Melissa froze as she stared at her screen, the notification from their email marketing platform Sendwise showing a 93% open rate on what should have been an internal email. The quarterly pricing strategy document had just been sent to all 3,200 customers of RapidGrowth, the sales enablement platform she'd spent four years building.
The document contained detailed information on their cost structure, minimum acceptable deal sizes, and most damaging—their "price anchoring" strategies designed to make certain packages appear more attractive. It even included competitor pricing analysis with specific instructions on how to position against them.
As CEO, Melissa immediately called her executive team into an emergency meeting. Their CTO confirmed the worst: the document had indeed been sent to their entire customer base due to a template misclassification in their new automated email system they had implemented just last month.
Already, their support inbox was filling with messages. Several enterprise customers—including their anchor client who accounted for 22% of annual recurring revenue—had reached out asking for clarification. Two competitors had mockingly shared screenshots of the email on social media.
RapidGrowth was three weeks away from closing their fiscal quarter, with several major deals in the final stages of negotiation. Their sales team was reporting that prospects were already referencing the email and asking for steeper discounts.
The board meeting was scheduled for Friday, where Melissa was expected to report on their path to profitability. Their pricing strategy was central to their margin improvements, and this leak threatened to undermine not only their revenue targets but also their fundraising prospects in an already challenging market.
The company had spent years building trust with customers through transparent communication. Their values prominently displayed on their website included "Honest partnerships built on mutual success."
If you were Melissa, what would you do?