THE CHALLENGE
Management decision
Indian prospects liked the product, but European pricing became difficult after freight, duty, service and channel economics.
CONSTRAINTS
What made the decision difficult
- Low-volume/high-ticket sales
- Long commissioning and service cycle
- Uncertain willingness-to-pay
- Margin could disappear after channel and landed costs
TIMELINE
8–10 weeks
Staged so management can stop, modify or increase commitment as evidence improves.
EXPECTED JOURNEY
Evidence → decision → execution
Diagnose uncertainty, validate it in India, make an explicit investment gate, then execute the approved next stage.
Solution design
- Validate HS/duty assumptions
- Build landed-cost waterfall
- Benchmark alternatives and customer economics
- Test price corridor with buyers
- Compare distributor vs direct/service models
- Define localization triggers
KPIs
Gross contribution per unit
Landed-cost variance
Price acceptance rate
Channel margin
Service cost per installation
Working-capital days
End execution plan
- Weeks 1–2: cost and classification baseline
- Weeks 3–5: buyer economics and price tests
- Weeks 6–8: route-to-market scenarios
- Weeks 9–10: decision gate and commercial playbook
- 90-day execution: quotes, negotiation guardrails and service model pilot
Government / regulatory / legal
- Customs valuation and tariff classification validation
- GST and permanent-establishment/tax considerations reviewed
- Import documentation and equipment standards screened
- Commercial contracts and limitation-of-liability reviewed
Control: applicability must be confirmed for the actual product, activity, entity, state and transaction by the appropriate qualified specialist/authority.
END RESULT
Decision state
A price architecture and route-to-market that management can approve or reject on economics
IMPACT
Why it matters
Prevents revenue growth that destroys margin.