Synopses & Reviews
“Procurement relief! Salespeople can unlock the mystery of procurement price pressure and bidding wars for less than the price of a dinner. Negotiating with Backbone is the first negotiation book of its kind that doesn’t teach ‘manipulative tricks’–rather it focuses on winning strategies that turn into orders. Buy it, read it, bank it.”
–Jeffrey Gitomer, author, Little Red Book of Selling
“It comes as no surprise that evolving procurement organizations are placing increasing pressure on supplier salespeople. Holden distinguished among price, relationship, and value buyers; then offers down-to-earth practical approaches for successful business results. The entire sales organization will learn from Negotiating with Backbone; after all, Holden’s been there, done that!”
–Noel Capon, R.C. Kopf Professor of International Marketing, Columbia Business School; coauthor, Sales Eats First
“This is a must-read for sales, sales management, and even executive management. The recent evolution of procurement to negatively impact seller margins and therefore sales commissions with complex buying behaviors is real! Holden provides detailed steps to recognize and address these strategies and tactics to maximize profitability. More than a book, it’s a reference guide that should be at your fingertips to use daily to coach and mentor the sales organization. It will with me.”
–Lewis Miller, CEO and President, Qvidian
If you sell B2B (or lead a B2B sales organization), you’re facing a brutal, profit-draining force that threatens your very survival: the procurement department. In Negotiating with Backbone, world-renowned pricing strategist Dr. Reed K. Holden offers a complete plan for “re-leveling” the playing field, restoring your pricing power, fighting back against ruthless procurement organizations—and winning!
Holden reviews how customer buyer behaviors and the procurement function have permanently transformed the sales process and why “conventional” selling is getting even tougher. Next, he shows how to systematically anticipate and respond to each of procurement’s most sophisticated traps, gambits, and tricks.
Negotiating with Backbone brings together actionable best practices for strengthening customer relationships and selling with tangible value, despite procurement’s interference…negotiating far more effectively with “economic buyers” of all kinds… fixing pricing mistakes you’ve already made…giving sales teams all the tools and insights they now need to succeed!
Understand your true value and power in the sales process
What procurement doesn’t want you to know—about them, and about you
Re-stack the deck in your favor
Ten detailed tactics for escaping the procurement buzzsaw
Recognize and plan for every type of buyer
Get better results with price buyers, relationship buyers, value buyers, and poker players
Stop surrendering, start negotiating
Master today’s eight most important negotiating scenarios for each buyer behavior
Synopsis
Sales professionals now confront the most serious threat to their success. Regardless of their size, industry, country, customer type, nature of the relationship or amount of value they provide, sales professionals are finding that purchasing decisions are increasingly being limited by procurement. The modern procurement function is purchasing on steroids. Where traditional purchasing managers negotiated, procurement officials attempt to dictate. Procurement deploys a variety of tactics designed to do one thing: gain unprecedented discounts and concessions out of even the most sophisticated sales professionals. This book is a strategy guide for salespeople to help them level the procurement playing field by showing readers how to assess the game procurement plays, describing proven ways to resist discounting and protect margins, demonstrating ways to keep value at the forefront of negotiations, offering targeted tactics to protect hard-earned profits from mindless discounting, and detailing eight strategies effective in any type of pricing negotiation. This book will be an invaluable resource for B2B sales professionals, customer-facing professionals, and executives responsible for leading successful sales organizations.
