The survey also identified that the primary challenges to pricing technology adoption are human-centered, rather than technical. The top barriers include:
- Resistance to change (35%).
- Perception that pricing is not strategic (34%).
The biggest operational pain points are:
- Inefficiency from manual processes (36%).
- Errors from manual management (35%).
While implementation challenges remain almost all (94%) respondents expect growth in 2025 and 59% report profit performance better than their competition.
Other findings
- The survey shows the frequency of pricing updates is accelerating, with 38% of companies executing six or more price updates in 2024, compared to 24% in 2023.
- While 39% of respondents have an established pricing council to oversee their pricing operations, only 25% have price performance analytics available to gauge effectiveness.
- People/mindset issues (28%) represent the largest source of pricing frustration for respondents.
- Top operational pain points include inefficiency from manual processes (36%) and errors from manual management (35%).
"Today’s businesses face a striking paradox: high confidence in pricing power alongside significant challenges in price realization," said Pascal Yammine, CEO of Zilliant. "This disconnect signals that organizations must evolve beyond manual approaches and siloes to embracing pricing technologies that enable strategic advantage, sustainable profitability and competitive differentiation. As we still struggle with the aftershocks of supply chain disruptions, inflation and now tariff uncertainty, resolving this paradox is more crucial than ever."
[READ MORE: Appeals court reinstates Trump tariffs after brief pause]
The research was conducted among 550 pricing professionals, including pricing managers or leads, directors/heads of pricing, VPs of pricing and pricing analysts/specialists across diverse industries. Organizations of various sizes were included.
