When you’re looking for a pricing job, the job descriptions you see often start to run together. Everyone seems to be looking for the same set of skills:
- Proven work experience
- Bachelor’s degree in a related field
- Strong analytical reasoning
- Knowledge of Excel and MS Office
- Attention to detail
- Exceptional communication skills
A few might refer to some particular tools, or if you’re really lucky, they might mention value-based pricing.
But anyone who’s worked in pricing for more than five minutes knows the real work goes far beyond this list. The true value that a pricing team offers comes not just from understanding the technicalities of pricing, but from getting people to act on them.
A hiring reality check
If you’re hiring for a new position, what does your job description look like? Even more importantly, are you just checking the boxes for technical skills or are you searching for the abilities that really matter.
You see, there are whole categories of pricing skills that rarely show up in pricing job descriptions. Without these skills, you and your team are unlikely to be successful.
In fact, no matter where you are in your career — whether you are looking for a position, trying to hire someone for your team, or just trying to grow in your current role — these are some of the most valuable skills.
And they almost never appear in a job description.
3 underappreciated pricing skills
We go through a whole list of these valuable-but-rarely-requested skills in The Anatomy of a Successful B2B Pricing Analyst. Here are three of our favorites:
- Influence without authority: Do you know how to drive decisions across departments like marketing, sales, finance, and product teams when you don’t control those teams directly? This is a skill every effective pricing team member needs. It isn’t something most job descriptions call for — but it often separates the analysts who have a seat at the table from the ones who get ignored.
- Diagnostic thinking: It’s easy for analysts to jump to pricing compliance or discounts as the root cause of problems. But the best B2B pricing professionals dig deeper. They question segmentation. They investigate deal quality. They identify patterns in behavior, not just numbers. This ability to move past symptoms and uncover real problems is rare — and it’s exactly what most organizations need.
- Storytelling: No, we’re not saying that you need to be writing novels on your lunch break. We’re talking about being able to translate a complex analysis into clear, actionable recommendations that resonate with sales, leadership, and other non-analytical audiences. A great story brings data to life. It inspires people to take definitive action. Analysts who can’t connect their work to a broader narrative often struggle to gain traction — no matter how detailed their analysis is.
Find more invisible skills
If these skills resonate with you — and you’re ready for more — we encourage you to go through The Anatomy of a Successful B2B Pricing Analyst in detail. It can serve as an excellent reference for helping make sure you are developing the most essential “invisible” skills in yourself and in your team.
You should also check out Building the Right Pricing Habits, Being An Internal Pricing Consultant, and Boosting the Pricing Team’s Influence. All three contain insights that can help you take your career to the next level and build an influential and successful team.
We’ve never actually seen a pricing job description that accurately reflects everything that is required to do the position. And truthfully, it would be almost impossible to condense all the requirements into the small space available. But we would love to see more teams hiring for these underappreciated skills.
The Anatomy of a Successful B2B Pricing Analyst
What key competencies are most important for a B2B pricing analyst to have? This guide covers PricingBrew Network research into the 21 most important attributes, skills, and capabilities for B2B pricing analysts to develop or possess.
Building the Right Pricing Habits
Our research has found that what sets true B2B pricing professionals apart is a powerful combination of ongoing behaviors and practices...habits that can be learned and developed over time.
Being An Internal Pricing Consultant
For pricing functions in B2B, frustration and conflict seem inevitable. But learn how a "consulting" mindset and approach can make driving improvement in B2B much easier...and far less frustrating.
Boosting the Pricing Team's Influence
How can a B2B pricing team improve results when they don't control all the cooks in the kitchen? How can they be heard when others don't have to listen? In this session, learn the science of influence and persuasion.
