PPS and Pricing with Kevin Mitchell: What makes a strong pricing leader today?
This episode marks a first – it’s the Pricing Friends debut in English. Dr. Sebastian Voigt speaks with Kevin Mitchell, President of the Professional Pricing Society (PPS), about global pricing trends, the evolution of the profession, and what defines effective leadership in a rapidly changing environment.
Kevin shares insights from his decades of experience in building a worldwide pricing community. How do different regions approach monetization? What role do education and certification play? And how can pricing experts stay ahead when AI and data are transforming their tools and expectations?“The pricing profession has grown tremendously – and with that growth come new responsibilities. Communication, collaboration, and curiosity matter more than ever,” says Kevin.
The conversation explores international developments, practical lessons from the PPS network, and the qualities that make today’s pricing leaders stand out – from strategic thinking to empathy and the ability to translate value into action.
About the guest:
Kevin Mitchell is President of the Professional Pricing Society (PPS), the world’s leading organization for pricing professionals. Based in Atlanta, PPS has thousands of members around the globe and has certified over 10,000 individuals through its Certified Pricing Professional (CPP) program. Kevin has led the society since 2007 and regularly speaks at conferences across North America, Europe, and Asia. Under his leadership, PPS has become a global hub for education, networking, and the professionalization of pricing.
Transkript
Kevin MitchellSo, what I hear about AI with pricing people, and I know some of us have a lot of anxiety when we talk about AI, if you are a pricing professional, and what I've heard from quite a few experts is that AI alone is not going to replace pricing people or pricing departments, but people who are good and who use AI as a tool better than those who do not use it as well or who do not use it at all, will have an advantage.
Sebastian VoigtHello everyone and welcome to a special episode of Pricing Friends, because as you may already hear from my voice, it's the first time ever we're switching to English. I know we spoke with Kevin Mitchell, the President of the Professional Pricing Society, about his language skills. And despite my English may not be perfect, we now made the decision that it's better than his German, or Kevin? Have you caught up?
Kevin MitchellThat is correct. Thank you so much, Sebastian.
Sebastian VoigtLet let's stick to English. And I look forward to the discussion with you. You're a true veteran of the global pricing community. I guess everybody who listens to Pricing Friends occasionally or regularly should know the Professional Pricing Society. In case you don't, you get a second chance through this podcast. And with Kevin, we plan, obviously, to dive into all kind of pricing trends, talent, technology. Of course, we touch base AI, and yeah, let's get started. Welcome, Kevin, to the show.
Kevin MitchellSebastian, thank you so much. And of course, thank you for the language as well. I'm working on my German, but I am a long, long way away. Your English is multitudes better than my German probably ever will be, but I'm so thankful for the opportunity to talk with you today. So Sebastian, thank you so much.
Sebastian VoigtThanks for being here. So, Kevin, tell us a little bit about the PPS and yourself for those who may not know the Professional Pricing Society and yourself.
Kevin MitchellAbsolutely. We here at Professional Pricing Society, at the PPS, are very, very proud of our decades-long history. We are for, by, and about pricing people all of the time. And believe it or not, our history goes back 50 years, or actually probably even a little bit more than that. A lot of us who have been around a long time have have heard of a gentleman named Eric Mitchell, who is my father. PPS is a family business for me. And he was a pricing practitioner way back before pricing was ever cool. He was a pricing practitioner in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I remember when I was growing up, for a couple of years we lived in Detroit. He did pricing for the Ford Mustang and the parts for that. And he worked for a lot of companies being a pricing practitioner, like a lot of us listening in today. And after a few years of that, he became a consultant, and there was a small group of people, back then they were all men, who also were pricing consultants. We're talking 1970s, maybe into the early 1980s. I'm thinking about people like Hermann Simon, and people like Kent Monroe and Reed Holden and Tom Nagle, many of whom who have written the books that are on our shelves and that we all know of and have known for years. So, he was one of the godfathers of pricing as a science 50 years ago. And he grew a little bit tired of that, and one day he called all of his would-be competitors, and he said, "Hermann Simon, I want you to write me an article about analytics. Tom Nagle, I want you to write me an article about the economic value estimation. Kent Monroe, you write me an article about partnering with your sales team." And he made a newsletter. And to tell you how long I've been around pricing, when I was a small kid, it was my job after school and during the summer to print out the newsletter, to mail it out, to build a database of our early members. And basically, I've been around PPS for more than 40 years now, believe it or not. And yes, so we are a family business. We have been for, by, and about pricing people, revenue management people, sales enablement people for more than 40 years. And so, our long history gives us a lot of opportunities. We have done conferences in Europe every non-pandemic year since 2005, and we did virtual conferences
Sebastian VoigtWe don't do pandemics anymore, Kevin. So, no worries.
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