How Private Equity is Professionalizing Pricing

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. They’re hiring specialists. They’re building playbooks. Some are standing up pricing centers of excellence at the fund level. And as that infrastructure builds, they’re pushing the work into portcos. In the last year, we’ve helped place pricing leaders tasked with standing up scalable systems — segmentation logic, quoting tools, deal desk policies, even cross-brand harmonization. Pricing is still a lever. But in more firms, it’s also becoming a discipline.

Why Now?

Pricing is surfacing as a priority for one simple reason: it works. When you need EBITDA improvement without launching new products or overhauling systems, price is often the fastest lever.

We’re seeing funds prioritize it earlier in the hold period — not just in diligence decks, but in actual operating plans. Examples we’ve seen or heard about recently include:

-Portcos implementing discount discipline and surfacing quick wins in mix improvement

-Pricing teams surfacing banding and data insights through market-based analysis

-Operators explicitly asking for pricing dashboards and elasticities, not just cost-plus cleanup

-Merchandising strategies shifting based on pricing insights around non-sub and substitution promotion

-Teams segmenting product portfolios by margin and velocity to drive smarter bundling and promotions

Not every company is there yet — but more are treating pricing as a repeatable value lever instead of a one-time fix.

From Gut Feel to Playbook

The old model was manual. Pricing lived in sales, margin was “protected” by finance, and changes came from gut feel. Now we’re seeing portfolio companies:

-Build pricing roadmaps during the first 100 days post-close

-Implement quote thresholds, approval layers, and tiered list-price structures

-Hire pricing talent not just as analysts, but as change agents who influence sales behavior

And on the fund side, operating partners are leaning in:

-Launching internal pricing summits

-Creating playbooks for harmonizing pricing post-acquisition

-Mandating pricing dashboards as part of standard weekly reporting That shift — from pricing as a lever to pricing as a system — is where the real professionalization happens.

What This Means for Talent

It’s no longer about finding “someone good with Excel.” Funds and portcos are hiring pricing professionals who can:

-Build scalable frameworks (think playbooks, not one-off projects)

-Navigate sales pushback and still drive change

-Understand elasticity and customer behavior — not just cost-plus logic At Jennings, we’re placing people who’ve owned pricing transformation at $2B businesses into $150M portcos — not because the company needs complexity, but because they need credibility and execution from day one. The biggest shift? Pricing leaders are being given mandates, not “nice to have” projects. They’re sitting in on deal model reviews. They’re getting looped in before system rollouts. They’re helping define commercial strategy — not just react to it.

Why This Matters to PE

Here’s the risk: If you treat pricing as a tactical fix, you’ll cycle through hires who never land. We’ve seen it happen — the analyst hired to “help sales with pricing” gets buried in exception requests. The one strong leader they hired burns out because nothing changes upstream. When pricing is scoped right, staffed right, and championed at the fund level, it becomes a repeatable lever. You don’t need to find unicorns. You need to build a system smart talent can run.

That’s the core of what we help PE firms do — place pricing leaders who’ve actually driven impact and advise portfolio leadership on how to structure the role so it sticks.

-Humility and adaptability

-Effort to bridge the gap between analysis and application

-Willingness to revisit assumptions or strategy

Systems and Process Ownership

These hires often maintain price files, own quote workflows, or manage integration between ERP, CRM, and CPQ systems. They are the execution layer — and the control layer. Question: “What’s your process for validating pricing data between systems?” Listen for:

-Checks for unit of measure issues, currency mismatches, overrides

-Clear system-of-record logic

-Examples of reducing error rates or audit flags Question: “How would you design a quoting process that reduces errors and rework without slowing down sales?” Listen for:

-Use of templates, validations, or pre-approved ranges

-Collaboration with sales ops or IT

-Awareness of pain points that cause rework

Interview Design Matters

A strong pricing interview doesn’t just test knowledge — it reveals how someone thinks, navigates tradeoffs, and communicates under pressure.

But judgment shows up differently depending on the role:

-A systems candidate might shine through rigor and speed

-A strategy partner might shine through synthesis and stakeholder fluency

-A pricing leader might shine through clarity, prioritization, and calm under ambiguity

If your interview process treats every pricing role the same, you’re going to miss the signal.