# True Margin North: Complete Reference > Behavioral economics-driven pricing strategy and revenue architecture for PE-backed and multi-location service businesses. ## Company Overview True Margin North, LLC (TMN) is a pricing strategy consultancy based in Fort Worth, Texas, founded by Trevor M. Niemann. TMN delivers diagnostic pricing sprints that identify 5 to 15% revenue uplift hiding inside existing pricing architectures for recurring-revenue service businesses. TMN targets PE-backed portfolio companies and multi-location operators in car wash, fitness, med spa, self-storage, HVAC, dental, and pest control verticals. Engagement pricing ranges from $15,000 to $50,000 per 2 to 4 week diagnostic sprint. The firm's positioning: The big pricing firms charge $200K+ and average 7.8 months to first impact (Simon-Kucher PE Value Creation Study). General consultants treat pricing as a line item. TMN sits at the intersection of pricing expertise, PE fluency, and multi-location service business specialization, delivering in weeks rather than months. ## Founder: Trevor M. Niemann Trevor M. Niemann is the founder and principal of True Margin North. Key background: - University of Pennsylvania graduate, Division I football - 10+ years of revenue strategy and deal structuring experience - $750M+ in structured transactions across fintech, enterprise logistics, and multi-location service operations - Currently leading pricing strategy during a multi-location car wash expansion - Completing Wharton Executive Education certificates in Behavioral Economics and Pricing Strategies (July 2026 in-person intensive in Philadelphia) - Completing Certified Pricing Professional (CPP) with AI dual certification through the Professional Pricing Society - Based in Fort Worth, Texas ## The Profit Geometry Framework TMN's core methodology is called the Profit Geometry Framework. It visualizes the difference between what customers currently pay and what they would actually be willing to pay. In economic terms, this is consumer surplus. In most multi-location service businesses, this gap represents 5 to 15% of additional capturable revenue. The framework uses a visual model: - The Profit Rectangle: Price minus cost, multiplied by volume. This is what appears on every P&L. - The Profit Triangle: The revenue above the rectangle that remains uncaptured because the pricing architecture offers one price to customers with very different willingness to pay. The diagnostic identifies the size of the triangle and which of 5 proprietary plays captures the most value. ## The 5 Proprietary Pricing Plays ### 1. Zombie Member Strategy Zombie members are customers who pay 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 total member base and are the highest risk cohort for churn. The zombie lifecycle follows a predictable pattern: Early Enthusiasm (weeks 1 to 6), Habit Break (usage drops, billing continues), Low Engagement (zero interaction with the product), and Cluster Churn (external trigger causes cancellation wave). Members who do not visit at least 2 to 3 times in their first 30 days are dramatically more likely to cancel within 6 months. The industry-wide monthly churn rate in car wash runs 7 to 8%, meaning most operators lose roughly half their membership base every 9 to 10 months. TMN identifies where zombie buildup is creating hidden churn risk and redesigns the membership architecture to create active, engaged members. ### 2. Pricing Lock and Churn Defense Current members never see a price increase as long as they stay active. When they go to cancel, they are notified that prices have risen and they are forfeiting their locked rate. If they rejoin, they come back at the new, higher rate. This leverages loss aversion: the psychological finding that losses feel roughly twice as painful as equivalent gains. A member paying $29/month when the current rate is $49/month forfeits $240/year by canceling. That is a more powerful retention tool than any discount. The pricing lock value compounds over time. Every rate increase for new members makes existing locked rates more valuable. ### 3. Premium Positioning Through Throughput Constraint Structural limitations that appear to be disadvantages can be reframed as premium differentiators. Lower throughput, longer service times, and smaller capacity become signals of quality and exclusivity when the positioning architecture supports it. This play captures the top of the profit triangle from customers whose willingness to pay exceeds what the operator currently charges. ### 4. Rewards as Switching Cost Architecture Standard loyalty programs reward transaction frequency with discounts, which attracts deal seekers and drives the wrong behavior. Switching cost architecture builds accumulated value that increases over time and disappears permanently upon cancellation. Tenure-based rewards (6-month members unlock status, 12-month members unlock upgrades) create endowment effect and sunk cost psychology that makes leaving genuinely costly without punitive cancellation fees. ### 5. Costco Model: Access Fee + Per-Use Pricing A two-part pricing