Pricing represents a key aspect of success in business for most companies. A price that is too low represents potential lost profits for the company, while a price that is too high means lost customers. The pricing coordinator oversees pricing to ensure that businesses charge a fair price for their products or services, allowing the company to maximize profits.

Daily Life

The pricing coordinator is involved with all aspects of product or service pricing in the organization. This includes setting new prices, reviewing existing prices and creating profitability reports. The pricing coordinator collaborates with the marketing department and the sales team to determine prices for new products. In addition, she gathers cost information for the new products in order to calculate profitability. For existing products, she obtains current cost information to determine current profitability. If profitability drops, she recommends price increases and works with the sales team to create a plan for implementing the price increase. Periodically, she will prepare profitability reports to share with management, highlighting which products or customers provide the highest profits for the company.

Required Qualifications

A successful pricing coordinator demonstrates several qualities in the workplace. These include spreadsheet skills, written and verbal communication skills, analytical ability and problem-solving skills. Most pricing calculations and analyses are performed using spreadsheets. By understanding the functions available in a spreadsheet, the pricing coordinator can design a file that can quickly calculate prices based on specific parameters and free from mathematical errors. Communication skills allow him to interact with colleagues to both gain and share pricing information. A pricing coordinator with analytical ability can make recommendations to increase profitability by increasing or decreasing prices. Problem-solving skills give the pricing coordinator the ability to recommend solutions for customers unwilling to pay the given price, such as offering alternate lower cost products for those customers.

Education and Compensation

According to Glassdoor.com, the median pay earned by a pricing coordinator is $35,000 annually as of 2014. This pay ranges between $24,000 and $46,000 depending on the company and its location. A pricing coordinator holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting, business administration or a similar field. A college student considering a career as a pricing coordinator would benefit from participating in the college’s business club.

Advancement Opportunity

A pricing coordinator gains a significant amount of knowledge about the company and its operation. In her role, she works with production, purchasing and research personnel as she obtains product cost information. She works with sales, marketing and customer service employees to determine how customers perceive the pricing structure. As she learns more about the company, she gains an understanding of how the company operates. This perspective increases her value to the company and qualifies her for future opportunities, such as pricing analyst or pricing manager.