Most companies treat pricing like a reactive tool, adjusting numbers when markets shift without understanding the bigger picture. This approach leaves businesses vulnerable to uncertainty and competition. Daniela Leon Cornejo, founder of Value of Insights, the first global consulting firm specialized in pricing for the financial industry, sees things differently. After 16 years leading pricing and analytics across banks and service companies, she believes pricing should be your strategic steering wheel.
Your Pricing Strategy Is Your Business Strategy
Here’s what most financial companies get wrong about pricing. They treat it like a quick fix instead of the thing that actually drives their business forward. Daniela has seen this play out countless times during her career leading pricing and analytics teams. “In complex markets, pricing is not a lever, it’s your steering wheel,” she says, and that difference matters more than you might think. The companies that get pricing right don’t just survive market chaos. They use it to pull ahead of competitors who are still trying to figure out what happened. But that only works when you understand what pricing actually does for your business.
Stop Reacting, Start Leading
When markets shift, most companies panic and start changing prices without thinking it through. It’s the business equivalent of yanking the steering wheel when you hit a bump. Daniela has seen this reaction destroy more value than it creates. “When market shifts, most companies respond with pricing tweaks, reactive moves, but leaders drive pricing with clarity of direction, not reaction,” she explains.
Take her work with Peru’s largest bank. Instead of jumping straight into price changes, they stepped back and asked harder questions about what they were trying to accomplish. “We didn’t start by changing prices. We aligned our pricing strategy to our customer value proposition and commercial goals. That gave us control to anticipate, act, and win,” Daniela recalls. The difference was night and day. She puts it simply: “Is your pricing strategy clearly tied to your business strategy? Or is it just a list of price points?” Most companies can’t answer that question honestly.
Build Something That Lasts
Too many businesses treat pricing like a one-time project. They bring in consultants, crunch some numbers, adjust a few prices, then call it done. That approach falls apart the moment market conditions change again. “Strategic pricing isn’t a task, it’s a capability. A mix of teams, tools, analytics, and vision,” Daniela points out. At Value of Insights, she uses the STAR framework to help clients build pricing systems that actually stick around. The goal isn’t just solving today’s problems but creating something that works no matter what tomorrow brings. “Excel is not a strategy, and AI without context won’t drive impact. Your pricing capability must be repeatable, adaptable, and fully connected with the business,” she says.
Turn Chaos Into Opportunity
Market complexity scares most business leaders. They see volatility, regulatory changes, and shifting consumer behavior as problems to survive rather than opportunities to exploit. Daniela sees things differently. “Markets today are complex. Volatility, regulation, effects, shifts, changing consumer behavior. But while most react with caution, you can act with intent. Complexity creates opportunity for those who can master it,” she explains. Her work with financial institutions proves this point. While competitors struggle with uncertainty, her clients build pricing systems that turn complexity into competitive advantage. “Great pricing isn’t about simplifying reality. It’s about making it actionable,” she notes. The companies that figure this out don’t just survive difficult markets. They dominate them.
Technical skills won’t get you far if nobody in your organization cares about pricing. The best pricing models in the world don’t matter if they end up ignored in some back-office spreadsheet. “Influence doesn’t come just from technical skills. It comes from telling the right story,” Daniela says. The way you frame pricing determines whether people pay attention or tune out. Frame it as cost-cutting, and everyone runs away. Frame it as growth and competitive advantage, and suddenly people want to be involved. But you need wins to back up the story. “To get traction, you need a project that is ambitious, but also achievable. Something that earns buy-in, that rallies the organization, that says, this is how we win. That’s how pricing becomes a mission, not a silo,” she explains.
Her final point ties it all together: “Leadership is about helping people believe. In pricing, that starts with vision, but also with momentum.” You can’t just talk about better pricing. You have to prove it works, then use that proof to build something bigger.
Connect with Daniela Leon Cornejo on LinkedIn to explore smarter pricing strategies.
