Chief Pricing Officer, Really? Is That A Thing?

This question has filled my inbox since last week's article on fractional Chief Pricing Officers. After suggesting that a fractional CPO could be "just right" for mid-sized companies, many readers were genuinely curious: Does this C-suite role actually exist? Is it truly gaining traction? How is it evolving?

These questions deserve straightforward answers.

Is It Really a Thing?

The short answer? Yes - and it's growing fast. Historical data tells the story clearly:

• 2008-2010: Only 8% of companies had a Chief Pricing Officer or equivalent title (Deloitte survey)

• 2016: Roughly half of companies had established a CPO or Head of Pricing role (KPMG global survey)

• 2020: High-performing companies were 8x more likely to have pricing leadership (KPMG analysis)

• 2025: Hundreds of Chief Pricing Officer openings exist across major job boards (major job site search data)

This growth isn't limited to the U.S. - it's happening globally, with strong adoption in Europe and increasing interest in Asia-Pacific markets.

But How Is Pricing Worthy of "Chief" and "Officer" Status?

Chief: Pricing influences 100% of revenue. A strategic pricing leader ensures cohesive governance over your most powerful profit lever. According to 2022 Professional Pricing Society data, more pricing teams now report directly to senior management (27.5%) than to any other function - recognition of their strategic importance.

Officer: When a 1% pricing improvement drives 8-10% profit growth, this leader deserves board visibility and equity participation. Companies with formal pricing functions outperform peers by 2-7% in EBITDA (McKinsey). Compensation packages reflect this outsized impact on company performance.

The CPO's superpower? Being organizational connective tissue. They meet each department where they are and lead them forward, speaking in their own language to align on company strategy:

• Help Sales develop incentives that change behaviors away from price variability

• Show Finance how to fund investments in the development of pricing campaigns for growth

• Guide Marketing on creating value stories necessary to justify premium pricing or customer segmentation

• Work with Product/Service teams to bundle offerings for greater long-term profits and increased customer lifetime value

The CPO Profile: Who Succeeds in This Role?

In "The Beautiful Contradiction," I explored how successful pricing leaders don't follow conventional career paths. Unlike established C-suite trajectories, the path to pricing leadership is remarkably diverse.

Professional Pricing Society data reveals these leaders share key characteristics:

Background and Experience

• 15-20+ years of business experience

• Cross-functional backgrounds (rarely a straight path)

• Experience in multiple disciplines, often finance, marketing, and sales

• Strong analytical foundations combined with business acumen

Skills and Capabilities

• Strategic vision with analytical execution

• Change management expertise

• Strong communication across functional boundaries

• Financial literacy with customer value perspective

Reporting and Compensation

• Increasingly report directly to senior management (27.5% - higher than any other function)

• VPs of Pricing average around $250K base in the U.S.

• Chief Pricing Officers command significantly more with equity participation

The most successful CPOs excel at being "connective tissue" – integrating perspectives across departments that typically operate in silos. They translate between teams that view pricing through different lenses: revenue, profit, customer value, and competitive positioning.

What Chief Pricing Officers Actually Do

Successful CPOs serve as organizational connective tissue. They meet each department where they are and lead them forward, speaking in their own language to align on company strategy:

• Help Sales develop incentives that change behaviors away from price variability

• Show Finance how to fund investments in the development of pricing campaigns for growth

• Guide Marketing on creating value stories necessary to justify premium pricing or customer segmentation

• Work with Product/Service teams to bundle offerings for greater long-term profits and increased customer lifetime value

Beyond coordination, effective CPOs:

1. Establish clear pricing governance frameworks

2. Create visibility across the enterprise, providing line-of-sight from board-level decisions down to individual transactions

3. Drive data-based pricing decisions

4. Develop specialized pricing expertise

5. Lead transformation from cost-plus to value-based approaches

In times of economic pressure, CPOs prove particularly valuable. As one manufacturing executive described: "Our CPO identified a supply shortage six months before competitors saw it and immediately adjusted our pricing strategy. While competitors faced backlash from reactive price hikes, we'd already smoothly transitioned to a structure that protected both margins and customer relationships."

The question isn't whether your organization will evolve its approach to pricing governance. The question is whether you'll shape this evolution proactively or react after leaving millions on the table.

For those following the "Goldilocks" discussion about right-sized pricing leadership, the Chief Pricing Officer represents the natural next step. Getting the right pricing leader with the right authority can transform your business economics.

The Fractional CPO: A Practical Path Forward

For mid-market companies interested in pricing leadership without making a full-time commitment, the fractional CPO model offers a compelling middle ground. With many experienced pricing leaders reaching their 50s and 60s, there's a growing pool of seasoned executives with the perfect background for these roles.

These professionals bring decades of cross-functional experience, executive presence, and specialized pricing expertise without requiring the full-time compensation package of a C-suite hire. For mid-market companies, this creates a practical "toe in the water" approach to establishing pricing leadership.

The benefits extend in both directions. Companies gain access to executive-level expertise that would otherwise be unaffordable, while experienced pricing executives find rewarding opportunities that leverage their skills:

• For Companies: Lower commitment, budget-friendly access to senior expertise, reduced implementation risk

• For Executives: Satisfying executive-level work without the full-time burden, value-based compensation structures that can be quite lucrative, and the ability to make significant impact across multiple organizations

The fractional model is particularly effective for pricing leadership because it aligns perfectly with the role's nature. A fractional CPO can establish governance frameworks, create visibility, set strategy, and build capability while leaving day-to-day execution to internal teams - precisely how effective pricing leadership should function.

This isn't about title inflation or packing the C-Suite. Like the growth of the Chief Procurement Officer twenty years prior, the CPO has matured into a driver of growth that the CFO, CMO, and COO simply can't handle as a side responsibility. The role emerged from an executive teamwork necessity, not organizational bloat.

When I engage in discussions about pricing transformation, one question reveals more than any other: "Do you have a Chief Pricing Officer or have plans to get one?" The answer - and the conversation that follows - immediately shows where they stand on the pricing maturity spectrum. It's the fastest diagnostic in my experience, instantly revealing organizational priorities and capabilities.

As one Chief Procurement Officer who made the transition from mid-level manager to strategic leader told me: "The hardest part wasn't proving our value. It was getting leadership to see what had been hiding in plain sight all along."

Is a dedicated pricing leader hiding in plain sight in your organization?

The answer might be more valuable than you think.

Disclaimer: The stories and insights shared in this blog are based on my personal experiences and conversations throughout my career. While some content reflects recent events, they are drawn from a broad range of interactions with professionals across professional services, including friends and colleagues from various organizations, and do not specifically refer to or represent any single employer, past or present. Identities have been anonymized, and quotes may be paraphrased or combined for clarity and storytelling purposes. This post is a personal endeavor and does not reflect the views or proprietary information of any employer.