5 Highly Competitive Pricing Strategy Skills Your New Hire Must Have

5 Highly Competitive Pricing Strategy Skills Your New Hire Must Have

When hiring an executive who will determine your cost plan, you want a professional with extremely competitive pricing strategy skills so you know they’ll get the job done at the highest level.

McKinsey estimates that as much as 30% of pricing decisions made by companies don’t deliver the right price, and considering a 1% increase in price leads to an 8.7% boost in profit, that translates to significant revenue loss.

Pricing strategists determine what your company should charge for various services and products. These professionals account for many dynamic factors and decide between multiple pricing strategies based on data, experience, and a particular skill set. 

Given the complexity of pricing strategy and how vital it is for your bottom line, it’s critical to hire a professional with the right skills for the job. 

What is Pricing Strategy?

Definition: pricing strategy is used to boost sales and profits by determining the most profitable selling point for goods and services.

Pricing strategists account for various factors:

  • Variable and input costs
  • Account segments
  • Market conditions
  • Competitors
  • Trade margins
  • Production and distribution costs
  • Consumers’ willingness and ability to pay

Using these, pricing strategists determine the most appropriate selling point for your product. This increases profit margins and allows you to keep a hold of your market share.

Top 5 Highly Competitive Pricing Strategy Skills

Here are the most critical and competitive skills your executive pricing strategist must have, so you can maximize profits and grow your business.

Highly Analytical

Pricing strategy involves observing data and understanding trends. A candidate with the most competitive pricing strategy skills is analytical by nature and possesses certain analytical qualities.

One of the most critical ways pricing strategists use analysis is when researching competitors. Understanding what does and doesn’t work for competitors helps pricing strategists determine your company’s direction with its pricing, as well as provides a roadmap from a company who has adopted a certain strategy.

Further, an excellent executive strategist understands and is able to capitalize on industry trends, especially because they’ve been in the industry for a while. They use this analysis to inform decisions and test different hypotheses on pricing.

When faced with an issue, pricing strategist executives should be able to think about it analytically, including:

  1. Gathering information and testing various pricing strategy hypotheses to determine next steps
  2. Finding pricing solutions and testing them
  3. Reviewing solutions to determine what did and didn’t work
  4. Uncovering the best pricing strategy based on testing

Given the many areas in which analytical skills are used in pricing strategy, your new hires should be highly analytical. Don’t be shy to test candidates with analytical questions (examples here) during their interview!

Technical Expertise

According to Zippia, the top five most common skills for pricing analysts are:

  • Customer service (6.7%)
  • Financial statements (6.6%)
  • Data analysis (6.3%)
  • SQL (5.3%)
  • Market research (5.0%)

Although you’re hiring an executive, experience with these fundamental skills helps keep that executive in touch with their team. If there’s a problem, this executive can get into the trenches because of their experience with these fundamental skills.

Executive pricing strategists typically have some experience with one or many of these fields, including:

  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Marketing
  • Math
  • Engineering 

On the flipside, be wary of excluding candidates who don’t come from a purely technical background. Strong candidates have a blend of soft and hard skills

Understand your priorities and what the day-to-day of pricing strategy at your company looks like from an executive level. Ask yourself which hard skills you’re willing to let the qualified candidate learn on the job and which skills your new hire must come prepared with. This way, you can find candidates whose technical expertise aligns with pricing strategy at your company.

Critical Soft Skills

While hard skills can be taught, soft skills are more innate. Developing a competitive pricing strategy means working cross-functionally across departments at your company, so you’ll want to hire an executive who works well with others and fits your company culture.

Vital soft skills to look out for include:

Communication. As mentioned, pricing strategists work across departments and interact with many people. They need to know how to communicate their ideas clearly and resolve disputes efficiently.

Leadership. Your executive pricing strategist will likely lead a team, either now or in the future. Your new hire should be able to respectfully make decisions with their team to maximize productivity.

Time management. Developing a competitive pricing strategy means juggling input from various departments and constantly taking in different metrics. With all the information they need to disseminate and execute, the best executive-level pricing strategists manage their time well.

Problem-solving. This is particularly critical for pricing strategists, so more on that in the next section.

Problem-Solving Skills Across Departments

Since pricing strategy involves identifying what to do and convincing the rest of the company to get on board with it, pricing strategists need to put complaints to rest across departments regularly. 

Identifying problems is one thing, but knowing how to solve them and prevent them from happening again is where the real value is. Look for candidates with proven results in the areas of problem-solving and problem prevention.