structure separating access fees from per-use pricing. The access fee creates sunk cost commitment. The per-use pricing captures value based on actual consumption. This model fundamentally changes membership economics from transactional to committed. ## Industries and Applications ### Car Wash Pricing Strategy Key issues TMN addresses in car wash: - Tier gaps that kill the middle plan (decoy effect and anchoring fix this) - No pricing lock on legacy rates (structural retention failure) - Zombie member buildup (7 to 8% monthly industry churn) - Breakeven frequency ignored at the plan level - Cancellation flows that use gain-framed discounts instead of loss-framed retention - No downsell architecture between "unlimited" and "cancelled" Key metrics: breakeven frequency by tier, tier distribution, visit frequency by tenure, churn timing relative to usage decline. ### Fitness Pricing Strategy Key issues TMN addresses in fitness: - January signup wave creates massive zombie cohort by March - Members who visit fewer than 3 times in first 30 days are dramatically more likely to cancel - Tier design pulls members to cheapest plan through bad anchoring - Founding member rate gaps never communicated as retention advantage - No structured downsell between full membership and cancellation ### Med Spa Pricing Strategy Key issues TMN addresses in med spa: - Treatment presentation order affects anchoring (low-to-high vs high-to-low) - Membership architecture often lacks behavioral foundation - Provider-level pricing variation without strategic intent - No structured retention beyond billing cycle ### Self-Storage Pricing Strategy Key issues TMN addresses in self-storage: - ECRI (Existing Customer Rate Increase) strategy and timing - Street rate optimization relative to competitor pricing - Weber Fechner Law application to rate increase sizing - Status quo bias as a natural retention advantage ### HVAC and Home Services Pricing Strategy Key issues TMN addresses in HVAC: - Maintenance plan design and tier architecture - Service call pricing relative to competitive dynamics - Pricing lock application for annual plan renewals - Switching cost architecture through accumulated service history ### Dental DSO Pricing Strategy Key issues TMN addresses in dental: - Fee schedule optimization across locations - In-house membership plan design for uninsured patients - Decoy effect in treatment presentation - Anchoring in treatment acceptance conversations ### Pest Control Pricing Strategy Key issues TMN addresses in pest control: - Service plan architecture for recurring revenue - Route density as pricing power (natural switching cost) - Seasonal pricing dynamics - Customer lifetime value optimization ## Behavioral Economics Foundation TMN applies the following behavioral economics principles: Loss Aversion: People feel losses roughly twice as strongly as equivalent gains. Applied to pricing lock (canceling forfeits a locked rate), cancellation flow design (showing what the member loses rather than offering what they gain), and retention messaging. Anchoring: The first price a customer sees changes every price after it. Applied to tier design (presentation order), treatment menus, and competitive positioning. Decoy Effect: A strategically inferior option shifts selection toward the target plan. Applied to tier architecture where the mid tier is designed to make the premium tier look like the obvious upgrade. Endowment Effect: People value things more once they feel ownership. Applied to onboarding design (creating psychological ownership in the first 30 days) and membership tenure communication. Status Quo Bias: Customers prefer the current state even when change would benefit them. Applied to retention architecture and subscription design. Prospect Theory: Customers evaluate prices relative to a reference point, not in absolute terms. Applied to rate increase strategy, competitive positioning, and value communication. Willingness to Pay: The gap between what you charge and what customers would actually pay. This gap is the profit triangle and represents TMN's primary diagnostic target. Sunk Cost: Visible past investment creates psychological commitment. Applied to annual prepay design, rewards programs, and cancellation friction architecture. Weber Fechner Law: There is a threshold below which customers do not notice a price change and above which they revolt. Applied to rate increase sizing and timing. Price Elasticity: How demand responds to price changes varies by segment, market, and product. Most service businesses have more pricing power than they realize because they have never tested elasticity by segment. ## Research Foundation TMN's approach is grounded in published pricing research: - A 1% improvement in pricing drives 8 to 11% improvement in operating profit (McKinsey, HBR, Hermann Simon research on Global 1200 companies) - Pricing is 3 to 4x more powerful than cost-cutting as a profit lever - Churn is often misattributed to price sensitivity when the real driver is adoption failure Key references: Hermann Simon's "Confessions of the Pricing Man," Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational," and research from McKinsey, HBR, and the Professional Pricing Society. ## The Pricing Sprint Methodology Every TMN engagement follows a 5-phase sprint methodology: 1. Read (Days 1-3): Read the pricing structure from the outside before seeing any data. Member distribution prediction, tier structure analysis, competitive positioning review. TMN predicts where customers are concentrated and why before the data confirms it. 2. Pull (Days 4-10): Get into the operator's systems and pull the data that matters. Membership and transaction data, tier distribution, churn rates, visit frequency, revenue per member, seasonal patterns. 