Margins are under pressure from every direction. Manufacturers and distributors are facing economic uncertainty, volatile supply chains, and increasingly price-sensitive customers. Pricing teams are being asked to do more with less, yet most are still managing it all with the same tool they’ve used for decades: the spreadsheet.
According to the 2025 Pricing, Selling, and Profit Optimization Report from Vendavo and Copperberg, 85% of manufacturers and distributors still rely on spreadsheets for pricing decisions, including more than half of companies that claim to have “fully automated” systems in place.
It’s no wonder progress feels stuck.
The Digital Pacifier of Pricing Teams
Spreadsheets have become the “digital pacifier” of pricing teams. They’re comforting, familiar, but ultimately limiting. They fill the gap when tools don’t talk to each other or when end users don’t fully trust new systems.
But that comfort comes at a cost. Every copy-and-paste, every version saved to a shared drive, every offline tweak creates margin risk. Spreadsheets lack governance, auditability, and transparency, which are the essential ingredients of strategic pricing. They make it nearly impossible to see the big picture when teams are patching together siloed data just to get through the week.
The problem with spreadsheets is they interrupt the flow of data, decisions, and accountability. AI can help by giving teams the answers they need, right in the system. But that only works if it’s thoughtfully designed, not just automated.” – Kalle Aerikkala, Business Consultant at Vendavo
Partial Automation Isn’t Progress
Automation has become a buzzword in pricing, but the data tells a more sobering story. While 60% of surveyed companies report some level of automation, only 14% have fully scalable, modern pricing systems.
That leaves the majority stuck in what the report calls the “in-between” state, where a CPQ tool has been added, but processes haven’t changed. Where a workflow engine exists, but it isn’t embedded in how pricing decisions are actually made.
This is where transformation stalls out.
When automation isn’t built around the people who use it, teams default to manual work. When systems don’t align with pricing governance or sales processes, adoption falters. And when leadership sees automation as a software project instead of an operational shift, ROI becomes elusive.
Modernization is not just technical. It’s organizational. It requires capability building, cross-functional trust, and a mindset shift from “we installed a tool” to “we changed how we price.”
Dynamic Pricing: The Measurable Payoff
Despite these roadblocks, early adopters are proving that modernization works. Among companies that have implemented dynamic pricing, 83% report measurable improvements in accuracy, profitability, or both.
That’s not a marginal gain. That’s a competitive edge.
Dynamic pricing allows organizations to adjust prices in real time based on market conditions, demand patterns, and customer segments. What used to feel “too advanced for B2B” is now helping manufacturers and distributors accelerate deal velocity and protect margins in highly competitive environments.
It’s also a smart first step for companies just starting their pricing transformation journey. Dynamic pricing initiatives can deliver visible ROI fast (often within a single business cycle), and build momentum for larger modernization projects.
AI in Pricing: From Hype to Explainable Insight
Artificial intelligence is often viewed as a silver bullet, but in pricing, success comes down to trust. Only 13% of companies in the survey have deployed AI within pricing workflows, yet interest is growing fast.
Still, AI adoption brings understandable skepticism. How do you explain a machine-generated price recommendation to a skeptical sales leader or worse, to a customer? Transparency matters.
That’s why the report highlights the rise of explainable AI, which focuses on clarity and interpretability rather than black-box automation. Explainable AI helps pricing teams:
- Identify margin leakage
- Detect discounting trends
- Model price sensitivity with confidence
- Justify pricing decisions internally and externally
It’s not about replacing human judgment; it’s about augmenting it.
AI won’t fix a broken pricing strategy. You still need to stay close to your customers, pay attention to what drives their behavior, and adjust in real time. Automation helps, but insight still requires human judgment.” – Israel Rodrigo, Business Consultant at Vendavo
Building the Foundation for Scalable Pricing
So how do you move from spreadsheet survival mode to scalable, modern pricing infrastructure? The 2025 Pricing, Selling, and Profit Optimization Report offers five essential actions for leaders ready to modernize:
1. Shift the mindset, not just the software
Spreadsheets can’t support governance or agility. Success starts with systems your team trusts, ones that feel intuitive and empower smarter decision-making.
2. Start dynamic pricing where it counts
Target high-variance or high-volume areas first. Quick wins build internal confidence and prove the business case for broader transformation.
3. Build automation as infrastructure, not an add-on
Partial fixes won’t fix anything. Automation should be embedded into workflows, not bolted on as a patch.
4. Use AI with purpose and transparency
Leverage explainable AI to uncover insights, reduce risk, and strengthen pricing discipline, especially in regulated or relationship-driven markets.
5. Invest in people as much as platforms
Technology is only as powerful as the teams behind it. Train users, clarify roles, and communicate wins to maintain momentum.
The Cost of Standing Still
The gap between manual and modernized pricing isn’t just operational. It’s strategic. Every day spent managing prices in spreadsheets is a day lost to faster, data-driven competitors.
In the next 12–24 months, the leaders in pricing won’t be those with the most sophisticated algorithms. They’ll be the ones who aligned people, process, and technology into a single, trusted system.
Modernization doesn’t mean abandoning human expertise. It means giving teams the tools to make better decisions, faster and without sacrificing control or confidence.
Ready to Build a Scalable Pricing Future?
Spreadsheets may have gotten you this far, but they can’t take you where pricing is headed. The next generation of pricing leaders will be those who automate strategically, embrace explainable AI, and treat infrastructure as the foundation for profitable growth.
If your organization is ready to move beyond spreadsheets, now is the time to modernize.
Read the full 2025 Pricing, Selling, and Profit Optimization Report to see how leading manufacturers and distributors are turning pricing into a driver of commercial success.