Results-Driven

While pricing strategists must be analytical and technical, the best ones understand the value behind their work. While the day-to-day may be nitty-gritty, their overarching goal is of tantamount importance: increase revenue by maximizing pricing.

The most successful candidates are passionate about what your company sells and want to see your company succeed. Screen for candidates with highly personal cover letters, excellent interview responses that highlight their interest in your mission, and a genuine passion for pricing strategy at your company.

The Most Competitive Pricing Strategy Skills In A Nutshell

While pricing strategists rely on many skills, some are more critical than others.

At a high level, you want your pricing executive to be:

  • Analytical
  • Results-oriented
  • A problem-solver
  • Cross-functional
  • Technical, but with soft skills such as communication, time management, and leadership

Given the importance of hiring the best pricing strategist and its impact on your bottom line, now isn’t the time for guessing and checking. Jennings Executive uses two decades of experience to help you find the perfect executive pricing strategist. Learn more!

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Brian Banister

EXECUTIVE RECRUITER

BRIAN BANISTER IS AN EXECUTIVE RECRUITER AT JENNINGS EXECUTIVE SEARCH.

BRIAN HAS A BROAD RANGE OF EXPERIENCE, HAVING WORKED IN STRATEGY & CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT, FINANCIAL PLANNING & ANALYSIS, AND PUBLIC ACCOUNTING ROLES FOR LEADING COMPANIES AND CLIENTS IN THE HOSPITALITY, REAL ESTATE, MANAGEMENT CONSULTING, AND TECHNOLOGY, MEDIA, AND TELECOM (TMT) SECTORS.

HE BEGAN HIS CAREER AT DELOITTE & TOUCHE, WORKING AS A LICENSED CPA. AFTER DELOITTE, BRIAN PIVOTED INTO CORPORATE FINANCE, WHERE HE HELD POSITIONS IN STRATEGY & CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT AT INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP (IHG) AND COX COMMUNICATIONS, AS WELL AS AN FP&A ROLE AT BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP (BCG). THESE ROLES ALLOWED BRIAN TO GAIN VALUABLE EXPOSURE IN AREAS LIKE CLIENT SERVICES, STRATEGIC CONSULTING & PLANNING, FINANCIAL ANALYSIS, AND M&A AND INVESTMENT ACTIVITY. HIS BACKGROUND, COMBINED WITH A PASSION FOR BUILDING LONG-TERM, VALUABLE RELATIONSHIPS, HAS LED HIM TO PURSUE A CAREER AS AN EXECUTIVE RECRUITER.

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LORI SPENT 22 YEARS AT A FORTUNE 500 INSURANCE COMPANY IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, SALES/BUSINESS CONSULTING, AND RECRUITING ROLES. SHE USES THIS EXPERIENCE AS SHE SEARCHES FOR THE BEST TALENT TO HELP DRIVE CLIENT SUCCESS FORWARD. SHE’S FOCUSED ON DELIVERING RESULTS AND GETS THERE THROUGH DISCIPLINED AND TENACIOUS HARD WORK WITH AN EMPATHETIC, COMPASSIONATE, FUN, GENUINE, AND POSITIVE APPROACH. SHE HAS BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN HELPING CLIENTS ACHIEVE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES THROUGH UNDERSTANDING NEEDS, CREATING INDIVIDUAL, DATA-DRIVEN SOLUTIONS, AND SOLVING PROBLEMS, AS WELL AS POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP BUILDING AND TEAMWORK.

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JUSTIN HAS A VARIETY OF EXPERIENCE WORKING WITHIN PUBLIC AND INDUSTRY ACCOUNTING. HE BEGAN HIS CAREER WITH PATHSTONE FAMILY OFFICE PREPARING TAX RETURNS FOR HIGH NET WORTH INDIVIDUALS AND CORPORATIONS IN THE ATLANTA AREA. IN JANUARY 2015, HE JOINED COHNREZNICK, LLP, A TOP 10 PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM, IN AUDIT & ASSURANCE WORKING PRIMARILY IN THE COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE AND HOUSING MARKET. PRIOR TO JOINING JENNINGS EXECUTIVE SEARCH, JUSTIN WORKED AT FAST GROWING TECHNOLOGY COMPANY, SS&C TECHNOLOGIES, WHERE HE WORKED IN THE REAL ASSETS DEPARTMENT DOING FUND ADMINISTRATION. JUSTING BRINGS OVER 4 YEARS OF TAX AND INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE.

