Holden Advisors Blog

2019 was an exciting year for Holden Advisors, filled with thought-provoking and timely content reflecting key takeaways from special events and outlining optimal strategies to address the most pressing commercial challenges. As we reflect on the past year, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued interest in our publications and spotlight the 5 articles you loved the most in 2019.

Each year, Holden Advisors hosts an Executive Customer Forum to discuss the most pressing topics facing commercial organizations. This year, I had the honor of facilitating a discussion on how to build organizational commitment as it relates to commercial transformation - the central theme for the meeting. Specifically, we discussed the mindset required for leaders to effectively propagate their visions across their organizations. The following is a recap of the presentation and, at the end, we discuss three key findings from the executive discussion.

Is your product a commodity? Is it really? Or, do your customers cry commodity during negotiations to get you to decrease your price? Watch the video below and listen as Adele McLean talks about how you can get out from under this tough negotiation tactic and avoid the commodity trap.

The Buyer-Seller Gap is getting its share of press these days. Even HBR is in on the fun, having tabulated seven daunting reasons why salespeople can’t close the deal. It gets worse: only about 55% of us make quota. I wonder if accountants are as bombarded with data about how badly they perform.

One of the first things that first responders do when they start to treat a trauma victim is to find out where the victim is bleeding. Second, they determine which of those injuries is most life threatening. 

Are you sick of hearing about the need to protect your premium high value offerings and stop discounting? Well, you may be sick of hearing it, but it's true.

Generally speaking, as a seller to a seller, we know that big sales opportunities are both a blessing and a curse. While they offer the opportunity for “quota busting” years, they also carry a heavy spotlight and the pressure that comes along with it. This pressure churns our emotions, generating angst in even the most tenured sales pros. How do you deal with the stress?

When Holden Advisors started almost 2 decades ago, our practice was rooted in B2B pricing. Reed Holden, our founder, co-authored the book that became the industry’s standard academic and practical pricing reference.

The business world is full of great ideas that don’t get adopted. Some require too many resources, some are too expensive, and others don’t fit within an organization’s strategy.  Then there are the millions and millions of ideas that fit within a budget, aren’t too hard to execute and perfectly align with an organization’s goals … and still aren’t adopted.  Why not?  People fear change.

A recent article on pricing power referenced the example of Martin Shkreli’s Turing Pharmaceutical decision to raise the price of Daraprim by 5000%. Shkreli famously purchased the rights to an older off-patent drug used to treat infection in AIDS patients and dramatically raised the price – a demonstration of pricing power. The following controversy caught up with Shkreli, who gloated that he didn’t raise the price enough. Investigators couldn’t jail him for the Daraprim price, but digging found other dirt and he was sentenced to seven years for fraud related to his former hedge fund.