6 Tips on Hiring the Best Pricing Strategists, According to an Executive Search Firm
Pricing strategy is a complex field that’s growing more in need of its own specialists than ever. Something as simple as whether you end a price in an odd versus an even number can have an incredible impact on sales. So, why not build a team dedicated to optimizing pricing?
However, because pricing as a dedicated field is relatively new, finding qualified talent is challenging. But don’t fear! Here are 7 tips to help you build the best pricing team for your organization.
- Those With Pricing Experience Should Do The Hiring
Pricing strategy roles are relatively new. Historically, there weren’t specialized roles for evaluating pricing, so finding qualified candidates for your pricing team is that much more challenging.
For a role such as this, having those with pricing experience do the hiring is paramount. If there isn’t anyone in your organization with such expertise, you’ll want to outsource the hiring process.
Jennings Executive is vastly experienced in filling senior-level pricing strategy roles. Some of the positions we’ve filled recently include Director of Pricing Strategy, Global Pricing Lead, Sr. Manager of Pricing Strategy, and many more. Learn all about Jennings Executive here.
- Hiring Resources Are Great…With One Caveat
Traditional hiring and candidate management tools are excellent resources for hiring pricing talent. They’ll help you stay organized and track different candidates.
However, these tools alone won’t be sufficient. Since pricing roles are relatively new and niche, you’ll need to know precisely what skills you want in a candidate and how to validate them.
Further, the role your pricing team plays varies depending on the organization. Take the time to understand how they’ll fit in at your company and assess the subsequent skills candidates need.
When it comes to validating skills, you can use:
- Skill assessments
- Personality tests
- References
- Job shadowing
Combining traditional candidate management tools with validation practices ensures you hire qualified pricing strategists.
- Be Crystal Clear In The Job Description
Knowing what you want to see in a candidate will come in handy when writing pricing strategy job descriptions (JDs). The clearer and more thorough your JD is, the more qualified candidates you’ll pull in.
Expect that some applicants won’t be as qualified as you’d like and have specific measures for ruling them out during the resumé review process. From there, evaluate the eligible candidates based on a pre-selected list of criteria.
Specific criteria to list in the JD and look for in applications are:
- Education
- Work experience
- Hard and soft skills
You’ll also want to touch on responsibilities and expectations in your JDs. List both required qualifications and “nice-to-have” ones.
- Recruiting Pricing Specialists Requires a Positive Candidate Experience
You want to create a positive experience for new hires at your company. However, companies sometimes neglect the importance of also fostering a positive hiring experience.
The experiences candidates undergo during your hiring process impact how they talk about your company to their peers. Further, the better their experiences, the more likely qualified candidates are to accept a job offer.
To foster positive candidate experiences during the application process, focus on the following:
- Excellent communication
- Let candidates know promptly if they’ve moved on to the next hiring phase or if they’ve been rejected
- Offer feedback
- Respect candidates’ time
- Be supportive and make the candidates feel valued
- Provide as much information as possible on the hiring process and company
- Focus on the company’s strategic mission and vision
- Describe how that candidate would fit into the company and their team
- Honestly answer any of the candidates’ questions
Do everything you can to ensure a positive candidate experience during the pricing strategy recruitment process.
- For Pricing Roles, Interviews Alone Are Ineffective
Particularly when it comes to hiring pricing talent, interviews alone will be insufficient. What a candidate says they can do versus what they can actually do often differ.
Some candidates may overrate and others underrate their skills during an interview. This may be intentional or not – some people are simply better at introspection and identifying their strengths and weaknesses.
It’s also worth considering that interviews stress some people out far more than others, impacting how they “perform” during that phase.
So, what can you do about this? More on that next.
- Evaluate Candidates Objectively
Interviews alone aren’t enough to determine the best fit for your pricing team, especially when they’re subjective.
Of course, you want interviews to be part of the process since they’ll give you a baseline. However, the way you evaluate those interviews must be objective. Use a scoring rubric or similar to prevent bias from creeping into your evaluations.
When it comes to evaluating all candidates objectively, consider the following:
- Screening based on an objective set of criteria
- Pre-determined interview questions
- The exact same hiring process for all candidates
- No spur-of-the-moment hiring decisions
- Review everyone’s conclusions on candidates and decide together
- Check references
The more objective your hiring process, the better the odds of hiring the perfect pricing candidate.
- It All Starts With Leadership
Building an effective pricing strategy team starts with selecting the right pricing leader. Finding someone qualified to lead this essential team is no small task.
Since your pricing leader determines how that entire department will function, you can’t afford a miss-hire. Consider outsourcing this part of the process to an executive search firm with extensive experience filling senior pricing roles.
Jennings Executive is experienced in matching companies with leading senior pricing talent. Contact us today to build out the perfect pricing team!
Now, It’s Up To You!
Building a pricing team at your company is essential if you want to optimize profit. However, since this field is relatively new, finding the best talent is no easy task.
We hope these 7 tips help you hire the perfect pricing talent for your company. If you need some more hands-on help, contact Jennings Executive today!
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