A pricing analyst synthesizes data from different departments in your company to come to a decision about what price you should offer your products for. They consider production costs, the competition’s strategy, consumer trends, product quality and marketing. Pricing analysts not only recommend price points, but they also offer advice about when you should introduce a new product to the public.
To ensure quality work, hire an analyst who has a head for numbers and how those numbers translate into real-world scenarios. Your pricing analyst job description should also emphasize communication skills, since the analyst must be able to communicate his or her findings to company management.
A bachelor’s degree in finance or a similar field is usually all an applicant needs, though a master’s degree may be an asset if your market is subject to frequent fluctuations. Use the pricing analyst job description template below to get started.
Pricing Analyst Job Summary
Do you love to play around with numbers and be involved with the finances of a company? As a pricing analyst, your job is to sort carefully through data, analyze market strategies and consumer habits and make decisions about the future of the company. But if you’re imagining sitting at a desk all day looking at graphs and deciding the best price points for products, think again. Interaction with other employees is a vital part of the job. As you communicate your conclusions to the CFO, company management and the marketing team, you have the opportunity to shape the role of the company in the consumer market.
Job Responsibilities
- Analyze market trends, including competitors’ prices, consumer habits, marketing strategies and profitability
- Synthesize external trends with internal data, including material costs, production costs, prices of products currently on the market, advertisement costs, current financial status and budget
- Deliver informed decisions about the appropriate price points for various products based on the analysis of internal and external data
- Communicate pricing decisions verbally and in written form to the CFO, company management and the marketing and sales teams
- Evaluate consumer trends and use them to advise when certain products should be rolled out on the market
- Monitor the results of pricing decisions by evaluating performance in relation to budget and profit margins and communicating with the sales team regularly
- Revise pricing decisions if necessary, and proactively monitor products’ performance to determine whether reevaluation is needed
- Maintain detailed records for individual products that can be used to evaluate future market trends and inform future pricing decisions
Job Skills & Qualifications
Reqiured:
- Bachelor’s degree in economics, business, accounting, finance or related field
- At least two years of experience in business analytics
- Communication skills, written and verbal
- Analytical, evaluative and data-driven mindset
Preferred:
- Experience with computing software
Pricing Analyst Job Responsibilities
While you expect individuals applying for a position to have a strong and effective resume, your pricing analyst job description must also be effective. The responsibilities section is one of the meatiest parts of the description, and you should take the effort and time to craft it in a way that will attract the best candidates. Each duty should include enough information that jobseekers can envision what the role entails, but it should also be concise.
Include between six and eight important tasks, and use colorful language to get the point across in your pricing analyst job description. The more detail you use, the easier the applicant can picture themselves in the job, and you will have the most qualified people to choose from.
Some common entries you may find in a pricing analyst job responsibilities section include:
- Examine and interpret monthly price moves from competitors, and analyze volume trends in the company as they compare to the industry
- Develop price points for new product launches to improve profit margin and sales volumes
- Ensure pricing accuracy in various marketplaces and systems and align them with strategic goals
- Communicate with management the status of pricing forecast, revenues and strategies
- Work closely with operations and merchandising teams to capture pricing strategies and opportunities
Pricing Analyst Job Specifications
Although the job responsibilities section of your pricing analyst job description is one of the most important parts, the qualifications and skills section is essential as well. When you design this correctly, you can greatly narrow down the applicant field because only those who are truly qualified will apply. Ideally, this section should include the company’s requirements for education level, hard and soft skills, technical proficiencies, personality traits, physical requirements and professional certifications.
Use bullet points to list each qualification, which will help keep the section short and easy to read. Discuss the role with others close to the position and determine both required skills and preferred traits that an applicant should possess. If possible, include the most important ones in the pricing analyst job description, which will discourage jobseekers who are under- or overqualified from applying. This will save you a lot of time when sifting through applications.
To get an idea of what you may want to include, the following are some typical pricing analyst job specifications:
- Bachelor’s degree required with a minimum of three years’ experience preferred
- Strong analytical skills and attention to detail
- Proficient in Excel
- Effective communication skills
- Strong project-management and organizational skills
- Ability to work independently as well as part of a team