Holden Advisors Blog

During our recent Virtual Backbone workshops, our participants have been sharing interesting insights about the psychological aspect of negotiating. We wanted to share some with you:

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone

Recently, we launched our Virtual Backbone initiative to help improve sales teams' negotiating performance, all from the comfort and safety of their home office. The results are great, but we wanted to share a few additional insights based on participant feedback.   

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone

This is a scary time for suppliers and their sales teams. Customers concerned with the impact of COVID-19 are canceling or postponing projects and curtailing spending. As a result, suppliers are losing revenue and seriously considering pay cuts and/or layoffs to help them through this difficult time.

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone, winning proposal, value selling, procurement

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.

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

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.

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone, value selling

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?

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone, value selling

Do you think your sales team effectively sells the value that you provide to your customers? And how would you measure that, anyway?

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone, value selling

How many blog posts have you read that start with something like, “As a 20-year sales veteran, I’ve experienced …blah…blah…blah”?  It’s amusing how sellers use tenure as a crutch for complacency. It sounds reasonable though, right? Why shouldn’t my performance speak for itself? 

Topics: Negotiating with Backbone, value, sales

Do you have a relationship with key decision makers? 

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

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