{"id":683,"date":"2024-12-31T21:32:57","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T21:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/?post_type=insight&p=683"},"modified":"2026-04-09T01:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T01:45:11","slug":"taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates","status":"publish","type":"insight","link":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/insights\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\/","title":{"rendered":"041: Taking Price Seriously in Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) Mandates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using pricing as a lever is massively powerful, yet pricing is an often overlooked and underappreciated part of diligence.<\/p>\n\n

Several years back, one of the large corporate finance consultancies did some modeling using income statements from the top 1000 firms \u2013 they found that a 1% increase in average price with an \u201cinelastic\u201d customer base (i.e., no resulting change in demand) resulted in a 10% increase in operating profits. In my experience, most analysts react to this finding one of two ways: either they shrug and say,\u00a0\u201cyes but\u2026in a vacuum\u2026and there\u2019s never NOT a change in demand,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0or they are shocked but frankly intimidated by the promised impact. Price is a complex topic, and because making relatively small changes to price can have substantial impacts on outcomes (pricing has an amplifying effect), investors have historically been hesitant to really address pricing in the diligence window. Instead, price has been relegated to one of many \u201ckey purchasing criteria\u201d (or \u201ckey buying factors\u201d) \u2013 considered coequal with customer support, product quality, and other considerations \u2013 but unlike price, a typical company cannot adjust 1% of product quality and return a 10% increase in profit. So, detailed attention to price pays off, but how much can you afford to add to your plate in an already compressed diligence window?<\/p>\n\n

The short answer is more than you think \u2013 by adding just an extra couple layers of granularity to some already common questions.<\/p><\/div>\n\n

\n\n

Here are our four key builds for your customer interviews:<\/span><\/h2>\n\n
    \n
  1. Reserve price for later in your interviews:<\/strong>\u00a0The vast majority of interviewees\u00a0feel<\/em>\u00a0that pricing specifics are confidential when they\u2019re not, and they require \u201cwarming up\u201d first \u2013 two-thirds of the way into a cordial conversation is a great time to introduce the topic<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Get very specific in your pricing definitions \u2013 focus on granularity.<\/strong>\u00a0What does \u201ccompetitive price\u201d really mean for the target company? Is it plus or minus 2%? 5%? 10%? You would be amazed how often we discover from customers that competitive pricing is plus or minus 10% of the target company\u2019s current pricing, which is a massive opportunity for value creation. If an interviewee is hesitant or vague on detail, you can prompt\u00a0\u201cI just heard someone tell me they\u2019d switch for 1%,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>and let the person correct you (\u201cno way, no one [i.e., I don\u2019t]<\/em>\u00a0cares about 1%, but definitely can\u2019t be more than 5%\u201d<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Awkward silence can be your friend.<\/strong>\u00a0This is an old trick, but sometimes creating an awkward silence can give an invitation to interviewees to go deeper, and lets the customer give more explanation and anecdotes for finer precision<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Look for signs of thresholds or pending price pressure.<\/strong>\u00a0Customer behavior is not elastic or inelastic\u00a0overall<\/em>. Is the target company\u00a0in a window<\/em>\u00a0in which there is relative inelasticity of demand, and can they afford to move price without having too much volume decay? Sometimes price reaches a point where that threshold is going to start leaning against them. Signs to notice: customers describing or forecasting a change in the importance of price<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    In addition, aim to spend time with the Chief Revenue Officer or Chief Commercial Officer. Ask about the history of the target company\u2019s pricing approach as well as the quality of accounts, how they are contracted, and the quality of those relationships. Elevate questions around how price is negotiated and structured.<\/p>\n\n

    If you don\u2019t<\/em> spend enough time on pricing during diligence, you run the risk of making assumptions around pricing, missing an opportunity to have more confidence in a business than you would have otherwise had, and missing a chance to inform management of a pricing opportunity. Even the most sophisticated PE investors tend to look at price opportunistically, and it should be a fundamental consideration on every deal and part of every diligence mandate.<\/p>\n\n

