Competitive Pricing Intel Agent Skill

Competitive Pricing Intel

Track competitor pricing pages over time. Detect when they change plans, shift feature gating, adjust pricing models, or introduce new tiers. The output is a living pricing comparison matrix plus alerts when something changes.

Core principle: Pricing is the most under-monitored competitive signal. Most teams only check competitor pricing when they're about to change their own. This skill makes it continuous.

When to Use

• "What are our competitors charging?"
• "Has [competitor] changed their pricing recently?"
• "Build a pricing comparison matrix"
• "Monitor competitor pricing for changes"
• "We're rethinking our pricing — show me the competitive landscape"

Phase 0: Intake

• Your product name + pricing page URL
• Competitors to track — Names + pricing page URLs (2-5 recommended)
• Your pricing model — How do you charge? (per seat, usage, flat, freemium, etc.)
• Key comparison dimensions — What matters to your buyer? (price per seat, included features, limits, support tiers)
• First run or recurring?
• First run: Full baseline capture + historical analysis
• Recurring: Compare against last snapshot

Phase 1: Current Pricing Capture

1A: Live Scrape

For each competitor's pricing page:

Fetch: [competitor pricing URL]

Extract:

• Plan names and prices — Every tier with monthly and annual pricing
• Feature matrix — What's included in each tier?
• Limits — Usage caps, seat limits, storage, API calls
• Add-ons — What costs extra beyond base plans?
• Enterprise tier — "Contact us" or listed price? What's gated behind sales?
• Free tier / trial — What's available without paying?
• Pricing model — Per seat / per user / usage-based / flat / hybrid

1B: Web Archive Historical Check

Search for past versions of their pricing page:

Search: "web.archive.org" "[competitor pricing URL]"
Fetch: web.archive.org/web/*/[competitor pricing URL]

Look for the last 2-3 snapshots to detect:

• Price increases/decreases
• Plan restructuring (new tiers added, tiers removed)
• Feature gating changes (features moved between tiers)
• Model shifts (e.g., moved from per-seat to usage-based)
• Free tier changes (expanded or restricted)

1C: Pricing Announcement Research

Search: "[competitor]" pricing change OR "new pricing" OR "updated plans"
Search: "[competitor]" blog pricing OR announcement plans
Search: "[competitor]" site:reddit.com pricing OR "price increase"

Capture any public announcements or community reactions to pricing changes.

Phase 2: Pricing Analysis

2A: Competitive Pricing Matrix

Build a normalized comparison across all competitors:

| Dimension | Your Product | Competitor A | Competitor B | Competitor C |

|-----------|-------------|-------------|-------------|-------------|

| Starter price | $X/mo | $X/mo | $X/mo | $X/mo |

| Mid-tier price | $X/mo | $X/mo | $X/mo | $X/mo |

| Enterprise | $X/mo or Custom | ... | ... | ... |

| Pricing model | [Model] | [Model] | [Model] | [Model] |

| Free tier | [Yes/No + limits] | ... | ... | ... |

| Annual discount | [X%] | ... | ... | ... |

| Key limit (starter) | [e.g., 5 seats] | ... | ... | ... |

| Key limit (mid) | [e.g., 20 seats] | ... | ... | ... |

| Overage cost | [$/unit or blocked] | ... | ... | ... |

| Support included | [Email/chat/phone] | ... | ... | ... |

2B: Price-to-Value Ratio

For the ICP's typical use case, calculate effective cost:

Scenario: [Typical ICP — e.g., "10-person growth team, 5,000 contacts, 1,000 emails/month"]

Your Product: $[X]/mo for this scenario
Competitor A: $[X]/mo for this scenario
Competitor B: $[X]/mo for this scenario

This reveals true competitive pricing position, not just list price.

