Negotiating is one of the toughest skills for Salespeople to master. At the start of my sales career, I hated negotiating because I felt I wasn’t good at it. Big surprise. How often are you good at something you dislike? Now, I love it and enjoy the process. In relationship selling, the key to negotiating is ensuring that both sides win. No doubt, you have heard this many times. Here’s how you do it…
As a new salesperson many years ago, I brought every negotiation to my Sales Manager who was a Master at it. He enjoyed it, smiled through the tough conversations, laughed and had fun. I told him that I would never be able to do what he does. He said one simple thing, "If you want to learn, you will." Enough said. I accepted the challenge.
Most Salespeople have been led to believe that to be a great negotiator you have to be tough, firm and dominate your partner. Nothing could be further from the truth. To truly establish a win-win negotiation, you must first understand its definition…
An agreement where both sides do not get what they originally intended, yet finalize a deal that is fair enough in meeting their needs and creating a good working future between all parties and individuals.
Remember, this is a relationship that you are dealing with. If you dominate your partner and get them to agree to a bad deal it will ultimately come back on YOU at some point. The deal will cancel, have no chance to renew, or if you actually get an opportunity for renewal, your negotiating partner will want PAYBACK.
1. Good Negotiators are born. No, they are taught, even at a young age.
2. Experience is a great teacher. Possibly, based on what kind of experiences you've had. If they have been unsuccessful, you've learned how not to negotiate well.
3. Good negotiators take risks. Not so. They do their homework on their position and what they expect their negotiating partner's position to be. Education, research, planning, thought and mental role playing are ingredients to a successful negotiation. They greatly reduce risk.
4. Good Negotiators rely on intuition. Not quite. They use the power of intuition after doing everything in point #3.
5. Tough Negotiators use ultimatums. Bullies use ultimatums. They are poor Negotiators.
Lesson #1: Slow down - Speed kills. Speed is always on the side of the buyer. They have had time to prepare and are calling you with a super quick deadline giving you little to no time to do the same. Ask for more time. What's the worst they can say? No. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. You need to prepare and do your homework to best negotiate.
Lesson #2: Assess all components of your last position BEFORE starting the negotiation. Look at everything you gave your client that was agreed to and value added throughout the contract term. Take stock of all components. Your negotiating partner is.
Lesson #3: Assess your negotiating partner's position before starting. What issues will be important to them? What's on their wish list? What might they ask for and give up as a bargaining chip? See the situation from their perspective?
Lesson #4: There are 3 essential components to Win-Win Negotiating. Let's cover them next week in The PROSALESGUY BLOG. I feel your head exploding.
Negotiating for many Salespeople is stressful because they don't want to lose a deal with a client that they've worked hard to simply get to the table. We don't want our efforts to go to waste, over details like rates and value add. When we learn how to properly negotiate and enjoy the process, we become better at it and have more confidence in negotiations.
Next week, I will offer you the 3 Essential Components to give you the tools to successfully negotiate.
I love helping Salespeople improve their Skill Set. If you or your company wants personalized training, simply click the link that applies to you…
Dave Warawa - PROSALESGUY
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