When Pricing Talent Leaves

Most pricing leaders don’t leave for more money. They leave because they’re stuck.

They’re stuck between sales and finance, carrying margin targets without the authority to enforce them. They’re stuck in Excel because the BI rollout stalled. They’re stuck explaining for the fifth time why raising prices doesn’t mean you’ll lose every customer.

And when no one listens, they eventually stop talking. Then they leave.

We see it constantly at Jennings Executive Search. When companies call us to replace a pricing leader, the issue usually isn’t talent. It’s the setup.

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It’s Not the Job, It’s the Setup 

Pricing roles look strategic on paper. They touch sales, finance, product, and operations. But in practice, a lot of pricing professionals get boxed into support roles.

- “Can you model this for the board?”

- “Can you rerun that analysis with different filters?”

- “Can you clean up this spreadsheet before Monday?”

Over time, what was sold as a leadership role becomes a service role. That’s where things start to unravel. We’ve talked to hundreds of pricing professionals across B2B and PE-backed environments, and the ones who walk rarely feel like they were set up to succeed.

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Misalignment is the Root 

The most common themes we hear from departing pricing talent:

- No seat at the table

Pricing gets pulled in to enforce guardrails but never helps define them. Sales and product make the call; pricing gets left with the fallout.

- No investment in tools

Analysts spend more time stitching together broken data than actually analyzing it. PowerPoint gets priority over Power BI.

- No path to influence

Insights go nowhere. Pricing presents their findings, leadership nods, and nothing changes. Eventually, they stop trying.

At Jennings, we’ve worked with companies where pricing reports to finance, sales, marketing, or even supply chain. Org structure isn’t the problem — lack of clarity and sponsorship is. Without a clear mandate and real buy-in, even high-potential hires won’t stick.

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The Signals Start Early 

Companies often come to us asking for a “stronger candidate” after their last pricing hire left.

But when we dig deeper, the red flags were already there:

- Talent spending too much time in cleanup mode

- Role expectations shifting quarter to quarter

- Pricing decisions made elsewhere, with no input from the team

These aren’t talent problems. They’re structural ones.

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What Retains Top Talent 

In our search work, the pricing candidates who say yes to a role — and stay — consistently get three things:

- A clear mandate

They’re not told to “support the business.” They’re told to lead pricing.

- Access to real data

No guessing games. They can pull what they need without begging IT or chasing spreadsheets across four systems.

- Visibility and impact

Their work changes policy. They see results, and they get credit.

When we advise clients on scoping pricing roles, we push them to think beyond backfills. What does success actually look like in 6 months? What will this person own? Who’s got their back in the C-suite?

Those conversations often do more to improve retention than any comp plan tweak.

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The Bottom Line 

Most pricing roles fail quietly. No headline mistakes, no drama — just a slow drift from strategic to reactive. The company gets less than they hoped for. The talent moves on. The next hire walks into the same trap.

If that cycle sounds familiar, it’s probably not about the people. It’s about how the function is positioned.

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At Jennings Executive Search, we don’t just fill roles. We help clients shape them — especially when it comes to building pricing and analytics teams that last. Because a great pricing hire can’t fix a broken setup. But a great setup? That’s what unlocks real impact.

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