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To reach a successful deal, you need to get people to see things the way that you do

The goal of any negotiation is to get the other side of the table to see things your way. Hmm, how are we going to make that happen? What you are going to have to do is to become skilled at finding ways to support the position that you are taking. In order to get better at doing this, I’ve got 5 tips that will boost your skills…

Tips For Reaching A Deal Faster

If you want to be able to reach a deal with the other side of the table faster, then you’re going to have to take the time to give some thought to what it’s going to take in order to get them to see things your way. In other words, you’ve got some persuading to do. Here’s how to make that happen:

• Move From Easy To Hard: Experienced negotiators know that it’s always a good idea to start a negotiation by tackling an issue that both sides are going to be able to easily reach an agreement on. Once you’ve got this success under your belt, then move on and start to tackle the tougher issues that are going to be more controversial.
• Say It Again: I know that I’ve said this several times before, but I don’t think that I can say it enough – during a sales negotiation, it never hurts to repeat yourself. The more often that you say something, the better the chances that your message is going to be heard by the other side of the table and that it will be understood. Yeah, it might sound silly to you, but repeat yourself enough and you’ll be amazed at what happens.
• Understand To Build Trust: One of the biggest challenges that every negotiator has is that they want to be understood by the other side of the table. What this means for you is that the more that the other side believes that you understand what they are saying (and why they are saying it), the better your chances of reaching a deal are. Take the time to show the other side that you get what they are saying and you’ll build trust with them which will lead to greater cooperation.
• Head Off Issues Early: As part of your planning for your next negotiation, you need to take a look at all of the issues that will be discussed. Not all issues are created the same. For those issues that you know that are going to create resistance from the other side of the table, you need to be proactive and take action before they are even brought up. What you are going to want to do is to defuse the issue so that when both sides start to discuss it in earnest, it’s no longer such a controversial issue.
• Success By Association: If there is an issue that will be part of your next negotiation that has a great deal of controversy associated with it and there is no way to defuse it, then you’ve got to get creative. If the issue gets discussed by itself, you’re going to be in for a rough time. However, if you can find a way to associate this controversial issue with another issue that is less controversial then you’ll be more likely to be able to reach agreement on it.

What All Of This Means For You

Every negotiation has the same goal in mind: finding a way for all parties involved to reach a successful deal. The challenge comes from finding a way to get from where everyone starts out to agreeing on that deal in the end.

Skilled negotiators know that they need find ways to support their position if they want to have any hope of reaching a deal in a reasonable amount of time. In order to make this happen, you can use the 5 tips that we’ve discussed in order to steer the other side of the table towards the deal that you want to strike. Try them out and you’ll be amazed at how much quicker you’re able to wrap-up your next negotiating session!

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

Question For You: How many times do you think that you can repeat yourself during a negotiating session?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

The goal of any negotiation is to get the other side of the table to see things your way. Hmm, how are we going to make that happen? What you are going to have to do is to become skilled at finding ways to support the position that you are taking. In order to get better at doing this, I’ve got 5 tips that will boost your skills…

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Post tags: anticipate resistance, art of persuasion, controversial issues, diffuse it, easy to settle issue, repetition of a message, supporting a position

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A quick trip to Italy can make you a better sales negotiator…

When you are involved in a sales negotiation, just exactly how should you behave? For some odd and unexplained reason, a lot of us think that we need to be stoic statues who never show any emotion. Wait a minute. We’re involved in a sales negotiation where we are trying to get the best deal for our side. We’re not playing poker and trying to hide our reactions to our cards. Maybe it would be helpful to have a talk with some Italians to find out how we can become better negotiators…

The Italian Way Of Negotiating…

So first off, no, not everyone negotiates the same way no matter where they may come from. However, when it comes to negotiations, there are distinct styles that can be easily recognized when you encounter them. We can all learn important negotiating techniques from each style.

Simply put, the Italian style of negotiating is to be very expressive during the negotiation – the negotiator may or may not be expressing their true emotion; however, they are always broadcasting some type of emotion.

The part that is the most important to the rest of us is the simple fact that in the Italian style of negotiating you as the negotiator need to react to what the other side is saying in a visible way.

