Holden Advisors Blog

Big or small, almost all B2B companies have to sell to large, powerful companies because they believe that the "big win" keeps the plant running or resources at capacity. Those negotiations are often tough and focus on price. “Tough” isn't quite the right word – how about brutal? Those big companies, or gorillas, control a lot of revenue, and like it or not, we have to sell to them. As a result of those brutal negotiations, the oftentimes smaller seller will lose money or barely break even. 

As a strategic account manager, you take the long view in working with your customers to ensure that each of them gets the right solution. You invest time in evaluating your customer's business and sourcing the best team internally to configure a valuable solution. It takes teamwork, planning, and execution.

The other day I received a call from the CEO of a technology company, and it was not to talk about his company. In this case, I was provided as a reference for a building contractor I had worked with several years ago. The caller’s name was Curt, and like many people building a home, Curt wanted to find a contractor who would do the job on time and not overcharge him. Sounds reasonable, right? Well, not always.

We have received many requests from companies wondering if it is a good idea to increase prices to offset declining sales during the pandemic. While the answer is generally no, it is important to recognize how buyers are changing their behavior and how the pandemic is causing disruption. So I thought it was wise to spend a few minutes reviewing the importance of understanding your distinct customer groups to bring clarity during economic chaos.

We’ve worked with many companies that are going through commercial transformations and, while I’m glad to see more and more companies adopting transformational efforts, the fact remains that many are doomed to fail.

The following article is my reaction to a blog from a friend, Steve Haggett at Iron Mountain.  He responded to an article from our Patrick McCullough about some of the pricing abuses in the pharmaceutical industry. 

It was a tough conversation but in the end, it was simple and quite insightful. It started with a client pushing back on price. We responded that it was going to cost us a lot to get the job done. She came back saying it was a lot of money to support only a few people, especially when they had more to train.  We realized that we could run the engagement with more people in the same session…same cost for us and better outcomes for the client. The client was happy and placed the order.

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.

Last month, I wrote about problems with the phone company that provides service to our home in the woods of Maine. If you don’t remember, the service is terrible and the process to get problems resolved is awful. In any case, we were in Maine recently, and saw a truck for a competitive phone company. I couldn't wait to call them. Though the call was quick and to the point, the customer service representative gave me the options and informed me that it was going to be at least a month before the service became available. When it is available, we will be switching to the new phone provider. Why? Because over time, I have come to absolutely hate dealing with the current telephone provider.