Archive for the ‘negotiation skills’ Category

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5 Keys To Sales Negotiation Success

Friday, January 15th, 2010
Image Credit You Can Never Have Too Many Sales Negotiating Keys

You Can Never Have Too Many Sales Negotiating Keys

How can you become a better sales negotiator? For such a simple question, there seems to be no corresponding simple answer. I guess that we all know that the best sales negotiators seem to always know what to do and when to do it. Now if there was only some way that we could pick up those same skills! I believe that the right way to reach this level of sales negotiating skill is to develop the same set of skills that the really good negotiators have. I’ve got five of them for you to learn right here…

Things That You Need To Know

Today’s modern cars are wonders of invention. However, they all seem to be so complex with wires, computers, and whatnot. Sales negotiations today are pretty much the same way: they have become much more complex in part because we all have access to so much more information.

In order to deal with the new challenges of today’s sales negotiations, you’re going to need some more tools. Here are five tools that you should have in your toolbox:

  • Two Ears: It’s too bad that these things don’t come with an owner’s guide. Your ears are your single best tool for determining what’s going on with the other side of the table. The best sales negotiators have the ability to listen very carefully and to then focus all of their senses on just what the other side of the table is really trying to say.
  • A Really Big Calendar: All too often I’ve seen sales negotiations go off track because one or more of the teams was too focused only on the short term. The best sales negotiators have the ability to see time for what it really is: the sum of the past, the present, the future, and the really far out future. If you have the ability to see time as one big continuous sliding scale and to understand where the deal that is being negotiated fits on that scale, then you’ll be able to make better decisions.
  • Deal Knowledge: No matter how good of a sales negotiator you are, you still cannot just show up at a negotiation, sit down, and then strike a good deal. You need to have a good understanding of what you have to offer the other side, what they have that you want, as well as the environment in which you are trying to strike a deal. .
  • A Sense Of Humor: As we work hard to improve our sales negotiating skills, this is the one thing that we too easily overlook. It turns out that when the negotiations reach a roadblock, or when tempers flare up, having the skill that allows you to take a step back and say something that gets everyone to laugh is invaluable. Sometimes this is the only thing that can restart a negotiation.
  • The Christmas Spirit: Well, maybe not Christmas itself but at least the ability to both give and take at the negotiating table. If you show up thinking only about what you will be able to squeeze out of the other side of the table, you are in for a long an fruitless negotiation. Likewise, if you are too focused on keeping the other side of the table happy, then you’ll walk away feeling like you did not get a good deal.
  • A Risky Personality: The world that we live in contains risk. Every deal that we negotiate increases the amount of risk in our lives. If we have the type of personality that allows us to deal with this kind of risk, then we can deal with all of the uncertainty that it takes to strike a deal with the other side of the table.

What All Of This Means For You

As they like to say in sales negotiating circles, if you’re not getting better, then you must be getting worse. This really applies to your sales negotiating skills — what have you done lately to acquire the skills that the really good negotiators have?

We’ve discussed five tools that if they aren’t already there, need to be added to your sales negotiating toolbox. Once you have mastered these skills, you’ll be ready to close more deals and close them quicker!

How important do you think a sense of humor is to a sales negotiation: critical, nice to have, or don’t need it?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Don’t you just love movies? Whenever there is a negotiation going on in a movie, be it with hostage takers or closing a big business deal, there is always the picture of the noble solitary sales negotiator doing his / her best to close the deal against almost impossible odds. Can you tell me what is wrong with this picture?

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5 Sales Negotiating Skills For You Should Be Working On Right Now!

Friday, January 8th, 2010
Image Credit
Stamina Is Only One Of The Skills That Every Sales Negotiator Needs

Stamina Is Only One Of The Skills That Every Sales Negotiator Needs

Is it ever too early to talk about planning on what negotiating skills you should working on next? Hopefully not because that’s what I’d like to have chat with you about. In order to be a world-class sales negotiator, you have to master literally 100’s of different skills from learning how to mange your negotiating power, how to prepare for a negotiation, etc. On top of all that, there are five areas that most sales negotiators overlook and yet, they may be the most important negotiating skills that you need to be working on…

The Big Five

    You’re not going to find this list of negotiating skills written down in a book or learn them in a class. They come from that school that we all eventually end up graduating from called the school of hard knocks. Read the list and be thankful that you’re learning them now instead of having to realize what you should have known after a negotiation has gone South:

