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Case Study

Value selling at SKF Service (B): Facing a tough buyer

By Kamran Kashani and Aimee DuBrule

1 pages

November 2009

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Reference: IMD-5-0752

This case is the follow up to Value Selling at SKF (A) and updates the students on important decisions and events. The President of the Service division has decided not to participate in Steelcorp’s reverse auction. But the company’s distributor has managed to arrange a meeting between Steelcorp and an SKF sales executive. This could be a last chance for SKF to win Steelcorp’s tough procurement manager over to its total cost pricing. But there is also a significant chance that value selling may backfire. The student is to devise a negotiation strategy for the upcoming meeting. At least $4 million rides on the success or failure of the negotiation. The video supplement informs the student what actually happened in the meeting and how the sales executive succeeded in closing a deal and having the reverse auction cancelled.

Learning Objective

The case and its video supplement can be used for the following learning objectives: Practice role play and negotiation with a key customer.

Keywords

Value Pricing, Industrial Selling, Industrial Distribution, Channel Conflict, Commoditization, Negotiation, Reverse Auction, Industrial Marketing, Key Account Management, Marketing, Business to Business

Settings

World/global, United States of America
Contemporary

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English, Spanish

Related material

Video

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This case study is part of a series

Value selling at SKF Service (A): Tough buyer confronts strategy
Value selling at SKF Service (B): Facing a tough buyer
Value selling at SKF Service (C): Meeting John Elliot

2014 THE CASE CENTRE AWARD WINNER (Overall Winner)

This case study is part of a series

Value selling at SKF Service (A): Tough buyer confronts strategy
Value selling at SKF Service (B): Facing a tough buyer
Value selling at SKF Service (C): Meeting John Elliot

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