Nikos Panagiotakos, Senior Pricing Analyst for Fintech company, WorldRemit, has a true passion for pricing. This has translated in his success and the expertise he has picked up during his time working within the sector. Nikos also has a love for travelling and history, using his weekends to see new places and experience new cultures, and discover more about their history.
Pull to Pricing"My first introduction to pricing was in a shipping-line, where I had to quote and negotiate freight rates for global shipments of dry cargo from Europe to Asia and Middle East.
I was really attracted to Pricing because it is such an important element of every negotiation with customers. It is impressive how the pricing strategy can help your business grow or how easily you can lose business if the pricing strategy is not competitive.
Working in pricing means you have to analyse the markets, be aware of the competitors’ activities, services, products and prices.
Moreover, you must keep yourself updated about technological developments in the industry and find the golden price points that generate margin, while at the same time making your products or services competitive.
If you manage to marry the price strategy with the customer service and other additional elements then you have the winning package!Are the above complicated and difficult to achieve? This is exactly what excites me about pricing! The fact that I must find solutions to marry all the above."
Progress of Pricing
"Nowadays, I believe companies invest more in their pricing teams and spend more time evaluating their pricing strategies than in the past.
Around 5 years ago, some companies did not even have pricing teams and now pricing is in the heart of the commercial and finance operations.
Moreover, marketing teams work closely with pricing teams in some companies in order to exchange market feedback. This is mainly because competition is getting stronger and therefore margin rooms become tighter and most industries are quite price sensitive."
Future of Pricing
"At the moment, many companies try to hire inspiring and skilful people to build the pricing strategy and give more commercial insights. I see this trend to be continued moving forward.
However, I also predict a more serious turn into other value adding elements of the products or services that can help pricing when it is not enough itself to secure or grow the business.
We should not forget that pricing is one of the most important things, but nothing can bring wins without support and additional values or benefits."