    And finally, even if pricing doesn\u2019t prove an obvious lever in the diligence window, you may want to look at it as a long-term value gen driver (we describe these shifts as pricing journeys<\/a>). The extra time available in a hold window affords a lot more ability to examine the many levers of price.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Utiliser la tarification comme levier est extr\u00eamement puissant, pourtant la tarification est un aspect souvent n\u00e9glig\u00e9 et sous-estim\u00e9 de l'analyse pr\u00e9alable. Il y a quelques ann\u00e9es, l'un des grands cabinets de conseil en finance d'entreprise a\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":[82],"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"featured_image_background_position":"","promoted":true,"promoted-priority":0,"footnotes":""},"sector":[],"topic":[53,123,124,69,98,106,117,61,94,78,79,84],"audience":[],"insight-category":[141],"class_list":["post-683","insight","type-insight","status-publish","hentry","topic-best-practices","topic-bundling","topic-buying-power","topic-competition","topic-competitive-position","topic-customer-behavior","topic-customer-research","topic-drivers-of-choice","topic-investigative-research","topic-price","topic-price-sensitivity","topic-value-generation","insight-category-profit-pricing","author-jeff-merkle"],"yoast_head":"\n041: Taking Price Seriously in Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) Mandates - GRAPH Strategy LLC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/insights\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"041: Taking Price Seriously in Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) Mandates - GRAPH Strategy LLC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Using pricing as a lever is massively powerful, yet pricing is an often overlooked and underappreciated part of diligence. Several years back, one of the large corporate finance consultancies did …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/insights\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GRAPH Strategy LLC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-09T01:45:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MG-DEFAULT-IMAGE.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mattersgraph.com\\\/insights\\\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mattersgraph.com\\\/insights\\\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\\\/\",\"name\":\"041: Taking Price Seriously in Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) Mandates - GRAPH Strategy LLC\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mattersgraph.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-12-31T21:32:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-09T01:45:11+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mattersgraph.com\\\/insights\\\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/mattersgraph.com\\\/insights\\\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mattersgraph.com\\\/insights\\\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mattersgraph.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Insights\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mattersgraph.com\\\/insights\\\/all\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"041: Taking Price Seriously in Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) Mandates\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mattersgraph.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mattersgraph.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Matters Graph\",\"description\":\"Matters Graph is a specialist buy-side-focused consultancy that provides objective fact-based commercial due diligence and value gen support for private equity and private lender clients.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mattersgraph.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"041: Taking Price Seriously in Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) Mandates - GRAPH Strategy LLC","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/insights\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\/","og_locale":"fr_FR","og_type":"article","og_title":"041: Taking Price Seriously in Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) Mandates - GRAPH Strategy LLC","og_description":"Using pricing as a lever is massively powerful, yet pricing is an often overlooked and underappreciated part of diligence. Several years back, one of the large corporate finance consultancies did …","og_url":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/insights\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\/","og_site_name":"GRAPH Strategy LLC","article_modified_time":"2026-04-09T01:45:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2400,"height":1350,"url":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MG-DEFAULT-IMAGE.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/insights\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\/","url":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/insights\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\/","name":"041: Taking Price Seriously in Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) Mandates - GRAPH Strategy LLC","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-12-31T21:32:57+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-09T01:45:11+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/insights\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"fr-FR","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/insights\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/insights\/taking-price-seriously-in-commercial-due-diligence-cdd-mandates\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Insights","item":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/insights\/all\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"041: Taking Price Seriously in Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) Mandates"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/","name":"Graphique des mati\u00e8res","description":"Matters Graph is a specialist buy-side-focused consultancy that provides objective fact-based commercial due diligence and value gen support for private equity and private lender clients.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"fr-FR"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight\/683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/insight"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight\/683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1491,"href":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight\/683\/revisions\/1491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"sector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sector?post=683"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=683"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=683"},{"taxonomy":"insight-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight-category?post=683"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattersgraph.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author?post=683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}