The Professional Pricing Society’s December 2019 survey of pricing professionals received 798 responses from a cross section of industries across the globe. PPS conducts surveys with the hope that this information provides a good synopsis of where pricing stands as a career option and how the profession has grown over the past year while also providing a good demonstration of pricing’s status in the business world. For more information, please email contactus@pricingsociety.com.

The Journal of Professional Pricing, January 2020

The Professional Pricing Society (PPS) has been surveying the pricing community since 1998 as a service to PPS Members and the pricing community worldwide. We use responses to analyze the growth of pricing as a profession, and to continue to develop tools and resources to help pricers in the areas they identify as opportunities for professional development.

In December 2019, we again surveyed pricers and those in similar fields, receiving 798 responses from the global pricing and business community. Since PPS is the center of the pricing discipline worldwide, our survey results are widely used as a benchmark for a variety of pricing queries: salaries, reporting structures, career opportunities, pricing software usage, and key components of job satisfaction from both positive and negative standpoints. Our organization acquires survey data as a free service to our members and those interested in demographic trends for pricing and related functions. We hope that this information provides a good synopsis of where pricing stands as a career option and a good demonstration of where pricing is currently and its importance within the business world.

Pricing Demographics

Three-quarters of our survey respondents work for medium-large or very large corporations: 38.7% work for companies with annual revenues in excess of $5 billion (or equivalent) and 36.2% report that their company annual revenues are between $500 million and $5 billion. A significantly sized, but smaller group, 25.1% are from companies with less than $500 million in annual revenue. When compared to our last survey in December 2018, the largest group (over $5 billion revenue) was larger, but the middle group (between $500 million and $5 billion) decreased by about 3%. The smaller group, under $500 million in annual revenue, was also larger than the previous survey.

The number of employees in the respondents’ companies devoted primarily to pricing shows a mixed trend measured in Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) employees: 39.6% responded that their companies have fewer than 10 pricing people or FTEs – this is almost 4% lower than our last survey. 35.3% report having between 10 and 49 pricers – an increase of 4% versus 2018. 11.0% state that they have between 50 and 99 pricing FTEs, slightly less than our last survey, and 14.1% say that their companies have more than 100 employees dedicated to pricing – this is slightly higher than our December 2018 survey. The most significant shift is a change from less than 10 FTEs to between 10 and 49 FTEs – therefore a migration from our smallest to next smallest category.

Respondents from American companies reported an average of 4.72 Pricing FTEs per billion dollars in annual revenue, while European companies reported an average of 5.05 Pricing FTEs per billion euros in revenue. Given the dollar-to-euro exchange rate during the survey, these two numbers are almost exactly equivalent.

Salaries

Survey respondents in the USA reported strong increases at the Analyst level, moderate increases for the Manager and Director levels, and significant increases for Vice Presidents. American Pricing Analysts reported an average salary of $95,512 which is an increase of 14.7% versus our last survey. In the USA, Managers reported an average salary of $118,810 (up 1.9%) and Directors earned $168,368 (up 4.8%). The news was even more positive for those higher up on the organization chart, as Vice Presidents surveyed claimed an average of $247,331 – an increase of 15.4% versus December 2018 salaries.

In the Euro Zone, Directors and Vice Presidents had significant salary increases, while Managers reported smaller increases and Analysts reported decreasing salaries. European Analysts earned €58,373, which was 3.7% less than our survey from a year ago. Managers reported €90,831 for a 5.6% increase. Toward the top of the organizational chart, Directors averaged €131,132 (up 10.7%) and Vice Presidents earned €172,733 (up 9.7%).

In Canada, Analysts averaged CAD 70,531 while Managers earned CAD 110,625 and Directors claimed CAD 145,750.

Across all categories and regardless of title, the average pricer now earns $141,751 (up 4.6% over last year) in the USA and €95,303 (up 6.4%) in the Euro Zone. In Canada, the average salary is CAD 103,286 (down 2.7%) and in the UK it is £84,821 (down 3.3%).

Salary Trends by Industry

There is a very wide range of reported salaries by industry according to our survey respondents. Those in Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals ($196,889), Software ($177,545), Consulting ($172,500), and High-Tech ($164,574) reported the highest average salaries. Telecommunications, Financial, Hospitality, Industrial, Services, Manufacturing, and B2B all reported average salaries between $125,000 and $155,000. The lowest reported average salaries were in Transportation, Wholesale, Distribution, Retail, and Government Contractors.

