How the analysis works

How the analysis works.

Follow one development from the evidence to a suggested response. The example comes from a software market; the steps are the same whichever companies you follow. This page takes a single entry apart to show the reasoning behind it. A weekly brief brings several developments together; read the full sample brief to see one from beginning to end.

Read the example brief

The entry, simplified

Keep enterprise pricing unchanged.

What changed

SaaS Company B has reduced the published price of its entry-level plan. That plan excludes single sign-on, audit logs and centralised user administration. Its enterprise pricing is unchanged.

Why it matters

The plan’s scope matters more than the headline discount. A lower entry price does not establish a cheaper alternative for customers who need enterprise controls. Competition for smaller teams remains a separate question.

What to do next

Ask Sales to compare features and total costs for smaller-team prospects before proposing a targeted offer.

Explanation: not part of the emailed brief

How the analysis reached this entry.

1Observed development

Start with what the source reports, and nothing more.

SaaS Company B has reduced the published price of its entry-level plan. That plan excludes single sign-on, audit logs and centralised user administration. Its enterprise pricing is unchanged.
2Relevant business context

Bring in what the business has told Clarveni: who it sells to, how it positions itself and what it is working towards.

SaaS Company A is prioritising enterprise customers who require single sign-on, audit logs and centralised user administration.
3Important distinction

Find the detail that decides whether the development matters to this business.

The cheaper plan leaves out single sign-on, audit logs and centralised user administration: the controls Company A’s enterprise customers require.
4Implication

Say what follows for this business, and where that conclusion stops.

For those customers, the lower price is not a like-for-like alternative, so there is no case for cutting enterprise prices. Whether smaller teams now compare the two offers is a separate question.
5Uncertainty

Say plainly what still needs checking.

We don’t yet know whether the discount is affecting sales or how the plans compare on total cost. The impact on sales and margins is unknown.
6Suggested response

Suggest a next step your team can judge, and say what would change the view.

Hold course. Review entry-level competition separately. Hold means the evidence does not justify changing the present approach. The entry explains why.

Ask Sales to compare features and total costs for smaller-team prospects before proposing a targeted offer.

Revisit the view if

The rival extends the discount to its enterprise plan, includes the required controls in its entry-level plan, or the commercial team confirms that priority sales opportunities are affected.

Not a rewritten source

The source reports a price cut. The conclusion comes from the business context.

The source says one thing: Company B has cut the published price of its entry-level plan. It says nothing about Company A. A summary of that source would stop there.

The entry goes further because it reads that fact against what Company A has told Clarveni about its business: who it sells to, what those customers need and what it is working towards. A business competing for small teams on price could read the same announcement and reach the opposite conclusion.

The entry also keeps the source’s claim separate from the conclusion drawn from it, and says what the evidence does not show.

What this example demonstrates

A reason to hold course is still a useful conclusion.

The suggested response starts with the customers this business wants to serve. A lower entry price changes little for buyers who need enterprise controls, so there is no reason to change enterprise pricing. For smaller teams, a closer comparison is worth doing.

In the delivered email, the response is written in plain words under What to do next. The ‘Hold course’ label above is an explanation for this page, not part of the brief.

In a weekly brief

One entry among the week’s main developments.

A weekly brief opens with the big picture, then takes the main developments one at a time. Each says what changed, why it matters to your business and what to do next, and links to its sources in Clarveni.

Read the example brief How Clarveni checks evidence