2C: Packaging Strategy Analysis

For each competitor, identify their packaging strategy:

| Strategy | Description | Who Uses It |

|----------|-------------|-------------|

| Good-Better-Best | 3 tiers, clear upgrade path | Most SaaS |

| Usage-based | Pay for what you use | API/infrastructure |

| Per-seat | Price scales with team | Collaboration tools |

| Freemium | Free forever, premium features | PLG products |

| Reverse trial | Full features free, then downgrade | Conversion-optimized |

| Platform + add-ons | Base platform + modular features | Enterprise |

2D: Change Detection (Recurring Runs)

Compare current snapshot against previous:

| Change Type | Severity | Example |

|------------|----------|---------|

| Price increase | High | Starter: $29 → $39/mo |

| Price decrease | High | Aggressive competitive move |

| New tier added | Medium | "Growth" plan between Starter and Pro |

| Tier removed | Medium | Simplified from 4 to 3 plans |

| Feature ungated | Medium | Feature moved from Pro to Starter |

| Feature gated | Medium | Feature moved from Starter to Pro |

| Model change | Critical | Shifted from per-seat to usage-based |

| Free tier change | High | Free plan limits reduced/expanded |

Phase 3: Output Format

# Competitive Pricing Intel — [DATE]
Products tracked: [your product], [competitors]
Previous snapshot: [date or "first run"]

---

## Pricing Change Alerts

### [Competitor Name]
- **Change detected:** [Description of what changed]
- **Previous:** [Old pricing/plan structure]
- **Current:** [New pricing/plan structure]
- **Implication for us:** [What this means for your positioning/pricing]

*(Repeat for each competitor with changes. If no changes: "No pricing changes detected since [last run date].")*

---

## Competitive Pricing Matrix

| | [You] | [Comp A] | [Comp B] | [Comp C] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Starter** | $[X]/mo | $[X]/mo | $[X]/mo | $[X]/mo |
| **Mid-tier** | $[X]/mo | $[X]/mo | $[X]/mo | $[X]/mo |
| **Enterprise** | [Price] | [Price] | [Price] | [Price] |
| **Model** | [Type] | [Type] | [Type] | [Type] |
| **Free tier** | [Details] | [Details] | [Details] | [Details] |
| **Annual discount** | [X%] | [X%] | [X%] | [X%] |

---

## ICP Scenario Pricing

For: [Typical buyer scenario]

| Product | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost | Notes |
|---------|-------------|-------------|-------|
| [You] | $[X] | $[X] | [Context] |
| [Comp A] | $[X] | $[X] | [Context — e.g., "requires add-on for [feature]"] |
| [Comp B] | $[X] | $[X] | [Context] |

**Your position:** [Cheapest / Mid-range / Premium] for this scenario

---

## Feature Gating Comparison

Features that matter most to ICP — where are they gated?

| Feature | [You] | [Comp A] | [Comp B] |
|---------|-------|----------|----------|
| [Feature 1] | [Tier] | [Tier] | [Tier] |
| [Feature 2] | [Tier] | [Tier] | [Tier] |
| [Feature 3] | [Tier] | [Tier] | [Tier] |

---

## Packaging Strategy Summary

| Competitor | Strategy | Target Motion | Notes |
|-----------|----------|--------------|-------|
| [Comp A] | [Strategy type] | [PLG/Sales-led/Hybrid] | [Key observation] |
| [Comp B] | [Strategy type] | [Motion] | [Observation] |

---

## Pricing Recommendations

Based on competitive analysis:

### If holding current pricing:
- **Strength:** [Where your pricing wins]
- **Vulnerability:** [Where a competitor undercuts you]
- **Messaging guidance:** [How to position price on sales calls]

### If considering a change:
- **Opportunity:** [Gap in market you could fill — e.g., "no one offers usage-based in this category"]
- **Risk:** [What to watch out for — e.g., "Competitor B is already cheaper at scale"]

Save to pricing-comparison-[YYYY-MM-DD].md in the current working directory.

Scheduling

Run monthly (pricing changes are infrequent but impactful):

0 8 1 * * python3 run_skill.py competitive-pricing-intel --client <client-name>

Cost

| Component | Cost |

|-----------|------|

| Web scraping (pricing pages) | Free |

| Web Archive lookups | Free |

| Web search (announcements) | Free |

| Analysis and comparison | Free (LLM reasoning) |

| Total | Free |

Tools Required

• web_search — for pricing announcements and community reactions
• fetch_webpage — for scraping current pricing pages
• No API keys required

Trigger Phrases

• "What are competitors charging?"
• "Has [competitor] changed their pricing?"
• "Build a pricing comparison matrix"
• "Run competitive pricing intel for [client]"
• "Monitor competitor pricing pages"