How One Pricing Shift Clarified What We Actually Sell

I’ve been reflecting on a lesson that has followed me throughout my career — from the Fortune 300 boardroom to the entrepreneur’s office:

‍ Price matters. But value matters more.

Years ago, when I was a senior marketing executive at a Global Data Center firm, our senior leadership team flew in from Tokyo with a simple, urgent question:

“Why weren’t we moving colocation inventory in our New York and Los Angeles data centers — and why weren’t we moving it fast enough?”

For months, my team had done everything “right” by traditional standards. We ran promotional offers. Hosted events and conferences. Launched campaigns to convert prospects into customers.

Yet nothing was moving at the pace leadership expected.

The truth was clear to me, but ultimately the power to fix it sat with Headquarters.

The Hard Truth No One Wanted to Say Out Loud

The reality was that our pricing was approximately 30% higher than our competitors in these markets.

Thirty percent is not a rounding error. Thirty percent is enormous, especially when your facilities are not brand-new, purpose-built, or housing the same density of carriers and cloud on-ramps as competitors in markets like NYC, New Jersey and Los Angeles. The market was changing, there were more savvy competitors and we were losing ground.

Truthfully, you wouldn’t buy a car that costs 30% more unless it offered something truly different, truly superior. And while we did have something powerful — a global footprint spanning the U.S., EMEA, and APAC — we weren’t effectively positioning that value clearly or confidently in the marketplace, because we were not owning the branding the way we should have.

Data Changes Opinions — Not Ego

When I finally sat down with the senior team and laid out competitor pricing, services, and market realities, the conclusion was unavoidable:

We were simply not competitive — particularly in New York.

The data spoke for itself.

Of course, leadership still wanted to bring in an outside consulting firm to “validate” what was, frankly, common sense. (At a certain scale, someone always needs to cover themselves.)

But once pricing was adjusted and the global footprint was repositioned as a strategic advantage — not an afterthought — everything changed. Analysts perceived us differently, prospects and existing customers understood more clearly our value and the ease of procuring with one vendor for multiple data center sites and at a cost that was competitive.

What Happened When Price and Value Finally Aligned

Almost immediately:

• We attracted more sophisticated customers who understood the long-term value of a global platform

• We closed longer-term contracts with hyperscalers

• Locally, we gained SMB customers with global aspirations

• Regional buyers could finally access our services at market-appropriate rates

Price wasn’t the enemy. Misaligned value was.