Holden Advisors Blog

A reverse auction may land you a new client, but if you are the incumbent, it may be better to say no. Here’s why.

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone, Selling with Confidence, Uncovering your Value, procurement

Want to negotiate a winning deal? Learn the four basic buyer types and leverage the Customer Experience Pyramid to give yourself the winning edge.

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone, Pricing with Confidence, Uncovering your Value, customer experience

In the world of sales, it’s easy to get caught up in the possibilities of an unsolicited RFP. But, if you find yourself dealing with procurement, you might want to save your energy.

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone, Selling with Confidence, Selling with Backbone

Holden Advisors has the privilege of working with some of the top global sales organizations which affords us visibility into challenges that leaders in those organizations face on a daily basis. We're frequently asked about these common challenges because they might be applicable to issues encountered by other companies. The following represent the top three themes that we see across our sales performance engagements that Holden Advisors has encountered over the past 10 years.

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone, Selling with Backbone

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. 

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone

Too often, sales teams rely too heavily on discounts or service giveaways to close deals. This leads to a host of issues including leaving money on the table, teaching customers to negotiate hard for discounts and freebies, and eroding the customer's perception of your value.  

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone

When it comes to negotiation, very few sellers spend enough time planning. I encourage you to carve out time to get centered and think about some of the upcoming negotiations you have. There’s a lot to consider, but let's start by thinking differently about your customers and the ways you engage with them.

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone

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.

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone, Selling with Confidence

Are your sales teams spending enough time qualifying their opportunities and defining the right solutions for their customers? Here's how to know if they are on the right track.

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone

2020 was an unexpected year for all of us. It was filled with unprecedented changes to all of our lives, a pivot (for most of us) to doing business virtually, and for us at Holden Advisors, a lot of new and interesting content relating to virtual negotiations and price changes in a pandemic. 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 2020.

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone, Pricing with Confidence, Selling with Backbone, Commercial Transformation