How to Sell More: Tools and Techniques from Harvard Business Review

The Game Buyers Play with Vendors

By Reed K. Holden

Reed K. Holden is the CEO of Holden Advisors in Concord, Massachusetts, and the author of Negotiating with Backbone.

Selling isn’t as fun as it used to be.

There was a time when customers wanted to trust their suppliers. They expected salespeople to take care of them. For the supplier, selling was all about figuring out what and how the customer wanted to buy. Relations between the two sides were cordial.

But that type of customer—the relationship buyer—has been in steady decline, replaced by the economic buyer, who is in the grip of Procurement. The economic buyer focuses on price and value, is brutal about the buying process, browbeats the supplier, and puts the salesperson ...