Why Your Reactions Are So Important

When you get right down to it, sales negotiations are simply a specialized form of business communications. Note that I said “communications”. Although we tend to rely on our spoken words to communicate what we want the other side to understand, the reality is that we have a number of different ways to get our point across.

When you use the Italian style of negotiating, you involve your entire body in the negotiations. I’m not talking about going crazy here, but rather using your body to provide the other side with very clear feedback so that they can react in the way that you want them to.

The easiest and simplest example of this is when the other side presents you with a price. You might be tempted to look at the price and then put on your “poker face” and not let the other side know what you are thinking. But wait a minute, if you think that their price is too high and you think that you can get them to go lower, then you’ve got to let them know.

How you communicate your dissatisfaction with their price is where the Italian style of negotiating comes in. You’ve got a lot of options to choose from here. You can roll your eyes, you can throw your arms up, you can let out an exasperated sigh, etc. This probably is not a good time to get up and walk out, but that is always another option that you have.

What you are doing is using your body to provide the other side with clear and easy to understand feedback immediately. This will allow them to more quickly react and come back to the table with an updated offer.

What All Of This Means For You

Sales negotiating is all about establishing clear communications with the other side of the table. When we keep a stone face and display no emotions during a negotiation, we’ve cut off a critical communication path.

The Italian style of sales negotiations allows us to use our bodies to provide the other side of the table with clear, immediate feedback on how we think that the negotiations are going. Using our faces, hands, and entire body we can react to proposals make by the other side.

There is a note of caution that needs to shared here: you don’t want to come across like the actor Jim Carrey. Instead, use the Italian technique when you think that it will help you move closer to closing a deal. Just take the time to ask yourself, “How would Marco Polo react to that proposal?”…

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

Question For You: Do you think that you have to speak loudly when using the Italian technique?

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It's always darkest just before the storm…

I often like to think of a sales negotiation as being very similar to a dance. The first few moves are very well known and are recognized by both sides. However, very quickly things can get out of control. Neither partner recognizes what the other partner is doing and toes start to get stepped on. Does it always have to go this way?

The Beginning Of Bargaining

Unfortunately I believe that the answer is “yes”. Ever sales negotiation seems to follow a fairly predictable course. We always seem to start out on the right footing – doesn’t every negotiation start with pleasant introductions?

It’s what happens after the introductions that the expert negotiators focus on the most. They realize that the next step is when the real bargaining starts.

Once upon a time I took a business course on “organizational behavior”. Although that was a long time ago, I can still remember the phases that people go through when you throw them together as a part of a team: forming, storming, conforming, and norming. After I took this course I can remember being amazed when I observed that in real life these really are the steps that teams go through.

The same can be said of sales negotiations – they too seem to follow a standard path…

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along…?

Why does it have to be this way? Sales negotiations always seem to quickly descend into hostility and verbal sparing. For the sensitive negotiator this can quickly appear to be movement in the wrong direction.

We need to understand why this happens. One of the key reasons is that at the start of a negotiation both sides of the table are as far apart as they are ever going to be.

We all enter a negotiation with a starting position (what we want) that may appear to be unrealistic to the other side. This is going to make the other side think that the possibility of reaching an agreement with us may be out of the question.

We all react to this situation in the same way. We attack the other side’s position and force them to defend themselves. We force them and they force us to take different postures in order to justify where they are coming from.

What All Of This Means For You

Every sales negotiation has its ugly parts. Most often right after the negotiations start, things appear to head off into the wrong direction.

Experienced sales negotiators realize that this is a normal part of every negotiation. Since both sides start so far apart, conflict and disagreement are to be expected.

The key is to realize that this is only one part of a much larger negotiation. If you can make it through this part, then things will get better. Remember, things always seem the darkest just before the dawn…

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

Question For You: How can you tell the difference between a tough negotiation and a hopeless one?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

How many times has this happened to you: there you are, you’ve jumped into a sales negotiation and started off with your initial negotiating position. The other side did exactly the same thing. You are miles apart and it seems like there is no way that you are ever going to bridge the gap. What do you do now?

