Basics

• Pricing coordinators work with other department heads, such as advertising and sales managers, to come up with reasonable costs of a company's merchandise or services. He generates ideas on how to promote products and advertise special deals. In order to accurately do that, he must be aware of his company's policies and mission, as well as which customers it's trying to reach or add. Pricing coordinators also help with product development.
  
  

Traits

• A pricing coordinator must be passionate about the products being sold and have a thorough knowledge of her industry. She should be an expert communicator, considering she interacts with everyone from managers to other departments to employees to potential customers and clients. She also must be organized, analytical, dependable and innovative. On top of those things, pricing coordinators need to be proficient in math, and able to work well independently or as members of a team.
  
  

Background

• Qualifications to become a pricing coordinator vary by industry. Most coordinators have obtained a bachelor's degree with an emphasis on marketing. Other areas of study include business, communications, advertising, sales and administration. Occasionally, he will have a training certificate, although certificates are typically only needed for advancement. Almost all coordinators have spent time in the field's lower levels, working in sales or marketing departments.
  
  

Prospects

• More than 175,000 workers were employed as marketing managers in May 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS. While pricing coordinators aren't always the head of marketing departments, the jobs are likely to increase at the same rate of 13 percent from 2008 to 2018 decade, as projected by the BLS. "Marketing managers and their departments constitute some of the most important personnel in an organization" and are less likely to suffer from downsizing than other departments, the BLS reports.
  
  

Earnings

• Pricing coordinators earned anywhere from $38,000 to nearly $85,000 per year, as of April 2010, according to PayScale.com. Those figures were based largely on the pricing coordinator's experience, industry and responsibilities.