What is a pricing analyst and the skills/experience needed to do the job?

Answer 1

that's a great q. first, you must be comfortable with software such as excel, and powerpoint. you will be in sales and sales/ ops meetings where you will have to present your case and defend it. you will deal with customers, less directly.


you will not be good at this on a corporate level if you are pc illiterate, are a slow learner who always needs training every time something new comes along, can't think on your feet, can't argue your points as to why you priced something the way you did, can't work under pressure, can't work between sales and ops as [sales wants low prices and ops wants high], gets nervous speaking with customers.

most of the time you will be creating matrices which are in excel and are part of the RFP's [requests for proposals] which sales requires of you. good luck.

Answer 2

It really depends exactly what item you want to price.

If you want to price goods & services, then you would need someone with a strong backround in Economics, and a degree in either (Economics, Marketing, or Mathematics). The obvious experience needed to do the job are past experiences in pricing goods & servises and a proven track record of positive results/preformance.

If you want to price capital instruments (Stocks, Bonds, Options, and other Derivatives), you will need someone with a degree in either (Accounting, Economics, or Finance). For Bond pricing, anyone with a degree in Accounting & Finance can price Bonds; however, some practical experience is useful. For instance, if someone walks in with an internship from S&P or Moody's, he's much more likely to be hired than someone fresh out of college. Furthermore, Options & Derivatives need a strong quantitative backround. You will need to look through someone's transcript and see that they have taken Corporation Finance, Securities/Investment Analysis, Calculus, Intermediate Macroeconomics, and Econometrics (or some other equivalent course that is heavy and rigorous on Statistical Analysis dealing with Securities).

I hope this was helpful. Best of Luck!