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Post tags: bargaining table, large gap, meet for the first time, opening positions, pleasant introductions, unreachable settlement, unreasonable demands

The People Of The Middle East Have Always Been Sales Negotiation Experts

They say that the world is getting smaller every day. This may be true, but the people who live in this smaller world couldn’t be more different than they are! A case in point are the  sales negotiators who hail from the Middle East – Arabs if you will. Unlike us in the West who become uptight at the mere thought of entering into a negotiation, they actually look forward to negations – it’s fun!

There is a lot going on behind the scenes here. Not the least of which is that negotiating has been a key part of Arab culture since days in which the very first trade routes wound their way through the Middle East connecting Europe to the Orient. They’ve gotten to be quite good at this skill and it shows when you negotiate with them.

One thing that Westerners need to understand when entering into negotiations with Arabs is that bargaining is a very social activity for them. You’ll find that you will be greeted warmly and food and drink are often provided in generous quantities. This can throw a Western sales negotiator off because you’ll start to feel as though you are at a dinner party instead of a sales negotiation.

Arabs also have a different view of time than those from the West. In part because they enjoy the sales negotiation process nothing will be rushed. You’ll find that there are many breaks, many side discussions, and frequent interruptions.

These interruptions may include visits from people not involved in the sales negotiations. They may come and go multiple times. Just let it happen. You need to keep your calm and realize that you are playing the same sales negotiation game, just at a different table.

Finally, you need to realize that Arabs don’t really worry about deadlocks. They have no problems walking away from a sales negotiation and then coming back to it later on. They always hope to eventually do a deal, but they realize that sometimes this is not possible.

Have you ever had a chance to participate in a sales negotiation when the other side of the table was from the Middle East? Did they seem to enjoy the sales negotiation process? Was time a factor? Did you ever encounter a deadlock? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Post tags: agreement, Arab, Arabs, bargaining, buyer, communication, communications, contract, deadlock, deal, deals, Europe, how to deal, how to negotiate, middle east, negotiating, negotiation, negotiations, Orient, sales, sales negotiation, sales negotiator, sales negotiators, seller

Sales Negotiations With The French Requires Understanding Of Two Key Differences

So what is your view of the the French? Is your view of this magnificent county and its people shaped by those Inspector Clouseau movies that you used to watch while you were growing up? If it was, then it’s time to get over it and move on – they negotiate much differently than you do.

As with all things in sales negotiations, there is no right or wrong as long as you are able to eventually reach a successful conclusion to your sales negotiations. The trick when dealing with the French is to realize that they approach negotiations differently than either Americans or British do.

There are two key characteristics that every sales negotiator needs to know when dealing with French negotiators. The first is HOW they approach sales negotiations, and the second is HOW they view concessions.

In all honesty, we Americans always seem to be in a rush when we enter in to a negotiation – we work from the bottom up. We pick the first point, try to hammer out an agreement, and then move on to the next point. The French have a completely different approach – if I had to use a 50 cent word I’d call it a more “holistic” approach.

The French prefer to work on a sales negotiation from the top down. They’ll try to reach agreement on the basis of some broad principles first, and spend time working out the details. While they are working out the details, they will constantly refer back to the central agreement on the broad principles. Since you start from a point of agreement, it always seems like the rest of the work is just sorting out the details and that an agreement will eventually be reached.

When it comes to concessions, the French have a very strong sense of quid-pro-quo: they always want to get something in return. Unlike Americans, the French have no problems tying strings to their concessions – you are going to have to give something up if you want to get them to give in on a point.

There you have it, it is possible to reach a successful sales negotiation deal when the other side of the table is French. You just have to remember that their approach to the negotiation and to concessions will be different than yours and you are going to have to change to make the deal work out.

