Jon Jennings is the Founder and Managing Partner of Jennings Executive Search, LLC. He began his career with a boutique recruiting firm, building relationships with C-Level accounting and finance professionals utilizing a research-based approach of study and analysis to best serve his clients. 

In 2012, Jon took this approach to a larger firm where he worked with several CFOs to build entire accounting and finance departments and gain a large firm perspective in how to build a successful practice. This experience led to the creation of Jennings Executive Search, LLC. 

In this episode, Jon talks about how he matches pricing talents depending on a strategy the company uses and each company’s preferences, what screening process he uses when looking for pricing people.  He also shares how he guides companies in choosing the best pricing leader they can get as sometimes they don’t know what they are looking for. He also emphasizes on skill sets a pricing person should develop and acquire early on as he starts to elevate his career along the way. 

 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast: 

• Learn how to build out your skillset as a pricing person so you get more relevant in today’s competitive world of pricing
• Find someone who knows Pricing people if you are looking to hire Pricing leaders
• Discover how to find Pricing people that match your company’s strategies to get a good fit to impact the business

 

“Think about what you're leaving on the table. If you're not trying to be creative around pricing, you're losing. If you're not thinking about ways to add some sort of dynamic element in trying to find ways to increase profitability from that standpoint, then someone else is.” 

- Jon Jennings 

 

Topics Covered: 

01:39 - How he got into Pricing 

03:15 - What do they focus on when hiring Pricing people 

03:50 - How the company’s strategy matter when hiring Pricing people 

05:42 - Delineation of roles among Pricing analyst, the VP, and the middle level 

07:03 - HIs screening when looking for Pricing leaders 

08:37 - How they provide guidance to companies when looking for Pricing leaders 

09:39 - Building off of the job description, value-based principles, and the roadmap of the company to find potential Pricing leaders 

11:53 - How he helps clients find Pricing people 

13:49 - Starting with questions to convince a company to hire a pricing person 

15:10 - Suggesting to companies to listen to Impact Pricing   

15:32 - How value-based pricing makes sense in the world of recruitment 

16:48 - Skillset you need to build as a pricing person early on in your career 

18:16 - What more you can do to expand your capabilities as a Pricing person 

19:40 - Beg, borrow and steal 

20:44 - Be a driver and not a whiner 

21:06 - Are pricing people well compensated 

22:37 - Setting differentiators for Pricing persons to match with client companies preferences 

23:48 - Setting expectations for yourself and executing it 

25:20 - The strengths and weaknesses of a consulting talent 

27:15 - HIs impactful advice to help you in your business 

 

Key Takeaways: 

“Our job is to find people who make impacts with fitting culturally and have a history of really impacting the business.” - Jon Jennings 

“It's really about me kind of telling them [client companies] a story, and asking questions to see if I can guide them to a more dynamic solution if they're not already there.”  - Jon Jennings 

“I always start with questions. Because I can't give advice without context.”  - Jon Jennings 

“If I'm advising someone, I have to build out their skill set. There's a couple of elements that you want especially nowadays. Get into as much data science as you can, teach yourself coding. It doesn't matter, as you get to higher levels, obviously, you're not going to utilize that as much, but you're going to still use that a little bit.”  - Jon Jennings 

“As you move up the organization, it's about reaching out across company lines, and not being afraid to go talk to the marketing person, pick people's brains. Try to expand that knowledge as much as you can and just always be learning. That's how you can elevate your career.”  - Jon Jennings 

“Be a driver. Don't be afraid to challenge above you. If you believe in your concept, just be the squeaky wheel until you get some traction.”   - Jon Jennings 

“Being mindful of constantly trying to improve your strategy and looking at competitive advantage and all different elements is 100% key.”  - Jon Jennings 

 

Resources / People mentioned: 

• Professional Pricing Society
• McKinsey
• BCG

 

Connect with Jon Jennings: 

• www.jenningsexec.com
• LinkedIn
• Email: [email protected]

 

Connect with Mark Stiving: 

• Email: [email protected]   
• LinkedIn