Holden Advisors Blog

Recently, one of our clients—a sales executive at a leading chemical manufacturer—was facing a problem that we see time and time again in negotiations.  Our sales executive, let’s call him Bob, had submitted an RFP response for a contract renewal.  Bob’s customer came back and stated that a competitor had offered a significantly lower price.  To make matters worse, Bob was informed that if he didn’t reduce his price, all the business would go to his competitor.  Unfortunately, Bob’s feet were being held to the fire internally, as the customer in question contributed a significant amount of revenue.

81% of companies say they will compete mostly or completely based on customer experience (CX) (Gartner). At the same time, 72% of CX professionals do not feel their programs are very successful at driving business outcomes (MaritzCX). Does that mean those 81% of companies that plan to differentiate themselves are going to fail? It does if they’re using the same approach as the 72% doing it now.

Building off our recent video blog on the difference between use cases and personas, watch below as Tim Mullane explains how to go deeper to find actionable use cases within the same industry sector. The obvious use cases exist between application and industry. The trick is to look beyond the apparent applications to the use cases that support them. 

So there it is. Amazon’s year long quest for its second headquarters has finally ended with an announcement that the will be shared by two cities, Long Island City, New York and Arlington, Virginia. When Jeff Bezos first announced the plan for HQ2, he promised to scour the nation for the right candidate, soliciting bids from cities across that nation outlining their plans on infrastructure, education and, of course, the tax breaks they were willing to give to have the honor of hosting Amazon’s second home and the jobs and prosperity that would bring.

It's not just about knowing your customer, but also about really knowing your customer's product and how they plan to use it. In this video, Tim expands on Ellen Quackenbush's recent blog to illustrate how you should be thinking about and approaching personas vs. use cases. 

Today’s customers are savvier and more impatient than ever. Being a Challenger and disrupting the customer’s status quo is just not enough anymore.

I was speaking with the VP of Pricing Transformation for a Fortune 500 company recently and, as disciples of value-based pricing, we debated the subtleties of modern-day pricing theory. We agreed that a shift to value-based pricing within an organization should achieve the following:

Watch as Tim Mullane explains the key to escaping the ever-dangerous discounting cycle. Give-Gets℠ – a valuable tool for any value-centric commercial strategy – follow a simple principle: If I give you something, I get something in return.  What Give-Gets℠ do you have for your team?

Personas are a great tool for the right situation but are often over-used by marketing to communicate with customers and generate leads.  Personas define how a person in a specific role—let’s say the General Manager of a Business or the VP of Sales—thinks about their key challenges, KPIs, or opportunities to drive business improvement.

Has the Relationship Buyer truly vanished from the B2B marketplace? What happens when a Value Buyer chooses to go with a competitive offering? Watch the following video as Erin Cihak explains the different buyer types and how they present themselves in B2B negotiations. Utilizing a recent client engagement, Erin highlights a few tactics which can be employed to defend price in a competitive market, and reveals the one thing to which the Value Buyer is always loyal.