Have you ever had a chance to participate in a sales negotiation when the other side of the table was French? Did they seem to be approaching the negotiation in a top-down fashion? Did you end up giving up something every time they made a concession? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Post tags: agreement, art of negotiation, concession, concessions, deals, French, how to deal, how to negotiate, how to negotiation, negotiate with, negotiating skills, negotiation, negotiation style, negotiator, sales negotiation, salesman, salesperson, saleswoman

Sales Negotiations With Japanese Partners Require New Skills

All too often Americans (like me) think that we know everything. The reality is that our society has only been around for a bit over 200 years and we’re just getting started. That’s why it can be valuable for a sales negotiator to take a look at how societies that have been around for 1,000′s of years negotiate. Like, say, Japan…

The U.S. really started to take a look at how we dealt Japan in the 1980′s when trade between our countries exploded. What people quickly realized is that both sides of the table were fundamentally different. There for the first decade or so, U.S. sales negotiators were getting taken to the bank more often than not because the Japanese sales negotiators were doing a better job.

Over time HOW these negotiations were being conducted was closely studied. Three techniques quickly became apparent:

1. Considered Response / Respectful Silence: when Japanese sales negotiators are on the other side of the table, be prepared to sit quietly. Western sales negotiators don’t know what to do when nobody is talking – and the Japanese know this. They can sit, work out math problems, draw in long breaths, etc. and say nothing for minutes at a time. This is all designed to get you to become flustered and give in on a point or say something that you shouldn’t say.
2. KAN – “Seeking Heavenly Approval”: Western sales negotiators like to focus on the here and now. Japanese sales negotiators realize that this deal is just part of a much bigger relationship. After the details of the agreement have been worked out and it appears as though you are close to closing the deal, members of the Japanese team will pause. They will consider if they really want to do this deal with you – is it going to be worth it in the long run, or are you just going to be too much of a hassle to deal with? This moment is called KAN – reaching “heavenly approval”.
3. Time & Money: the Japanese view the sales negotiation process differently than their Western partners do. We in the west see it as something to race through and quickly get done with. The Japanese view it as something to be nurtured. They set aside enough time to do it properly. They resist attempts to wrap it up quickly. They will revisit points over and over again in order to test your resolve. This is how Japanese sales negotiators turn time into money.

It is entirely possible to enter into sales negotiations with Japanese partners on the other side of the table and come out with an agreement that you feel good about. However, you need to fully understand how they see the world and adjust your sales negotiating style to this situation.

Have you ever had a chance to negotiate with a Japanese team? Were there long, uncomfortable periods of silence? Did they seem to slow things down and do more thinking as the end of the negotiations approached? Did you remember to budget enough time for the negotiation or did they budget more time than you had? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Post tags: bargaining, communication, communications, deals, how to deal, how to negotiate, Japan, Japanese, money, negotiate with, negotiating, negotiating skills, negotiation, negotiation skills, negotiations, price, sales negotiation, sales negotiations, sales negotiators, satisfaction, satisfied, success

Do Buyers Or Sellers Get More Out Of A Long-Term Relationship?

Who wouldn’t want to be in a long term relationship? I mean we wanted our parents to be in one, we want to be in one, movies always end by having the hero walk off into the sunset and into a long term relationship, right? It turns out (as with so many things in life), when it comes to sales negotiations it depends on what side of the table that you’re sitting on as to if you should want to be in a long term relationship…

Let’s be straight here, getting ourselves into a long term relationship makes life sooo much easier. There are all sorts of benefits like reliability, friendship, and even peace of mind. However, it has been shown that over time these types of relationships start to favor one party over the other. Here’s what can happen:

• You can lose your objectivity
• You can become compliant
• You can lose your company’s secrecy
• You can become too dependent on the other side

If you are a seller, then getting into a long term relationship can be a very good thing. Generally speaking, long term relationships favor the seller over the buyer. Here’s why:

• More often than not, product specifications change over time.
• Changes in product specifications tend to increase the seller’s margin.
• The seller can tailor standard offerings into special products and charge more for them.
• The seller has fuller access to the buyer’s organization – the reverse is not true.

Sure seems like the seller has an unfair advantage doesn’t it? Buyers should take heart, there are actually a number of things that a buyer can do to even the score:

• Change buyers every few years just to shake things up.
• Expand the number of competitors vying to be your supplier.
• Have another group evaluate each long term relationship every so often.

Long term relationships do have their advantages; however, just as with your love life, you need to step back every so often and make sure that this relationship is the right for you right now.

Are you currently in a (business) long term relationship? Are you the buyer or the seller? Do you think that this relationship is still a good one to be involved in? How can you double check this? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Post tags: buyer, collaboration, contract, deals, long-term relationship, relationship, sales contract, salesman, salesperson, saleswoman, seller

The Escalating Authority Sales Tactic Is Crude But Often Works

Picture this scene: it was about 20 years ago (ouch!) and I was still dating my wife when she suddenly had to replace her car. She knew exactly what she wanted: a Honda Civic with a manual transmission. There was a local Honda dealer near where she lived so one evening we went there to have a talk about buying a car.

The salesman that we talked with was the “older guy who reminds you of your uncle” variety. I had an opportunity to sit back and watch my soon-to-be-my-wife bargain with him over the price. She started low, he started high, and after a bit of back-and-forth, they were still fairly far apart. Now my bride-to-be had done her homework and had called a bank to find out how much this car was really worth (20 years ago = no real Internet). So she knew what the correct outcome of this sales negotiation needed to be.

The salesman that we were dealing with looked at the gap in offered / accepted prices and said, of course, “are you sure that you can’t do any better than this”. When my girlfriend said “No”. He then said “I’m going to have to go talk with my boss about this…” And off he went.

Returning about 10 minutes later, he had a slightly lower price, but still the gulf between what my girlfriend was willing to pay and his new lower price was great. TWO MORE TIMES HE WENT BACK TO TALK WITH HIS BOSS. I couldn’t believe this – I was watching a classic Greek play being staged before my very eyes. At any rate, my girlfriend got the price that she was asking for in the end after about 90 minutes of haggling. What was going on here?

I didn’t know the name of this sales negotiation tactic at the time, but I do now. It’s called the “Escalating Authority” tactic. This tactic uses the need to have a deal approved by a reluctant higher authority in order to gain more concessions from the other side of the table.

This tactic is used by salespeople all the time. The reason that they use it is because it often works. Here’s what a salesperson can expect to get out of using the “Escalating Authority” tactic:

• Helps to lower the other side’s expectations.
• Causes the other side’s arguments to come out early instead of later.
• May cause conflict within the other side’s negotiating team.
• Causes the other side to state their negotiating demands earlier.
• Just physically wears the other side down.
• May end up lowering the self-confidence of the other side.
• Uses up the other side’s valuable time.

The party that this tactic is being used on is not without defenses. There are several counter measures that can be put in place in order to diminish or eliminate the effectiveness of this sales negotiation tactic:

• Match the other side: bring your higher level people to the table when they say that they need to go to their higher level people.
• Walk out.
• Bypass the other side of the table and go directly to their senior management.
• Manage the expectations of a quick resolution on your side of the table.
• Communicate to your side of the table what tactic is being used against you and let them know that one of its goals is to lower their expectations for the outcome of this sales negotiation.
• Don’t repeat yourself. Force the other side of the table to relay all that you have said to each higher level of their management.

In the end, the Escalating Authority tactic is a fairly crude negotiating tool that is used most often by amateur negotiators. It can be countered easily and effectively. Keep your eyes open and make sure that you spot it when someone starts to use it on you – the best Escalating Authority tacic defense is a good offense!

Have you ever had the Escalating Authority tactic used on you during a negotiation? How did you respond to it? In the end was it successful? Have you ever had a chance to use it during a negotiation? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Post tags: bargaining, concession, concessions, conflict, deal, deals, Escalating Authority, how to deal, money, negotiate, negotiating, negotiator, price, satisfaction, tactic, walk out

The "What If" Negotiating Tactic Is A Powerful Way To Get More Information

During a negotiation, there often arise cases where we’d really like to get the seller to give us information that they really don’t want to give to us. If only there was some way to test the other side’s willingness to settle with us. Oh, and if there was a way to also “zero in” on the seller’s lowest selling price, this would be nice also.

It turns out that such a tactic does exist – it’s called (what else) the “what if” tactic. An example of how you’d use this tactic would be if you were buying blue widgets from someone.

