Worksheet: Name one pricing owner

Pricing that belongs to everyone gets done after everything else. This sheet names one owner, writes the mandate, and lines up support from finance and sales. It builds the Competent step of the check:

A named owner runs pricing with a written mandate, supported by finance and sales.

Step 1. The mandate

Item	Written answer
Owner (name)
Decides alone	e.g. list moves within 3%, new product prices inside the strategy
Recommends; others decide
Runs	e.g. the pricing calendar, the analysis, the monthly forum
Reports to, and how often
Measured on	e.g. price realisation, pocket margin
Executive sponsor (name)
Sponsor's time	One hour a week, in the diary

Choose someone who can say no to a discount. A sales manager with a volume target will find that hard.

Step 2. Support

From	Who	Gives what	Time a month
Finance		e.g. margin data, cost to serve, rebate allocation
Sales		e.g. deal information, lost-deal prices, customer feedback
Systems		e.g. loading price changes, reports

Step 3. The first 90 days

Week	Output	Done
2	Mandate signed by the chief executive
4	Pricing calendar published
8	Waterfall for the ten biggest customers
12	First pricing forum held

Done when: one named person holds a signed mandate, and named people in finance and sales support them.

Adapted from our own pricing process (PSP, 2004).