If we’re being brutally honest, there aren’t many people involved in B2B pricing who actually planned on being in pricing.
Most often, you’re doing something else…accounting, sales ops, marketing, etc….when a pricing-focused opportunity comes up. And in some cases, you’ll either be asked to take it on, or you’ll simply be assigned to the task.
So, you end-up with a business card that says “pricing” on it, but you may have very little knowledge specific to the practice of B2B pricing. This not only makes it difficult to gain respect internally, it makes it tough to advance your career.
Great situation, right? But wait…there’s more…
How to Advance Your Career in B2B Pricing
In this day and age, you can’t just expect things to happen, you have to make things happen. This tutorial explains eight different "plays" to effectively manage and advance your career in pricing.
Very often, the people who have placed you into this pricing role will know very little about pricing themselves.
They may know they need a dedicated pricing function, but they’ve spent their careers doing other things, too. So, it’s very unlikely that they’re going to be able provide all the knowledge and skills a pricing person needs to be effective. In fact, they may not even be able recognize what’s needed, in order to get you the proper training.
So, don’t risk it! The lesson here is that you need to be proactive.
You need to take it upon yourself to make sure you’re getting what you need to increase your pricing skills and knowledge. Create a sort of self-development program and get after it. Set aside at least a few hours every week to learn more about pricing in a B2B environment by reading books, perusing websites, attending webinars, and so on.
Because it helps them to help you, your superiors will more than likely support your self-development efforts. It’s also very likely that they’ll actually admire your initiative and drive, viewing you as a “self-starter”.
And when you start putting what you’ve learned into practice? They’ll take your suggestions and recommendations a lot more seriously, because they’ll know that you’ve done your homework.
