Frequently Asked Questions

A pricing diagnostic is a structured 2 to 4 week engagement that examines your current pricing architecture and identifies specific revenue opportunities. It includes pricing structure analysis, customer segmentation by behavior, behavioral economics application, retention and churn analysis, an implementation roadmap, and revenue impact projections with conservative, moderate, and aggressive scenarios. The deliverable is not a report. It is an implementation ready pricing strategy with the math behind every recommendation.

Large pricing firms charge $200K+ and their engagements average 7 to 8 months to first impact. They serve enterprise accounts and Fortune 500 companies. True Margin North serves the mid market that falls between the cracks: PE backed portfolio companies and multi-location operators with 5 to 200+ locations. The engagement is a 2 to 4 week sprint, not a multi month project. And every recommendation is pressure tested against your operations before it is delivered.

True Margin North works with recurring revenue service businesses: car wash, fitness, med spa, self storage, HVAC and home services, dental DSOs, and pest control. The common thread is membership or subscription pricing architecture where behavioral economics, tier design, and retention strategy drive measurable EBITDA improvement.

Diagnostic pricing sprints range from $15,000 to $50,000 depending on the scope, number of locations, and complexity of the pricing architecture. The engagement is designed to pay for itself within the first quarter of implementation through the revenue uplift it identifies.

A 30 minute pricing review conversation is the first step. If there is a pricing opportunity worth pursuing, the diagnostic requires access to membership or customer data including plan distribution, visit frequency, churn rates, and pricing history. It also requires competitive context and time with your operations team. The less data you have, the more the diagnostic relies on behavioral analysis and competitive positioning. Either way, the output is actionable.

The pricing review is a no cost conversation where we pressure test your current pricing structure and identify whether there is a pricing opportunity worth pursuing. You walk away with 1 to 3 specific observations about your pricing architecture and a clear sense of whether a full diagnostic engagement would deliver ROI. If there is no opportunity, I will tell you. Book a pricing review.

TMN is built for multi-location operators and PE backed portfolio companies where pricing changes scale across multiple sites. Single location businesses can benefit from pricing optimization, but the ROI on a diagnostic engagement is strongest when the recommendations apply across 5 or more locations.

At minimum, once every 12 months. More often if the business is adding locations, changing tier structure, seeing churn shifts, or operating in markets with different competitive conditions. The businesses that treat pricing as a living system rather than a set it and forget it decision consistently outperform the ones that only revisit pricing when something breaks.

There is no universal answer because healthy churn depends on category, pricing model, tenure mix, and member usage behavior. A 5% monthly churn rate might be fine in one vertical and catastrophic in another. The more important question is whether churn is driven by true price sensitivity, low engagement, or weak retention architecture. The cause of churn matters more than the number itself.

Pricing strategy defines structure, positioning, and willingness to pay capture. Revenue management focuses on optimizing yield within the operating model. Think of pricing strategy as the architecture and revenue management as the operations inside it. Strong businesses usually need both, but structure comes first.

You do not eliminate churn risk from a price increase. You reduce it by sequencing changes correctly, protecting legacy rates where appropriate through pricing lock, using better tier structure so the increase lands on the right plan, and communicating changes in a way that preserves perceived value. The operators who get hurt by price increases are the ones who raise rates across the board with no segmentation and no retention architecture in place.

Pricing lock is a retention tool that makes an existing rate more valuable over time by increasing the economic cost of cancelling and rejoining later. If a member joined at $29/month and current rates are $39/month, that member has a $120/year advantage just by staying. That gap is a loss framed retention mechanism, and it is more powerful than any discount or free month offer.

It is the share of members whose usage has fallen below a healthy threshold, creating delayed churn risk that is still being counted as recurring revenue. In most membership businesses, this number is between 15 and 40% of the total member base. Tracking this metric over time is one of the strongest leading indicators of a churn wave. Learn more about the Zombie Member Strategy.

Usually more than they think. The issue is not whether pricing power exists. It is whether the business has identified where it exists, which customers value what, and how to structure the offer without damaging retention. A car wash, gym, or med spa with strong brand, good location, and differentiated experience almost always has room to price higher than they think, especially at the premium tier.

Behavioral economics studies how people actually make decisions, not how economic theory says they should. In pricing, it explains why customers react to a $5 increase on a $25 plan differently than a $5 increase on a $50 plan (Weber Fechner Law), why losing a locked in rate feels worse than gaining a discount of the same amount (loss aversion), and why the order in which prices are presented changes which one customers choose (anchoring). TMN applies these principles to every pricing recommendation. See the full glossary.

A zombie member is someone who pays for a membership they no longer use. They look like revenue until they cancel. In most membership businesses, zombie members represent 15 to 40% of the member base and are the highest risk cohort for churn. The Zombie Member Strategy is one of 5 proprietary pricing plays in the TMN diagnostic methodology.