Holden Advisors Blog

Imagine this: You’re selling your company’s best product. You’ve successfully navigated the gatekeeper to speak with your target buyer (the person who will actually use your product) and have shared enough of a compelling message that they’re willing to engage with you. You figured out that they have the budget to buy your product and have proposed a solution you know will help your buyer achieve their goals. Everything is progressing wonderfully and then your primary point of contact goes…silent.

Topics: customer loyalty, value, gatekeeper

For any salesperson, it’s important to understand why your customers keep coming back:

• Is it because you’re a better deal than your competitors?
• Is it the simplicity of your product offering?
• Is your product suite so specialized, there is no equal?
• Is it too complicated to uninstall your offering?
• Does your customer simply respect their relationship with you, and your product continues to deliver value for their organization?

Topics: customer loyalty, customer experience, value, jump the shark, rolling stone, subscription

Do you have a relationship with key decision makers? 

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone, winning proposal, buying center, rabbit

Where is the market today as far as pricing analytics?

Topics: big data, actionable insights

I recently read an article about new pricing models in the digital era. A few of the key pricing models mentioned included tiered offerings, fixed fees, and subscriptions. I’m sorry to say, these pricing models are not new. However, the nuance they illustrated around metrics is worth noting because, thanks to advances in technology, new metrics have become available that allow companies to measure engagement in ways that were not possible 10 years ago, resulting in metrics that better align with customer value.

Topics: peloton, pricing metrics, on demand, pricing models

We see it often, companies build extensive product portfolios over time, ultimately paralyzing the organization with maintenance activities, instead of focusing on the strategic and tactical elements that deliver value to their customers. This is often referred to as product proliferation. Some causes include:

Topics: product portfolio, tidying up

Here's the question: Is it harder to set prices or control them once they are set? Next, think about where you spend most of your time? Sorry, that was two, but each is equally important. Why?  Because if you struggle with one, you’ll be too busy with the other to fix it.

Topics: Setting Price

Investors have long heralded pricing power as one of the best predictors of a company’s long-term financial success. Warren Buffett’s famous quote from 2010 captures the sentiment.

Topics: Pricing with Confidence

Leading an executive team can be challenging at times, especially during a time of underperformance. A recent client reminded us just how difficult and why.

Topics: Driving Accountability, Silos

Salespeople have bad habits, just like the rest of us. We all know this. Perhaps one of a seller’s worst habits, however, is rampant discounting. This habit is insidious, hard to break, and downright destructive. It falls straight to a company’s bottom line and eats up margins like PAC-MAN.

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone