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Aim For Sales Negotiation Success By Picking The Right Target

Friday, September 3rd, 2010
Image Credit You've Got To Be Able To See Your Target If You Want To Be Able To Hit It

You've Got To Be Able To See Your Target If You Want To Be Able To Hit It

What is the #1 thing that you need to do before you sit down at your next sales negotiation? Polish your shoes? No. Work on your icy “that deal’s not good enough for me so don’t even offer it” stare? No. How about something much simpler that all too often gets forgotten by even the best sales negotiators: picking your target.

Why Are We Doing This?

I’d like to be able to tell you that things like this never happen, but the sad reality is that all too often they actually do. The reasons vary, but generally they start when someone taps us on the shoulder and asks us “to attend” a meeting with a partner or vendor. What started out with us in the role of an observer can suddenly transform itself into a full-fledged negotiation session if we’re not careful.

One way to make sure that this doesn’t happen to you is to make sure that you know the purpose of any meeting that you are being asked to attend. You can’t keep yourself from getting sucked into heading up a spur of the moment negotiation session, but you can make sure that you know why you are doing it.

It’s All About The Issues

If you want to know what the target of any sales negotiation is, then you’re going to have to have a handle on the issues that will lead you to where you want to go. The key thing here is to remember that not all issues are created the same.

Generally, the issues that will be negotiated can be placed into one of three categories: critical, negotiable, and don’t care. The critical issues are the ones that matter the most to your firm. The negotiable ones are where you have some latitude and can be used to make sure that you get what you need on the critical issues. Finally, the don’t care issues are on the table simply to give you more things to talk about with the other side as you work to put a deal together.

Back To That Target Thing

If you want to reach the target of a sales negotiation, knowing what the issues are and just how important they are to your company is an important first step. However, it’s not enough. You’ve got to do a “coin analysis” on each issue.

This means that you need to pick it up and look at both sides – both the pros and the cons (every issue has both). You can be well assured that the other side will be pointing out these issue characteristics to you during the negotiation and so you had better be aware of them going in to the discussion…

Getting Off To A Great Start

I believe that how a negotiation starts often determines how it is going to end. What this means is that you’d better have your act together right off the bat if you want to walk away from the table with a good deal.

One key thing that you’ve got to bring to the table are opening offers for each of the issues that are going to be discussed. You really don’t want to be making these up on the fly! Carefully planning out how you want to start the discussion will put you in the drivers seat and will make it that much easier to get to where you want to go.

What All Of This Means For You

If you want to be successful in your next sales negotiation, then you’ve got to have a clear target that you are aiming for. Taking the time to get this taken care of before the negotiation starts is critical.

In order to get to your target, you are going to have to make sure that you have a firm grasp on just exactly what issues are being negotiated. This means that you’re going to have be aware of the pros and cons of each issue and you are going to have to have a well-formed opening offer for each.

Taking the time to identify the target that you want to hit as a result of each sales negotiation can do wonders for your success rate. Ultimately, taking the time to know where to aim your time and energy is the ticket to long-term sales negotiation success.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Negotiating Skills™

Question For You: Do you think that you should only have one target for a sales negotiation or is it ok to have multiple targets?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

In order to be successful in your next sales negotiation, you need to make the right decisions before you sit down to start negotiating. If you take the time to make the right decisions then you can end up being successful.

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How To Get Married To The Other Side Of The Table

Friday, August 27th, 2010
Image Credit You'll Never Move From Dating To Marriage If You Don't Ask…

You'll Never Move From Dating To Marriage If You Don't Ask…

Every time we negotiate, we are entering into a new relationship. The one thing that we need to do before we start each negotiation is to figure out just exactly what type of relationship we want to enter into this time. Although this sounds like it’s an easy question, it turns out that finding the right answer can be a bit harder than it initially seems…

Are We Dating Or Getting Engaged?

The first question that we need to ask ourselves is if we are looking at entering a short-term relationship with the other side of the table or a longer term relationship. It turns out that this is the most critical question that you need to get an answer to.

You might be tempted to assume that every negotiation is the start of a long term partnership of some sort. The reality is that these types of relationships are actually quite rare – most of the parties that we negotiate with end up being either one-night stands or short lived dating partners.

The Ripple Effect

It can be easy for a sales negotiator to view the current negotiation as being his or her entire universe. This is a mistake. We need to understand that in this life everything that we do is connected to everything else.

That means that this negotiation will affect future negotiations in some manner. What we need to do before we start any negotiation is to figure out just exactly what that impact will be and make sure that we can live with the consequences.

The Past Always Counts

No sales negotiation is an island. This means that what has happened in the past will have an impact on what we do in the present and in the future.

Before starting a negotiation it is important that we take a step back and review what we’ve learned from past negotiations. This will provide us with good guidance on what we can reasonably expect to get out of the current negotiation.

Second Marriages (And Third and Fourth)

If you are considering entering into a long-term relationship with the other side of the table, you need to consider your past. How many such relationships have you been in previously?

The goal here is to learn from your past long-term relationships. What are the positive benefits that you’ve gotten out of those relationships? How can you get the same benefits out of this new relationships and how can you make them even better?

What Went Wrong Last Time?

Not all relationships that you negotiate turn out the way that you were expecting them to. The long-term ones are no exception to this rule.

Just because you had some relationship failures in the past doesn’t mean that you can’t make this one a success. The key is to look back at the ones that didn’t work out and try to understand what went wrong. Is there anything that you would have done differently during the negotiations that might have made it a success?

What All Of This Means For You

Although it doesn’t happen all that often, some relationships with the other side of the table do turn into long-term relationships. You can make the most of these opportunities if you plan for them before sitting down to start your next sales negotiation.

Making sure that a long-term relationship is what you want is a good place to start. Looking back at past long-term relationships to gleam what went well and what went wrong can also help to guide the current negotiations.

Having the ability to negotiate a long-term relationship is a key skill that every sales negotiator should have. However, knowing when to (and when not to) negotiate such a relationship is what will set you apart from all of the other sales negotiators out there…

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Negotiating Skills™

Question For You: Do you think that long-term relationships should be negotiated any differently than short term ones?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

What is the #1 thing that you need to do before you sit down at your next sales negotiation? Polish your shoes? No. Work on your icy “that deal’s not good enough for me so don’t even offer it” stare? No. How about something much simpler that all too often gets forgotten by even the best sales negotiators: picking your target.

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How To Make Win-Win Work For You All The Time

Friday, August 20th, 2010
Image Credit To Get To Win-Win, You Need To Have A Plan When You Start

To Get To Win-Win, You Need To Have A Plan When You Start

In the world of negotiating, we all love the idea of getting to win-win. Walking away from our next sales negotiation with the feeling that not only did we get a great deal, but that we left the other side feeling the same way is every negotiator’s dream. It turns out that if this is how you want to have things turn out, then you’ve got to do some planning before the negotiations start in order to make it happen…

Getting A Better Price

Every sales negotiator wants to get a better price. If you ever want to have a hope of reaching a win-win outcome, then you’re going to have to come up with a way to make sure that you are able to get a better price than is initially offered by the other side of the table.

One of the best ways to make this happen is to take a look at just how much of something that you are either buying or selling. Once the other side has committed to either buying or selling what you are offering or interested in, the next step is to agree on just exactly how much of the item you are talking about. Smart negotiators know that by changing the amount that you are either willing to sell or to buy, you can often change the price.

In the end, it’s the total value of the deal, not the price of an individual item that really counts. Plan to play around with your quantities and see if this can lead to win-win.

More, More, More

All too often we Sales Negotiators can develop a bad case of tunnel vision. We go into a negotiation thinking that we know what we want to buy / sell and that’s that. If we run into a problem in getting what we want, then we can kiss any sort of win-win outcome goodbye.

What we need to take the time to teach ourselves to do is to step back from the negotiating table and look around for more items that we can add to the discussion. There’s no reason to restrict this negotiation to only one item. Let’s talk about anything and everything that can possibly lead both sides to a win-win outcome.

