A wealth of candid, practical insights

(And this is just scratching the surface.)
    • Originally published in SAMA's Velocity magazine, Winter 2025 edition

    • Without strong execution from commercial teams, even the best price model in the world will underperform.

    • A company’s pricing power is critical to its long-term growth and value. But what exactly is pricing power? How do you get it?

    • As a result of explosive growth of generative artificial intelligence, disruption is again in the spotlight, with all the associated pricing challenges.  Regardless of the AI platform used, many businesses are seeking to leverage an expected

    • When increasing prices, the obvious question is: How will the market respond? Over the last few years with rapidly increasing inflation, many companies want to increase prices to recoup the rising cost of doing business. But business news is replete with examples of both customer backlash

    • Executives are leading through the most unpredictable market conditions in recent history. Supply chain challenges are forcing leaders to pass costs to their customers, implement price increases, and find new ways to drive profitability while maintaining relationships

    • As businesses continue to digitize and transform, old pricing models are becoming obsolete. Gone are the days where a large enterprise purchase must happen in one long arduous process, dragging hopeful sellers through procurement’s buzz saw and leaving speed and optimism in its wake. Companies

    • The B2B sales environment has reached new levels of complexity over the pandemic. Buying centers are getting larger while budgets are being scrutinized. Deals get stalled as indecision is a byproduct of market volatility. Customers are demanding discounts like never before. But above all

    • Each year, the federal government purchases more than half a trillion dollars of goods and services. However, over the last decade, that share of spending has shifted away from small businesses and towards large, federal contractors (you know the names – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon,

    • Increasing revenue. Growing market share. Maximizing profitability. These are typically the objectives companies have in mind when making a price change (increase OR decrease!), but when it comes to implementation, what’s the best way to tell how successful the effort

    • This paper is based off in-depth interviews conducted by Holden Advisors of leaders of FORTUNE 100 to FORTUNE 500 companies in CEO, President, or SVP roles. All interviews were completed in H1 2022 with one intent: to understand the drivers of change in current markets, the impact on pricing,

    • Imagine if you could banish "no-decision" from your sales funnel. Just think: More deals that travel all the way to the win/loss finish line, less wasted sales time, more essential customer needs resolved, and a higher share of wallet. What's standing in your way? The wrong solution, an

    • For leaders to foster alignment with sales and pricing people to win profitable business, building salespeople to be price champions can be quite transformational. Sales must team with marketing and pricing to execute pricing and “value” initiatives to yield promised results of increased

    • For companies with significant investments in plant and equipment, managing the balance between driving margin vs. securing the volumes needed to maintain favorable operating economics can feel like walking on a knife edge. Too much emphasis on margin over volume can lead to poor plant

    • Working with a team of top surgeons, you’ve developed an industry-leading medical device. But sales have stalled. Surgeons love the product but can’t get it through their value analysis committees. Economic buyers, who have increasing control over the approval process, say they already have a

    • The process of selling has changed dramatically since the Great Recession. Customers can evaluate amongst several “good enough” solutions these days. So how does a sales person help a customer really weigh the difference in their solution versus a competitor? By understanding the value of

    • Commoditization is accelerating at an alarming rate and increasingly with differentiated high-value products and services.  Commoditization means that while these offerings may be more valuable than competitive offerings, there is a strong tendency for suppliers to compete on price.  Recent

    • Price discounting has become the crack cocaine of business. A brief high is followed by devastating effects on both revenue and profits. The addiction starts when managers decide to use price discounts to hit revenue targets. They assume it is only temporary, that price discounting is a quick fix

    • In the eyes of many business clients, all service firms look alike. These services are viewed by increasingly sophisticated buyers as a series of well-defined commodities that are available from a plethora of companies. Because many service vendors have not updated their offering to meet the