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.
Negotiating with Backbone
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
“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
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.
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More About the Author
DR. REED K. HOLDEN (Concord, MA), CEO/Founder of Holden Advisors ), is a world-class pricing expert who helps clients build go-to-market strategies to drive price leadership, selling backbone and profitable growth. He pioneered the Value DisciplineSM, a process to tune and sustain pricing power in highly competitive markets. His latest work focuses on successfully dealing with discount-oriented procurement departments through more effective product positioning, selling, and negotiation. With Mark Burton, he wrote "Pricing with Confidence: Ten Ways to Stop Leaving Money on the Table". When not helping clients improve profitability, Reed is an avid reader, marksman, tractor-driver and beer connoisseur. Find out more about Reed and Holden Advisors at www.HoldenAdvisors.com.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I admit, I'm a sales geek. I don't like selling stuff, I don't like buying stuff but I love the human psychology that goes into making a sale. The little tricks people do to manipulate one anothers emotions is fun to read about. And recently I had a young girl come to my door selling magazine subscriptions and she was good, I'm not sure who taught her the tricks but she almost had me, and I knew she was working me over. It wasn't until she got greedy and tried to get me to buy several hundred dollars worth of magazines that I walked away. She got greedy.
This book is all about sales and the eight strategies to use. This book really is about keeping your morals in place but still getting the job done. It talks about the "tells", how to sell the value to the customer, negotiating and so much more. This is a great book and I highly recommend it. It is laid out well, easy to read in one sitting but good enough to be a reference book to go back to when needed. I'd say get this!
This book is all about sales and the eight strategies to use. This book really is about keeping your morals in place but still getting the job done. It talks about the "tells", how to sell the value to the customer, negotiating and so much more. This is a great book and I highly recommend it. It is laid out well, easy to read in one sitting but good enough to be a reference book to go back to when needed. I'd say get this!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
If you are in sales and your livelihood depends on closing the deal this book is a must own for you. Most negotiation books are a rehash from the yesteryear with nothing new and this book isn't in that category. Here are a few things that you will learn.
It seems that every sector in business has its own type of procurement or the outside buyer who makes the decision for the real buyer. This type of buying has been ramped up over this last few years, you must know how to deal with the outside buyer, what you can and cannot get away with, and the games they play.
Great salespeople know how to really get to the root of the real problem and know not only their products but also what the competition has to offer and also knows what they don't have to offer.
There are times where you can make deals, lose the sale and there are times when you need to know when to walk away from the table. There are some great points that help you outline your sales process and how to figure out what you should do at these situations. You also need to know how to qualify if you have a chance or if your option will ever be entertained.
You must also know how to see and understand the games that buyers play with you and what ploys that they have in store for you. Now some of these you can get from a book and some you just have to live but there are plenty of examples of what can be expected from buyers as they toy with you, your time and your industry knowledge.
This book is easy to follow and can be easy to implement and from reading it you will have a better game plan as to what to do with buyers moving forward.
It seems that every sector in business has its own type of procurement or the outside buyer who makes the decision for the real buyer. This type of buying has been ramped up over this last few years, you must know how to deal with the outside buyer, what you can and cannot get away with, and the games they play.
Great salespeople know how to really get to the root of the real problem and know not only their products but also what the competition has to offer and also knows what they don't have to offer.
There are times where you can make deals, lose the sale and there are times when you need to know when to walk away from the table. There are some great points that help you outline your sales process and how to figure out what you should do at these situations. You also need to know how to qualify if you have a chance or if your option will ever be entertained.
You must also know how to see and understand the games that buyers play with you and what ploys that they have in store for you. Now some of these you can get from a book and some you just have to live but there are plenty of examples of what can be expected from buyers as they toy with you, your time and your industry knowledge.
This book is easy to follow and can be easy to implement and from reading it you will have a better game plan as to what to do with buyers moving forward.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By JDP
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Just got Negotiating with Backbone from Amazon yesterday expecting to have some good reference material. I only got into the introduction the first night and saw how valuable it is going to be for our company. The book provides the tools to direct our sales rationale to the VP of procurement, who has bogged down decisions for our salesmen for almost two years. Thanks to the author for being so far-sighted and getting this out. It couldn't be more timely and we'll order a book for each of our sales people.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very trite
I read this book as a sole proprietor hoping to raise my customer's awareness about my value to their operations, and to defend the pricing that my firm uses during our... Read more
Published 12 days ago by Swati S. Desai
4.0 out of 5 stars
A B2B Negotiation Book Written From the Sales Perspective
This book is written primarily for those who sale to other businesses. It contains lots of great strategy on how to deal with differing business mentalities and helps identify... Read more
Published 26 days ago by Jonathan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Insightful for Anyone Involved in the Sales World
I didn't think much would come from reading it, especially after I realized that It offered a perspective from my opposition in negotiating. Read more
Published 1 month ago by AmazonLover
5.0 out of 5 stars
sings to the sales geek in me
Okay, I'll admit it: I love everything that has to do with sales. This book, "Negotiating with Backbone: Eight Sales Strategies to Defend Your Price and Value" is an excellent take... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mark Gold
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great practical advice
I only wish I had read this book much earlier only in my career and then would have negotiated my compensation package differently
Published 2 months ago by Jim Thomas
3.0 out of 5 stars
B2B interactions simplified
A simplistic view of the interactions in standardised B2B pricing discussions. Reed adds stories of his own experience but the book ends up being necessarily generic rather than... Read more
Published 3 months ago by MB
5.0 out of 5 stars
smart, useful, and concise tool
The author makes a dry topic fascinating using game theory and social psychology demonstrated using anecdotes. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Hedera Femme
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best books on Cusotmer-Vendor Negotiation
This is not your generic negotiation book which talks about negotiating in hostage crisis, sales, family ... Read more
Published 4 months ago by XNOR
4.0 out of 5 stars
I'd highly recommend the book for anyone in sales or sales management
"Negotiating With Backbone: Eight Sales Strategies To Defend Your Price And Value" by Reed K. Holden is a very good book for those in procurement. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Alain B. Burrese
4.0 out of 5 stars
Helpful
A look at the negotiating process and how to come out ahead without anyone feeling destroyed. I would read other books by this author.
Published 5 months ago by M. P. Wallace
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