You’d ask the seller to give you a quote for 100, 1000, 10000, and 20000 blue widgets (sorta like asking “what if I was to buy…”). Once you have a response to your request for bids, you’ll have lots of information about their pricing scheme, any setup charges, learning experiences, and production costs.

The “what if” tactic is very powerful when used correctly. In order to help you get the most out of this tactic, here are several suggestions that can help you get information during a negotiation:

1. What if we change the specifications?
2. What if we change when the work is actually done?
3. What if we buy more items than just the ones being negotiated?
4. What if we provide the required materials?
5. What if we increase / decrease the warranty period?
6. What if we increase the quantity?
7. What if we agree to a longer contract?

Now all of these suggestions are great news if you are trying to buy something. But what if you are the one doing the selling? In negotiations, everything is an opportunity.

Once you hear the buyer starting to ask “what if” type questions, you should start to be on alert to what might be coming next. Here are several ways that the seller can react to the  “what if” tactic:

• Don’t come up with new prices “off the cuff”. Take time to plan your prices carefully.
• Realize that not every “what if” question actually needs to be answered. You can avoid answering these types of questions by using responses such as “they won’t”, “we can’t”, or “that will be very expensive”.
• Use the buyer’s deadline to avoid answering a “what if” question. Tell the other side that in order to answer one of their “what if” questions will require more time than they have available to negotiate.
• If you offer a concession, then make it contingent on you receiving their order immediately.

The selling party has a counter tactic called “would you consider” which can be used in response to “what if” questions. Both of these tactics can open new negotiating possibilities that may help both parties move towards a successful solution.

Have you ever used the “what if tactic” during a registration? Did it work for you? Have you ever had this tactic used on you during a negotiation? How did you respond to it? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Post tags: bargaining, best deals, communications, contract, deadlock, deals, how to deal, money, negotiating, negotiation, negotiations, price, sales, satisfaction, strategy, success, what if

When Negotiating, The Bogey Is Your Best Friend

As a negotiator, the key to your long-term success is to have a number of different techniques that you can use when a situation calls for it. One way to think about this is like a carpenter who has a tool belt with his most commonly used tools on it. As the carpenter is working on a job, just about any situation can be solved with one of the tools that he has close at hand. Today we’re going to talk about the negotiation equivalent of a carpenter’s hammer: a practical, simple, and ethical tool that everyone should know how to use. What’s this negotiating tool called you say? The Bogey.

The easiest way to define what the Bogey is, is to show you it in action. Let’s say that you want to have your house painted. You have a contractor come out to the house, he looks it over, and then he gives you a quote for $20,000 to do the job. You then tell the contractor “Hey, I love your proposal and I think that you do great work; however, all I have to spend is $17,000 that I got from an insurance claim. Here is a certified check for that amount.” The painter accepts your offer and gets to work.

So what happens when you use the Bogey technique? There are three fundamental principals of negotiating that are at work here and it’s important that you realize what they are:

1. By complimenting the painter, you have boosted his ego. He realizes that you now expect something from him in return. In a subtle way, you have actually asked for his help and in most cases you will usually get it.
2. In all negotiations, the seller knows more about his product than the buyer ever will. The Bogey is one way that the buyer can give the seller a chance to show what they know about the product.
3. One of the fundamental rules of negotiating is that there is always a better deal available for all parties that are participating in the negotiation if only they are willing to search for it. The Bogey technique is how the search for this better deal starts.

When you present a Bogey to a seller, the seller generally won’t roll over and accept it. Instead he will come back with a more complete description of what he is selling to you: the quality of his product, his workmanship, the quantity of different items included in his quote, etc. Out of all of this you will now have a much better understanding of what you are buying. Now the real negotiation begins. The seller may lower his price, drop some options, change the delivery schedule, etc. No matter where it goes from here, you will end up ahead of the game.

Have you ever used the Bogey technique when you were negotiating? How did it work out for you? Has someone ever used this technique on you? How did you react as a seller – did you start to describe all the values of your product / service? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Post tags: Contracts, deals, how to deal, how to negotiate, negotiate, negotiating, negotiating skills, negotiation skills, negotiations, sales, strategy