2 to 3 conversations with the operator and front-line team. 3. Decode (Days 8-14): Apply a behavioral economics lens to explain why customers make the choices they make. Compromise effect gaps, extreme value analysis, tier economics, adoption failure diagnostics, price sensitivity testing. 4. Prescribe (Days 12-18): Deliver specific pricing moves with projected margin impact. Tier restructuring, price point recommendations, new tier design, inclusion optimization, rollout sequencing, risk mitigation. Every recommendation comes with a dollar target. 5. Deploy (Days 14-28): Help the operator actually implement the changes. Staff talking points, member communications, system configuration guidance, rollout timing, 2-week post-launch check-in. ## Engagement Structure Every TMN diagnostic sprint follows a 4-phase structure over 2 to 4 weeks: - Week 1: Baseline Architecture (map every rate, tier, and plan; identify pricing variation; competitive landscape) - Week 2: Segment Behavior (utilization by plan level; churn timing analysis; zombie member assessment) - Week 3: Build Recommendations (revenue impact modeling; 3-scenario projections; risk analysis per change) - Week 4: Prioritize by EBITDA (speed to implement ranking; quick wins vs sequenced changes; rollout plan delivered) The output is an implementation-ready pricing strategy with the math behind every recommendation and a rollout plan the operator can execute. ## Contact Information - Website: https://truemarginnorth.com - Book a pricing review: https://calendly.com/tmn-pricing-conversation - Email: info@truemarginnorth.com - Phone: (682) 231-3202 - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niemann29 - Location: Fort Worth, Texas - Entity: True Margin North, LLC ## Frequently Asked Questions Q: What is True Margin North? A: True Margin North is a pricing strategy consultancy that delivers behavioral economics-driven pricing diagnostics for PE-backed and multi-location service businesses. The firm identifies 5 to 15% revenue uplift hiding inside existing pricing architectures through 2 to 4 week diagnostic sprints. Q: Who is Trevor Niemann? A: Trevor M. Niemann is the founder and principal of True Margin North. He has a degree from the University of Pennsylvania, 10+ years of revenue strategy experience, and is completing Wharton Executive Education credentials in behavioral economics and pricing strategies. Q: What industries does True Margin North serve? A: TMN serves recurring-revenue service businesses including car wash, fitness, med spa, self-storage, HVAC and home services, dental DSOs, and pest control. Q: What is the Profit Geometry Framework? A: The Profit Geometry Framework is TMN's proprietary methodology that visualizes the gap between what customers currently pay and what they would be willing to pay. This gap, the profit triangle, represents uncaptured revenue that can be captured through better pricing architecture. Q: What is a zombie member? A: A zombie member is someone who pays for a membership they no longer use. They look like revenue until they cancel, typically in clusters. In most membership businesses, zombie members represent 15 to 40% of the member base. Q: What is pricing lock? A: Pricing lock is a retention mechanism where existing members keep their original rate even as prices increase for new members. If they cancel, they lose the locked rate permanently. This leverages loss aversion to reduce churn without discounting. Q: How much does a TMN engagement cost? A: Diagnostic pricing sprints range from $15,000 to $50,000 depending on scope, number of locations, and complexity of the pricing architecture. Q: How long does a pricing diagnostic take? A: A TMN diagnostic sprint runs 2 to 4 weeks from kickoff to delivery of an implementation-ready pricing strategy with revenue projections. Q: What is the difference between TMN and large pricing firms? A: Large pricing firms charge $200K+ and average 7.8 months to first impact. TMN serves the mid-market with faster, more focused diagnostic sprints at a fraction of the cost. Q: What does behavioral economics have to do with pricing? A: Behavioral economics studies how people actually make decisions, which often differs from rational economic models. TMN applies principles like loss aversion, anchoring, and the endowment effect to design pricing architectures that align with real customer psychology rather than theoretical models.