What Effective Pricers Do Differently and What It Means for Your Operation
Most distributors have a pricing approach. Far fewer have a pricing system.
In this report based on the DSG Best Practice Webinar, pricing expert Lee Nyari, Managing Partner of The Innovative Pricing Group, joins DSG’s Jonathan Bein, Ph.D., to examine what separates distributors who rate their pricing as effective from those who don’t. Drawing on a 2026 survey of 128 distributor respondents, the research reveals a stark divide between distributors who treat pricing as a strategic system and those who treat it as a back-office function and identifies exactly what the effective ones do differently.
Key insights include:
- Why effective distributors diversify their pricing logic across cost-plus, value-based, list-discount, and elasticity-based methods — matching the approach to the selling situation rather than applying one method across the board
- How value-added services and technical expertise — not customer service or on-time delivery — are the primary drivers of pricing power in distribution
- Why 36% of distributors still lack any structured segmentation, and how the three pricing personas — Advanced Modeler, Structured Pricer, and Reactive Pricer — map to very different performance outcomes
- How effective distributors use KPIs such as price realization and override rates at the product, customer, and price-segment level — not just by sales rep
- Why 30% of effective distributors are already using or building AI pricing capabilities, while no ineffective distributor reported any AI use
- How non-price value capture strategies — from order consolidation to documented value reporting — allow distributors to protect margin without relying solely on price increases
The report provides a practical framework for distribution executives ready to evaluate where their pricing operation stands and what it would take to move to the next level.
For leaders who want to understand not just what effective pricers do — but why it works — this is the benchmark to measure yourself against.