The Professional Pricing Society’s December 2023 survey of pricing professionals received 752 responses from a cross section of industries across the globe. The mission of PPS is to nurture the global community of pricing professionals and to disseminate pricing expertise throughout the business world. As part of this mission, we conduct surveys as a free benefit to our members with the hope this research provides useful insights, including where pricing stands as a career option, the most- and least-favored aspects of pricing roles, pricing’s current status in the business world, and much more. For more information, questions, or feedback, please email us at contactus@pricingsociety.com.

The Journal of Professional Pricing, March 2024

The Professional Pricing Society (PPS) has been surveying the pricing community for more than 25 years as a service to PPS Members and the worldwide business community. We use the annual survey responses to analyze the growth of pricing as a profession and to develop resources to support pricers in the areas they identify as opportunities for growth and professional development.

In December 2023, we again surveyed pricers and professionals in related fields, receiving 752 responses from businesses worldwide. Since PPS is the center of the global pricing discipline, 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 for those interested in demographic trends related to pricing and adjacent functions. We hope that this information provides a good synopsis of where pricing stands as a career option and a reliable demonstration of pricing’s importance within the business world.

Pricing Demographics

Almost 77% of our survey respondents work for medium-to-large or very large corporations. 39.9% work for companies with annual revenues of more than $5 billion (or equivalent), and 36.9% report that their company annual revenues are between $500 million and $5 billion. A significantly sized, but smaller group (23.2%) are from companies with less than $500 million in annual revenue. When compared to our last survey in December 2022, the largest group (over $5 billion revenue) was larger this year, the middle group (between $500 million and $5 billion) was significantly smaller, and the smallest group (under $500 million) grew by about 2%.

The number of employees in respondent companies devoted primarily to pricing in Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) roles shows that 42.7% of respondents’ companies have fewer than 10 pricing FTEs. This is slightly higher than our last survey. 33.9% report having between 10 and 49 pricers, which is about two percentage points higher than last year. 23.3% stated that their organizations have at least 50 employees dedicated to pricing, which is lower than our December 2022 survey. The most significant shift was a decrease from the largest group (more than 50 FTEs) in favor of the middle group (10 to 49 FTEs).

Respondents from American companies reported an average of 3.58 Pricing FTEs per billion dollars in annual revenue (lower than last year’s survey), while European companies reported an average of 3.73 Pricing FTEs per billion euros in revenue (higher than last year). Given the dollar-to-euro exchange rate during the survey period, American organizations have about 2.6% more Pricing FTEs than their European counterparts.

Salaries

Survey respondents in the USA reported moderate salary increases in all the major job titles surveyed: Analysts reported an average salary of $107,872, which is an increase of about 3.1% versus our last survey. Managers reported similar increases with an average salary of $135,126 (up less than 1% over last year), and Directors earned $190,125 (up 2.9% versus last year). Vice Presidents reported increases as well with an average salary of $271,026 (up 4.7% versus our last survey). Thus, American salaries showed consistent, though moderate, gains across the four most common job titles.

In the Euro Zone, reported salaries were higher for Analysts, but Managers and Directors did not have large increases. European Analysts earned €68,062, which was 1.2% more than our survey results a year ago. Managers reported €95,546, which was up less than 1% over last year. Towards the top of the organizational chart, Directors averaged € 138,367 (up 0.9% over last year).

Across all categories and regardless of title, the average pricer now earns $164,633 in the USA and €100,929 in the Euro Zone.

Salary Trends by Industry

There is a very wide range of reported salaries by industry according to our survey respondents. Those in Consulting ($223,328), High Tech ($202,150), and B2B ($186,529) reported the highest average salaries. Financial, Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals, Transportation, Telecom, Manufacturing, and Services businesses all reported average salaries between $150,000 and $180,000. The lowest reported average salaries were in Distribution, Hospitality, Industrial, and Retail organizations.

Job Title Mix

Senior Management (Presidents, Vice Presidents, and General Managers) accounts for 15.1% of overall job titles among survey respondents. Managers are the largest individual group (38.6%), followed by Directors (31.1%), and Analysts (11.6%). “Other” job titles totaled 3.6% of survey respondents.

Reporting Structures and Experience in Pricing

More pricers report to Senior Management (26.8%) than any other function, followed by large groups that report to Finance (20.0%), Marketing (19.6%), and to a Business Unit (11.6%). Smaller groups reported to Sales (9.6%) or to a Product Group or Product Management (8.8%). 2.0% reported to Operations, and about 1.6% reported a combination of the above or operate in a different reporting structure. The most noteworthy trend in reporting structures is an increasing number of respondents reporting to Marketing and Business Units and a smaller number reporting to Finance and Sales.