Job Title Mix

Senior Management (Presidents, Vice Presidents, and General Managers) accounts for 14.5% of overall job titles. Managers are the largest individual group, followed by Directors and Analysts.

Reporting Structures and Experience in Pricing

More pricers report to Finance (23.4%) than any other function, but this is closely followed by large groups that report to Marketing (21.6%) and directly to Senior Management (19.9%). The fourth most likely reporting structure is through Sales (11.0%), while 9.6% report to a Product Group and 8.6% report to a Business Unit. About 6% reported a combination of the above, or a different reporting structure.

Our respondents reported a range of experience within pricing. 7.7% claimed that they had two years or experience or less and 14.1% stated three to five years of experience. The largest groups were six to ten years at 27.9% and 11-20 years at 36.7%. 13.5% reported more than 20 years of experience in pricing.

Overall Job Satisfaction

This is the 10^th survey in which we have asked respondents about their level of job satisfaction as well as about unmet wants and needs in the workplace. On a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied), pricing professionals rated their jobs 6.71, which was almost half of a point lower than our last survey. There were significant differences in overall satisfaction based on job title, with Managers being the least satisfied (6.49), but General Managers being the most satisfied (7.55). Vice Presidents (6.87), Analysts (6.82), and Director (6.68) made up the middle groups.

PPS Pricing Power Index

For the first time, we asked respondents about their assessment of their company’s pricing power, to establish the inaugural PPS Pricing Power Index. The overall average was 6.40 on a scale of 1 (no pricing power whatsoever) to 10 (complete pricing power) to represent a moderate pricing power assessment. There was some variation depending on job titles, with Presidents, Vice Presidents, and General Managers all reporting higher levels of pricing power than those levels reported by Analysts, Managers, and Directors.

There was also significant deviation in the Index depending on Industry. Consulting (7.43), Transportation (7.25), Financial (6.88), and Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals (6.75) reported higher than average Pricing Power, while B2B (6.03), Retail (5.67), Telecommunications (5.64), and Services (5.60) reporting lower than average Pricing Power.

On average, respondents from the Euro Zone reported higher average Pricing Power (6.53) than the USA (6.39), Canada (6.01), and the UK (5.88).

Other Elements within Job Satisfaction

We asked pricers to rate their feelings about certain elements within the profession. 87.3% reported satisfaction in knowing that pricing is strategically important for their companies (this is up from 82.8% in our last survey) and 63.2% find their careers challenging (up from 62.1%). 61.5% claimed that their jobs were intellectually stimulating (up from 59.2%), but more than half (53.5%) felt that they were underappreciated by their firms (up from 46.5%).

“Training Opportunities” only received an average score of 5.78 on a 10-point scale, which is lower than out last survey (6.03). “Recognition and Acknowledgement Received from Employers” was rated 5.76; this was also lower than last year (6.04).

The highest–rated elements of job satisfaction were “Communication within the Pricing Group” (7.33) and “Amount of Influence” (7.10). “Communication with other Groups” received 6.43 and “Career Advancement Opportunities” decreased versus our last survey (6.02 vs. 6.37 in 2018).

The most satisfying job aspect for pricers was “Increasing Company Profitability” (61.2% of survey respondents) and the least satisfying was dealing with “Corporate Politics,” mentioned on 60.2% of all responses, followed by “Being Understaffed” (40.1% of all responses).

Software Use

More survey respondents say that their companies are using pricing-specific software, but Microsoft Excel is still the most commonly used tool for pricing. 32.3% said that they use Excel or Tableau primarily, while 28.0% said that they use an outside company’s pricing, pricing optimization, or Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) software. 18.9% use an internally developed, or in-house, pricing software and 7.4% say that they are in the process of changing software tools. 7.3% claim that they do not use pricing software and are not considering adopting software in the near future.

Other Items

When asked for qualitative answers to improve their pricing power and job satisfaction, many pricers stated they want more training opportunities, better teamwork across departments, better staffing with fewer open positions, formal systematic pricing tools, more support from senior management, better access to data, better incentive alignment with sales, and higher salaries and bonuses.

Many respondents also reported that their company salesforce is involved with pricing decision-making with various levels of authority for discounting.

We asked a question about gender on this year’s survey. Of those respondents who chose to answer, 27% were female, an increase from 23.8% in our last survey, and 73% were male.

As the only professional association dedicated to supporting the development and expansion of the pricing profession worldwide, we always encourage your feedback regarding your professional development needs, career satisfaction, obstacles you are facing and any other assistance we can provide to help you achieve your career and advancement goals. Please feel free to contact us at any time with questions, feedback, or any other inquiries.