Thinking About a Career in Pricing?
Are you looking to transition to the wonderful world of pricing in 2018? Pricing is an exciting place in any organization. Without a price nothing can be sold, and without sales an organization cannot profit and without profit, well a business cannot exist! If you are considering making a move to the pricing profession this year, here are some tips to help you in your transition.
Job Shadow.
Many organizations utilize career mapping and encourage spending time with someone in another department. Stalk that org chart and start asking people to give you a 30-minute rundown on the who’s, how’s, what’s and why’s of your organization’s pricing team. Once you decide which pricing role would best fit your skill set and career aspirations, ask someone in that position to let you spend some time job shadowing. If you like what you see and can arrange to assist them with a project, those newly acquired skills can be added to your resume!
If your organization doesn’t have a pricing function, reach out to your contacts on LinkedIn and see if someone you know in pricing will meet you for a coffee to discuss how pricing works in their company.
Read a Book (or Two or Three or Twenty)
You can find a lot of good pricing related reads on Amazon. If you want an in depth, collegiate level understanding of pricing I recommend this one by Tim Smith. Join pricing groups on LinkedIn and read member blogs and articles. Watch webinars hosted by industry leaders. The more you know about what pricing means and how the function works within an organization, the better equipped you are to demonstrate how your skill set and work history relate to the pricing role you hope to land.
Brush Up on Excel
Every company I have worked with or for has used Excel extensively in their pricing function. Analytics are important to pricing. Once a new strategy is thought up, there will likely be some number crunching needed to gain an understanding of the potential outcomes. Equip yourself for your pricing interview by expanding your Excel credentials.
Be Confident
Remember, pricing professionals come from a wide variety of backgrounds and the skills needed to be successful can be acquired in many related functions and departments. Just because you don’t have the word pricing in your current title does not mean you are not qualified!