Reed Holden is an author and keynote speaker for Negotiating with Backbone and Pricing with Confidence. Reed provides B2B pricing and negotiating advice to clients building go-to-market strategies to drive price leadership, selling backbone, and profitable growth.  

Dr. Holden specializes in helping sales teams avoid the Procurement Buzz Saw by implementing strategies to recognize and counter margin-reducing buying tactics. 

In this episode, Reed talks about how Pricing has changed in the last twenty years. With the new normal still to stay for some time, he advises to fundamentally change the way we communicate with our people and pursue our customers to have a sustainable relationship strategy. We need to adjust our prices to reflect that change in our business model. But at the same time, we have to accommodate the changes in the customer's needs.

[powerpress] 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Find out the things to adopt and execute in your business to adjust to the new normal 
• Learn how to execute prices better at this time and form strategic partnerships with your clients for a sustainable relationship 
• Learn to recognize how the demand structure has changed in most industries so you can prepare your leadership team to think about using price to accomplish whatever objectives you have 

 

“If I look at the biggest mistake companies make today, it is that they don't understand the customers. They don't understand how they use this stuff.”  

- Reed Holden 

 

Increase Your Pricing Knowledge: Become a Champions of Value INSIDER!

To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com

 

Topics Covered:

01:19 - How he got started in Pricing 

02:29 - How to stop losing price in the last mile of pricing 

04:28 - What gives companies the ability to control price better these days 

04:50 - Why you need to understand your pricing tools 

07:36 - Understand your analytics 

08:42 - Understanding surrogate value 

09:41 - How demand structures in some industries are changing that you need to recognize 

11:04 - What you need to do in the meantime that things are not going back to normal 

12:45 - The reality of the whole retail industry out of the window now 

14:04 - Pricing based on how customer value your product during this new normal 

15:53 - Cost as a justification to raise prices 

18:08 - His plans of retiring 

21:10 - What does strategic partnership implies 

21:15 - What a true picture of a strategic partnership is 

23:07 - His thoughts on ‘charge customers with what they are willing to pay’ 

25:23 - Loyalty and segmentation  

27:54 - His important pricing advice that has a great impact on one’s business 

29:19 - Why you need to ask your customers 

 

Key Takeaways:

“If people don't understand the software and the methods they're using, they encounter problems.” - Reed Holden  

“You need to understand the tools, especially in today's world, how you have to change those tools to accommodate the new world.” - Reed Holden 

“You got to recognize that the demand structure of that particular market has changed. The demand structure of restaurants, of movies, of the automobile industry, of many industries is changing dramatically.” - Reed Holden 

“You have to understand how that demand structure is changing. And as a pricing person, you have to prepare your leadership team for not doing the stuff they did six months ago, but changing how they think about using price to accomplish whatever their objectives are.”  - Reed Holden 

“The whole retailing industry is out the window right now. They should have seen that coming 20 years ago when Amazon started making the push. And instead, they demanded, they pay the price now.”  - Reed Holden 

 

Resources / People Mentioned: 

• Pricing with Confidence by Reed K. Holden 
• The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Profitable Decision-Making 2nd Edition by Reed K. Holden 
• Negotiating with Backbone: Eight Sales Strategies to Defend Your Price and Value by Reed K. Holden 
• Wall Street Journal 
• Fortune Magazine 
• JetBlue Airlines 
• Southwest Airlines 
• Bob Kaplan 
• Thomas Nagle 

 

Connect with Reed Holden:

• LinkedIn 
• Holdenadvisors.com 
• Email: [email protected] 

 

Connect with Mark Stiving:   

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn