A Pricing Leader’s Journey | Professional Pricing Society

In this guest post, learn from a pricing leader’s journey what it’s like to transition from an entry pricing career to leading a Keynote presentation at the Pricing Workshops and Conference event of the season. Pricing expert Scott Sinning, CPP, Director National Pricing for Graybar Electric, shares his first-hand experience attending our Spring Pricing Workshops and Conference in Chicago, IL. Read below as he recaps a detailed account of what a leader in Pricing experiences.

If you’re anything like me—and the audience of 500 fellow professionals I spoke to at the Professional Pricing Society’s Spring Conference in Chicago —you didn’t grow up dreaming of a career in pricing. It’s unlikely that you even considered it when you were in college or starting out.

The reality is most of us began as novices and were drawn from other experiences and educational backgrounds. Maybe your journey started by serving on an advisory team or working on a special project that created a new pricing department. Regardless of whether you now work in pricing at a corporate or local market level, or support your clients as a consultant, we all share one thing in common: we found pricing or pricing found us, and once it did we got hooked!

DEVELOPING A PASSION FOR PRICING
My journey started 4 years ago when I was given the opportunity to take on a national pricing leadership role. During that time I’ve discovered and developed a passion for pricing and am humbled by the challenges and opportunities to learn more every day.

Pricing is fascinating because it requires us to navigate across functions, think strategically, act tactically, persevere through inevitable setbacks, and lead change. We have an oversized impact on the bottom line since it’s well-documented that a 1% increase in price realization delivers more profit than the same increase to unit volume or a reduction to operating expenses or fixed costs. Therefore, business owners and executives are realizing the profit potential of pricing strategy and industry disruption is forcing them to rethink traditional approaches.

However, this career path doesn’t come with a road map and though the concepts behind good pricing have been around for years, the role of a professional pricing leader has not. It’s an emerging and evolving discipline at the crossroads of digitalization, disruption, and big data analytics. Therefore, we need to learn how to navigate uncharted territory as we strive to become pricing leaders that drive profitable growth.

ENVISIONING THE JOURNEY
Through my experiences on the job, reading the work of industry thought-leaders, and talking with many of my peers, I’ve learned lessons that might sound familiar and hopefully help you envision your journey more clearly. Decisions about strategic direction, planning and preparation, software and technology, and questions about where to start can feel confusing. My goal is that these three questions are thought-provoking and are relatable to you in your journey.