Pricing and Profitability Management: A Practical Guide for Business Leaders

Evaluating and Managing Pricing Talent

No pricing strategy can be successfully executed without the help of the right talent in key positions. As recently as 10 years ago, prices were primarily set by salespeople, marketers, or product managers. Today, more and more companies recognize that pricing activities require unique skills, ranging from the ability to perform complex analytics using the latest technological tools to assessing price elasticity in a volatile marketplace.

Organizations have also increasingly grasped that pricing professionals need to straddle different functions. Thus, individuals with experience across Sales, Marketing, and Finance can prove invaluable. Because mature pricing professionals are still a relatively scarce resource, many businesses recruit them from other companies. But some companies are putting programs in place to nurture their talent. The most successful of these companies make their pricing specialists highly visible and reward them for what is increasingly viewed as a strategic position.

An effective talent management program enables a company to:

• ensure the company has the right expertise to execute its pricing strategy
• equip candidates for pricing positions with the appropriate training so they are capable of implementing the improved practices
• create viable career paths
• identify promising candidates to develop
• retain high-performing talent.

Whether it is within the Sales function or in other functions, Pricing should be established ...