The Voice of Pricing Leadership

Article written by Ryan Walter of Jennings Executive Search https://www.jenningsexec.com/ Traits , skills, and behaviors that set top performers apart Pricing is one of the most misunderstood leadership roles in a business. It touches every function — but rarely owns any of them. It’s technical, but not purely analytical. Strategic, but operationally messy. High-stakes, but often under-resourced. And that makes it hard to hire for. We’ve placed hundreds of pricing leaders. Th

Article written by Ryan Walter of Jennings Executive Search https://www.jenningsexec.com/ The growing demand for pricing talent in PE-backed companies Private equity hasn’t ignored pricing — but for a long time, it was treated as a lever, not a function. Pressure-test the model. Tighten discounting. Run a quick SKU rationalization. Then move on to sourcing or SG&A. But that’s shifting. More funds are investing in pricing as a capability — not just a one-time initiative.

This isn’t for the executives still debating whether pricing is “strategic.”This is for those who already know they need to do something about it—and the people ready to hand their CEO a plan and say, “This. Do this.”

Michael Hammer used to tell a story about an engineer walking across the quad who finds a talking frog. The frog says, “If you kiss me, I’ll turn into a fairy princess and be your girlfriend for life.” The engineer picks up the frog, puts it in his pocket, and keeps walking. The frog wriggles and insists, “Hey, kiss me! I’ll be your girlfriend for life.” The engineer pulls it out, looks at it, and says, “I don’t think you understand. I’m an engineer. What would I do with a gi

Article written by Ryan Walter of Jennings Executive Search https://www.jenningsexec.com/ Motivators beyond compensation — impact, visibility, and tooling It’s easy to assume that pricing professionals want the same things as anyone else: fair pay, a solid team, and a path to grow. And they do. But if that’s all you offer, you’ll still lose good people. In the conversations we have daily — across roles, industries, and career stages — the same themes come up again and again.

Eyes on the Stars, Feet on the Ground. Artificial intelligence is the latest cure for the common price—promises of margin uplift at the...

Article written by Ryan Walter of Jennings Executive Search https://www.jenningsexec.com/ How to frame the need, speak the language of...