Pricing Transformation in PE: Notes from a SuperReturn Miami Panel

What Pricing Transformation in PE Really Takes: Notes from a SuperReturn Miami Panel

Strategy isn't the problem. Execution is. A recap from a recent JES-moderated panel on pricing in PE portfolio companies.

In March, Jennings Executive Search moderated a panel on pricing transformation in private equity at SuperReturn North America in Miami. Jon Jennings led the conversation. The panelists were Alexis Underwood, Managing Director at Wynnchurch Capital, and Ryan Walter, JES Partner and head of our pricing practice.

The room was full of PE operators and CFOs asking the same question. Pricing is one of the highest-value levers in any portfolio company. Why does it fail so often?

The panel landed on three answers.

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The strategy-to-execution gap

Most companies have a pricing strategy. Few realize the strategy in the market. The list price the board approved and the realized price the customer pays are rarely the same number, and the gap is usually wider than leadership thinks.

Closing it isn't a strategy problem. It's an organizational one. Sales incentives that reward volume punish margin. Annual price changes leave money on the table for eleven months. Discount approval thresholds set five years ago haven't been revisited as the customer base shifted.

The companies that close the gap aren't the ones with the best strategy on the slide. They're the ones with the operating cadence to enforce it.

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The leadership profile most companies under-hire for

PE boards consistently under-resource the leadership side of pricing. The function gets handed to a senior analyst, bolted onto FP&A or marketing, or staffed with a title that doesn't carry the authority the work requires.

The right hire sits between three functions. They can read a P&L with the CFO, run a deal review with the CRO, and make a packaging call with the CMO. They have authority to overrule any of the three when the data demands it.

That candidate exists across a range of titles. Director of Pricing, VP of Pricing, Head of Pricing, Pricing Manager, Senior Pricing Strategist, Commercial Strategy lead. The label matters less than what they actually own and the authority that comes with it. Some of the strongest hires we've placed had "Pricing Manager" on their resume and were doing VP-level work because they had the right scope and the right reporting line.

Wynnchurch's experience and Ryan's own track record building pricing functions at PE-backed companies pointed to the same conclusion. The scope and authority matter more than the title.

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What this means for value creation plans

If your value creation plan has pricing as a lever (and almost every PE plan does), the diligence question isn't "do we have a pricing strategy." The strategy is the easy part. The diligence question is whether the company has the leader, the operating cadence, and the sales alignment to actually realize the pricing the plan assumes.

If the answer is no, the pricing number in the model is a wish, not a forecast.

Pricing transformation is one of JES's core practice areas. We've placed pricing leaders across PE-backed services, consumer, and industrial businesses, and our pricing practice is led by Ryan Walter, who built and ran pricing functions before joining the firm.

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If you're building a value creation plan with pricing as a lever, or scoping a pricing leadership search at a portfolio company, we'd be glad to talk.