Shortening The Delivery

Often times when we are selling something, as sales negotiators we know that we are restricted from making too much of a change in the price because there is a built-in cost to simply making the product. This is something that just can’t be changed.

Or can it? Often times one of the greatest components of a product’s cost is the cost of holding on to the product after it has been manufactured and before it has been delivered to the customer. If the customer can help out in some way that will reduce storage costs, then all of a sudden you may have a great deal more flexibility in your negotiations.

The Cost Of Going

Once a product has been created, the manufacturer still has the challenge of how to get it into the customer’s hands. Any one of us who has bought something online only to discover that its price has doubled once we figure in shipping charges knows what I am talking about.

If the customer can become flexible in how the product reaches him, or for that matter if the customer can take over the delivery process, then this cost can be reduced. Once again, a reduction in this area can lead to significant increases in negotiating flexibility.

What All Of This Means For You

Walking away from a sales negotiation with a win-win solution that has been agreed to by both parties is the ultimate success story for any negotiator. This can be achieved with just a bit of pre-planning on your part.

Before the negotiations start, take some time to think though what your options are. Can you sell or buy more of the product in order to lower the price? Can you change the scope of the negotiations? Are there other parts of the deal such as storage or delivery that the customer can take over in order to reduce the costs?

The more that you are willing to put on a table with a customer, the more willing they will be to work with you in order to find a solution that is the best fit for both of you. The more times that you can do this, the closer to win-win agreements you’ll be able to get.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Negotiating Skills™

Question For You: Do you think that changing the specifications of what is being negotiated can help to close a deal?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Every time we negotiate, we are entering into a new relationship. The one thing that we need to do before we start each negotiation is to figure out just exactly what type of relationship we want to enter into this time. Although this sounds like it’s an easy question, it turns out that finding the right answer can be a bit harder than it initially seems…

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Posted in win-win | No Comments »

Just Exactly When Does A Negotiation Start?

Friday, August 13th, 2010
Image Credit
You Can't Win The Race If You Don't Know Where To Start

You Can't Win The Race If You Don't Know Where To Start

While working with one of my sales negotiations students the other day I was asked a great question that I don’t often hear. The student had reported that she was feeling frustrated because she was working on a number of deals and when it came time to negotiate, the actual negotiations seemed to drag on forever. “Isn’t there a better way?” she asked. Turns out that there is…

Start Before You Start

If you want a sales negotiation to go quickly, then you need do everything possible to make the actual negotiation just a formality – work everything out before you sit down at the table. Sound impossible? It’s not.

A negotiation actually starts long before the first negotiation session. Chester Karrass, the godfather of negotiating, believes that it really starts when you first make contact with the other side of the table. What this means is that yes, a negotiation can extend over a very long time; however, that doesn’t mean that the actual process of negotiating needs to be lengthy.

The Power Of The Before Time

All too often, what sales negotiators don’t realize is that every moment of contact with the other side of the table is vitally important. When you are interacting with the other party and the negotiations have not formally started, this is exactly when the most valuable information can be learned.

If you are the one doing the buying in a sales negotiation, then this is the time that you can observe the salesperson on the other side. You make casual inquiries into such critical items as how they price their products, who has already bought the product, how the salespersons year is going, where they rank in their organization, etc.

This pre-negotiation time is just as valuable if you are trying to sell something in a sales negotiation. You can determine if this is the right person that you should be talking with, how much they have to spend as well as who really controls the money.

The Gift Of Gab

One of the most important things that you can use the early encounter time to do is to create a relationship with the other side. Ultimately, during any sales negotiation there will be a certain amount of tension on both sides of the table.

If you’ve been able to use your pre-negotiation contact time to develop a relationship with the other side of the table, then you’ll be able to quickly diffuse any stressful situations that pop up.

What All Of This Means For You

Novice sales negotiators don’t realize that a sales negotiation really starts long before either side sits down at the negotiating table. The process of reaching a deal really starts when the first contact is made.

Using the informal interaction time to explore where the other side of the table is coming from is a great way to use this opportunity. Taking the time to build a relationship with the other side will also pay dividends later on in the process.

Smart sales negotiators use all of the time that they have to move closer to reaching a successful agreement. They know that the time before negotiations start is very valuable and if used correctly, then they can make the outcome of the negotiations a foregone conclusion…

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Negotiating Skills™

Question For You: What do you think that your #1 goal should be when you first meet the other side?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

In the world of negotiating, we all love the idea of getting to win-win. Walking away from our next sales negotiation with the feeling that not only did we get a great deal, but that we left the other side feeling the same way is every negotiator’s dream. It turns out that if this is how you want to have things turn out, then you’ve got to do some planning before the negotiations start in order to make it happen…

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No Negotiation Is An Island (So Don’t Get Voted Off!)

Friday, August 6th, 2010
Image CreditEach Negotiation Is Part Of Something Bigger, Make Sure You Know What It Is!

Each Negotiation Is Part Of Something Bigger, Make Sure You Know What It Is!

Raise your hand if you have tunnel vision! Is your hand up sales negotiator? Even if your hand isn’t up, I’m willing to bet that it should be. When we are preparing for our next sales negotiation it is all too easy to get caught up in the moment and forget about, hmm – what do they call it, oh yeah: the big picture.

Walking The Time Line

In order to keep the proper perspective while you are preparing for a negotiation, one of the most important things that you can do is to spend some time thinking about your products / projects.

Specifically, what you’re going to want to understand is just exactly what your short-term product or project needs are going to be. What are you hoping to get out of this negotiation and if you get it, then what are you going to do with it?

At the same time you need to think about what your longer term products / projects are. How does the negotiation that you are getting ready to enter into fit into your company’s long term plans. If they are going to be important to you farther down the road, then you’re going to want to make sure that you don’t burn your bridges during this negotiation.

Crossing The Bridge

Yes, you probably have goals and objectives for this upcoming negotiation. However, they are probably short-term in nature. Take a moment and think about where the company is trying to get to in the long-term.

Once you’ve figured this out, the next question to ask yourself is how is this negotiation going to help you get there? If it’s not going to help, they you really need to ask yourself why you are going to go through all of the time and effort to engage in the negotiation.

The Fear Of Commitment

When the negotiations start, you will find your negotiating options limited by the agreements and commitments that your firm has already entered into. Before you start to negotiate, you need to make sure that you fully understand all of these restrictions that you have.

Not only do you need to understand how your options are going to be restricted, you also need to make sure that you understand how this upcoming negotiation is going to work with your existing commitments. Most importantly, you need to ensure that you don’t find yourself in an awkward position if the negotiation is successful.

Promises Made Are Not Promises Kept

As long as you are going through the effort of working out a plan for your negotiation, you probably should take the time to do a little checking up on the other side of the table. Most negotiating books forget to cover this point, but it’s really the most important one out there.

No matter how good of a job that you do during the negotiation, it’s really not going to count for anything if the other side doesn’t follow through on the things that they agreed to. Things like this are actually pretty easy to check out and doing so just might make the need to negotiate go away…

What All Of This Means For You

As exciting as it is to get ready for your next negotiation, you always need to take the time to do some extra work. This consists of taking a step back and thinking about just exactly how the negotiation is going to fit into your company’s overall product / project strategy.

In order to understand where this negotiation fits in the big picture, you’re going to have to think about your product’s short-term and long-term plans. Existing commitments will have to be understood and the outcome of the negotiation will have to be contrasted to pre-existing agreements. Finally, you’ve got homework to do in order to make sure that the other side of the table really will follow through on the promises that they make.

Sales negotiations can take a long time to complete. While you are in the middle of one, it can be easy to lose your way and forget why you are doing this. Taking the time to study where this negotiation fits into the big picture before you start can be exactly what you need to turn a negotiation from an island into a mainland.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Negotiating Skills™

Question For You: How far into the future do you think you have to consider when evaluating an upcoming sales negotiation?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

While working with one of my sales negotiations students the other day I was asked a great question that I don’t often hear. The student had reported that she was feeling frustrated because she was working on a number of deals and when it came time to negotiate, the actual negotiations seemed to drag on forever. “Isn’t there a better way?” she asked. Turns out that there is…

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in planning | No Comments »

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