Negotiating with Backbone
Book Description:
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.
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
Book Details
Hardcover: 208 pages
Publisher: FT Press (May 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 013306476X
ISBN-13: 978-0133064766