Our respondents reported a range of experience within pricing. 4.4% claimed that they have two years or less experience, and 16.7% stated three to five years of experience. The largest groups were 11-20 years (34.1%), six to ten years (24.2%), and more than 20 years of experience in pricing (20.6%).

Overall Job Satisfaction

This is the 13^th survey in which we have asked respondents about their level of job satisfaction and about unmet wants and needs. On a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied), pricing professionals rated their jobs 7.33, which was much higher (+0.20) than our previous survey. Vice Presidents reported a much higher than average overall job satisfaction of 7.83. Directors reported a lower overall rating (7.19), while Managers were slightly higher at 7.36 and Analysts were lower at 6.86.

PPS Pricing Power Index

Our December 2023 survey was the fifth iteration in which we asked respondents about their assessment of their company’s pricing power to determine the PPS Pricing Power Index. This year’s overall average was 6.56 on a scale of 1 (no pricing power whatsoever) to 10 (absolute and complete pricing power), which represented a small increase from last year’s average of 6.47.

There was an interesting mixture of reported Pricing Power when responses were broken down by Job Title: Vice Presidents reported high Pricing Power at 6.90, but Directors were lower at 6.47. Managers answered 6.54, and Analysts reported the lowest Pricing Power at 6.38. Perceived Pricing Power was highest towards the top of the organizational chart and lowest on the Analyst level.

There was also significant deviation in the PPS Pricing Power Index depending on the respondent’s Industry. Leisure / Hospitality (7.65), Wholesale (7.50), Services (7.38), Consulting (7.31), Financial (7.26), and Retail (7.22) businesses reported higher than average Pricing Power, while Distribution (6.35), Utilities (6.33), Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals (6.19), Agriculture (6.12), Industrial (5.88), and Transportation (5.80) all reported lower than average Pricing Power. Logistics, B2B, Manufacturing, Telecom, and High Tech were all in a middle range close to the overall average Pricing Power responses.

Overall, respondents from the Euro Zone (6.76) reported higher average Pricing Power than those in the USA (6.54). Canadians (6.86) reported higher than average Pricing Power, while those in the United Kingdom (6.20) and Brasil were lower (6.11).

Other Elements within Job Satisfaction

We asked pricers to rate their feelings about certain elements within the profession. 90.5% reported satisfaction in knowing that pricing is strategically important for their companies (this is down from 92.5% in our last survey), and 67.9% find their careers intellectually stimulating (down from 73.9%). 68.7% find their careers challenging (down from 70.5%), but over half (52.0%) felt that they were underappreciated by their firms (down from 55.2%). Less than half (45.2%) described their jobs as “rewarding.”

“Training Opportunities” received an average score of 5.95 on a 10-point scale, down from 6.14 last year. “Recognition and Acknowledgement Received from Employers” was rated 6.20, which is higher than last year’s average of 6.05.

The highest–rated elements of job satisfaction were “Communication within the Pricing Group” (7.86) and “Amount of Influence” (7.41). “Communication with other Groups” received 6.79 and “Career Advancement Opportunities” increased slightly versus our last survey (6.45 vs. 6.36).

The most satisfying job aspect for pricers was “Increasing Company Profitability” (63.5% of survey respondents), which was followed closely by “Overall Company Success” (62.3%). The least satisfying aspect was dealing with “Corporate Politics,” mentioned in 52.0% of all responses, followed by “Being Understaffed” (40.5% of all responses).

Software Use

About one-third of respondents (33.9%) say that their companies are using externally designed pricing-specific software. This is slightly higher than those who primarily use Microsoft Excel or something similar for pricing (30.3%). An increasing number use internally developed or in-house pricing software (15.9%), and 10.0% say that they are currently in the process of changing software tools. 9.9% of respondents do not use and are not considering adopting pricing-specific software.

Other Items

We also asked our members for qualitative answers on how to improve their pricing power and job satisfaction. The most common answers centered on:

• Increased access to data and analytics
• Better communication and teamwork with Sales, Product Teams, and Management
• Additional training for themselves and other departments
• More career advancement opportunities
• Improved systems and pricing tools
• Increased staffing and hiring to relieve workloads

Survey respondents reported various levels of salesforce involvement in pricing processes, with some saying that sales teams have “free reign” to do whatever they want while others are tightening guardrails on pricing flexibility in the sales department.

We asked a question about gender in this year’s survey. Of those respondents who chose to identify and answer, 31.1% were female and 68.9% 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.