About the Author
Reed K. Holden, CEO and Founder of Holden Advisors, is a world-class pricing expert who has spent the past 20 some years helping clients build go-to-market strategies to drive price leadership and profitable growth. His firm has been consulting with clients for 10 years to improve and sustain pricing power in highly competitive markets. His latest work with salespeople focuses on successfully dealing with high pressure procurement departments through more effective value positioning, selling, and negotiation. With Mark Burton, he wrote Pricing with Confidence: Ten Ways to Stop Leaving Money on the Table. He is also coauthor of the second and third editions of The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I THE GREAT GAME OF PROCUREMENT 15
Chapter 1 Tough Selling—The New Normal 17
Company-Supported Sales Traps to Avoid 20
Encouraging Desperation Pricing 20
Succumbing to the “White Horse Syndrome” 21
There Is Hope if You Play the Game Right 24
Chapter 2 The Tells of the Game 27
Recognizing “Tells” 28
Evaluating Procurement’s Position 31
Dealing with Procurement Styles 33
Chapter 3 Stacking the Deck in Your Favor 37
Understanding Your Customer’s Game 39
Finding Your Hidden Power 41
Limiting Exposure of Senior Executives 42
Firing the Customer 44
Avoiding the Endowment Effect 46
Customer Games 49
Chapter 4 Getting the Tactics Right the First Time 51
Qualify, Qualify, Qualify 52
Understand Your Foundation of Value 56
Develop Give-Get Options 59
Try Give-Get Bluffs 63
Provide Value-Added Services 64
Use the Concepts of Scarcity and Availability 65
Provide Choices 66
Map the Buying Center 67
Where Appropriate, Build Trust 70
Use the Policy Ploy 72
Delay, Delay, Delay 73
Redefine Risk 75
Dealing with Reverse Auctions 78
Do Your Homework 81
Part II EIGHT KNOCK-’EM-DEAD SCENARIOS FOR WINNING THE GAME 83
Chapter 5 Negotiating with Price Buyers 89
Price Buyers 90
Scenario 1: The Penny Pincher 93
Considerations for How to Price the Deal and the Negotiation for Penny Pinchers 94
Planning the Negotiation for Penny Pinchers 94
Scenario 2: The Scout 99
Assessing the Price Buyer Position and Tactics for Scouts 101
Considerations for How to Price the Deal and the Negotiation for Scouts 101
Planning the Scout Negotiation 101
Chapter 6 Negotiating with Relationship Buyers 105
Relationship Buyers 106
Scenario 3: In the Pack 108
Assessing the Buyer Position and Tactics if You Are in the Pack 109
Considerations for How to Price the Deal and the Negotiation if You Are in the Pack 110
Planning the “in the Pack” Negotiation 110
Scenario 4: The Patient Outsider 112
Assessing the Buyer Position and Tactics for the Patient Outsider 115
Considerations for How to Price the Deal and the Negotiation 116
Planning the Patient Outsider Negotiation 116
Chapter 7 Negotiating with Value Buyers 119
Value Buyers 120
Scenario 5: The Player 122
Assessing the Buyer Position and Tactics of the Value Buyer 123
Considerations for How Price Plays in the Deal and the Negotiation 123
Planning the Player Negotiation 124
Scenario 6: The Crafty Outsider 126
Planning the Crafty Outsider Negotiation 128
Chapter 8 Negotiating with Poker Players 131
Poker Players 132
Scenario 7: The Advantaged Player 135
Assessing Buyer Position and Tactics for the Advantaged Player 138
Considerations for How Price Plays in the Deal and the Negotiation for the Advantaged Player 138
Planning the Advantaged Player Negotiation 138
Scenario 8: The Rabbit 141
Assessing the Buyer Position and Tactics for Rabbits 141
Considerations for How Price Plays in the Deal and the Negotiation 142
Planning the Rabbit Negotiation 142
Advanced Gamesmanship 143
Part III IT’S A NEGOTIATION, NOT A SURRENDER 147
Chapter 9 Beware the Signs of a Losing Game 149
Don’t Kid Yourself 150
Get a Devil’s Advocate 153
Beware Red Flags 154
Customers Have No Experience with You or Your Firm 154
Procurement Runs the Process Tightly 155
The Process Is Controlled at the Manager Level 155
Buyer Has a Well-Established Incumbent 156
Sales Is Unable to Get to the Decision Maker 157
Buyer’s Focus Is Only on Price and Says That All Products Are Commodities 158
Chapter 10 The Realities of the Game 161
Sometimes You Have to Discount 161
Remember a Simple Checklist 164
Develop Your Playbook 165
Don’t Be a Victim 166
Get Some Backbone 167
Index 175