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Justin Jennings

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JUSTIN JENNINGS IS AN EXECUTIVE RECRUITER AT JENNINGS EXECUTIVE SEARCH. HE COMES FROM THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY WITH 15 YEARS OF MEDICAL SALES EXPERIENCE. HE ATTRIBUTES HIS SUCCESS IN SALES TO LISTENING AND LEARNING FROM HIS CUSTOMERS AND ENJOYS THE PROCESS OF SOLVING PROBLEMS. HE IS SKILLED AT DEVELOPING THE RIGHT ACTION PLAN FOR EACH OF HIS CLIENT’S UNIQUE NEEDS AND COMMITTED TO HELPING THEM CHOOSE THE BEST SOLUTION.

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JUSTIN GRADUATED WITH A BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN MANAGEMENT FROM GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. WHEN NOT AT WORK, YOU CAN FIND HIM ON HIS MOUNTAIN BIKE, THE GOLF COURSE, OR SKIING OUT WEST IN THE WINTERS.

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CHIP BRINGS 15 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE IN TECHNOLOGY AND TECH RECRUITING INCLUDING HANDS-ON WORK AS A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER AND BIG 4 SYSTEMS CONSULTANT. HE IS A TRUSTED CIO ADVISOR WITH EXPERIENCE ACROSS INDUSTRY VERTICALS AND A DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS AND THE FUNCTIONAL AREAS OF DELIVERY THAT ENABLE BUSINESS OPERATIONS. HIS EXPERIENCE INCLUDES RECRUITING EXECUTIVES AND COLLABORATING WITH THEM FOR THE STRATEGIC PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF IT ORGANIZATIONS. CHIP TAKES HIS ROLE AS SEARCH PARTNER SERIOUSLY, AND AS A TRUE PARTNER, HOLDS HIMSELF AND HIS TEAMS ULTIMATELY ACCOUNTABLE FOR DELIVERING ON CLIENTS’ HIRING GOALS.

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HE BEGAN HIS CAREER AT DELOITTE & TOUCHE IN AUDIT AND ENTERPRISE RISK SERVICES, WITH A FOCUS ON THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND REAL ESTATE INDUSTRIES. AT DELOITTE, BRIAN GAINED VALUABLE CORPORATE EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH A MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR PUBLIC MORTGAGE SERVICING CORPORATION, AND A NOT-FOR-PROFIT FOUNDATION WITH OVER $10 BILLION IN ASSETS. BRIAN HAS PASSED ALL FOUR SECTIONS OF THE CPA EXAM ON HIS FIRST ATTEMPT.

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JON JENNINGS IS THE FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER OF JENNINGS EXECUTIVE SEARCH. ESTABLISHED IN 2014, HIS VISION WAS TO SHAPE A FIRM ANCHORED IN TRANSPARENCY AND VALUE CREATION. OVER THE YEARS, JON HAS HAD THE DISTINCT OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE WITH AND LEARN FROM LEADING INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES, GLEANING INSIGHTS FROM THEIR EXPERIENCES AND COMBINING THIS KNOWLEDGE WITH THOROUGH RESEARCH. THIS HAS EQUIPPED HIM TO OFFER A DEEPER, MORE STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE ON ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN AND TALENT IDENTIFICATION.

FROM INITIALLY SPECIALIZING IN FINANCE, JON DOVE INTO PRICING AND EVENTUALLY INTO MORE BROAD COMMERCIAL STRATEGY. BY 2017, HE RECOGNIZED THAT EFFECTIVE PRICING STRATEGY HARMONIOUSLY MERGES FINANCE, PRODUCT, MARKETING, AND SALES. HE DISCERNED THAT PRICING, WITH ITS INTRICATE MIX OF ART AND SCIENCE, HAS THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER TO IMPACT NOT ONLY PROFITS BUT ALSO MARKET DYNAMICS AND AN ORGANIZATION’S OVERALL IDENTITY. TODAY, JON, TOGETHER WITH HIS EXPERIENCED TEAM OF EX-CONSULTANTS, COLLABORATES WITH PREMIER CONSULTING FIRMS TO ENHANCE THEIR PRACTICES. SIMULTANEOUSLY, HE ASSISTS PRIVATE EQUITY GROUPS AND THEIR PORTFOLIO COMPANIES IN REFINING AND FORTIFYING THEIR COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL STRATEGIC OPERATIONS.

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