  • Good Judgement: we would all like to have the ability to make sound decisions. The challenge here is that all too often the only way to develop this skill is by experience and we gain that by making poor judgements. The secret here is to become a careful observer of others: watch the decision that they make and learn from them.
  • Patience: in our 21st Century world this is an amazingly powerful negotiating skill that all too few of us seem to have enough of. I hate to say it, but it seems that the younger the negotiator, the less of this skill there is. If you can develop this skill, then you’ll have the willingness to let any negotiating situation take its time and evolve. Not moving too soon can be a very powerful negotiating tactic.
  • Persistence: people who don’t do a great deal of negotiating often are too willing to give up when they run into resistance. Good sales negotiators realize that opposition from the other side is simply another means of communication and as long as you are talking, there is still hope that an agreement can be reached. Never give up!
  • Stamina: nobody ever gets into the field of sales negotiation because they think that it’s going to be easy. It’s not easy. However, the ability to keep at it and put in the hard work that any negotiation requires is what separates the successful negotiators from the unsuccessful ones.
  • Involvement: at its lowest level, any negotiation is simply a conversation between two people. If you want to have this conversation result in a successful deal, then you’re going to have to go the extra mile and connect with the other side of the table on a personal level. It’s this kind of involvement that makes people feel comfortable saying “yes” to your proposal.

What All Of This Means For You

Nobody is a perfect negotiator. We all have a lot still to learn. You should always be trying to find out what you don’t know so that you’ll know where you need to be spending your time working to become better.

We’ve identified five negotiating skill areas that are all too often overlooked by negotiators. We have a bad habit of always looking for the magic “silver bullet” skill that will allow us to become more successful in our negotiations. It turns out that no such thing exists.

Rather, there’s a whole collection of skills that can provide us with what we need to become better than we are today. Take some time and review this list — now you know what you need to be working on.

Do you think that you are a patient person and do you think that this is a skill that you can only develop as you become older?

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

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

How can you become a better sales negotiator? I believe that the right way to reach a higher level of sales negotiating skill is to develop the same set of skills that the really good negotiators have. I’ve got five of them for you to learn right here…

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5 Questions To Find Out If Someone Is A Good Negotiator

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Image Credit Sure, Mr. Spock Was A Good Negotiator, But Are You?

Sure, Mr. Spock Was A Good Negotiator, But Are You?

When you hold up a mirror and look into it, what do you see? Do you see a good negotiator? How could you tell if you were looking at one? This is one of those timeless questions that we are always asking ourselves: am I a good negotiator? Well good news, I’ve got the 5 questions that you need to answer in order to resolve this issue once and for all!

The #1 Characteristic Of A Good Negotiator

Before we dive in and try to ask the questions that need to be asked, let’s start off with an answer. The question that we’ll be answering, of course, is what is the most important skill that a negotiator needs to have?

Lots of people will come up with a wide variety of answers to this question, but in my mind there is really only one answer that rings true: you’ve got to be a good networker. What this means is that you’ve got to be able to get in contact with the people on your team who’s views you’ll be bringing to the table. If you know what they want, then you’ll be an effective negotiator.

The 5 Questions Every Negotiator Needs To Answer

Ok, you’ve waited long enough. Here are the five questions that you need to ask yourself in order to find out if you are a good negotiator:

  1. Plays Well With Others: Do you have the ability to put issues aside and sit down to work with the other side of the table and search for ideas that will allow both of you to reach an agreement?
  2. Just Like Mr. Spock: Do you believe that others would say that you have a logical way of thinking? If you don’t, then there is no way that the other side of the table is going to be able to understand how to create a solution that will appeal to you.
  3. Detail Orientated: Do you take the time to prepare for a negotiation and worry about all of the little details?
  4. Plays With Fire: Can you deal with the disagreement and the confrontation that is a part of every successful negotiation?
  5. Shades of Gray: Can you live with lack of detail during much of the negotiation? Ambiguity is a key part of a negotiation: things don’t become clear until the end of the discussions.

What All Of This Means For You

We all want to get better at this skill that we call negotiating. In order to become better, we need to first realize where we need to develop our skills.

These five questions should serve as a great starting point to help you determine where you need some work. Make sure that you answer them honestly — you won’t know where you need to focus your study and training until you have these answers.

Do you think that it is necessary to have a good relationship with EVERYONE on your team in order to be an effective negotiator?

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 a world-class sales negotiator, you have to master literally 100’s of different skills from learning how to mange your negotiating power, how to prepare for a negotiation, etc. On top of all that, there are five areas that most sales negotiators overlook and yet, they may be the most important negotiating skills that you need to be working on…

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Sales Negotiation Tips From Brian Dietmeyer

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Brian Dietmeyer Has Some Reminders About Good Sales Negotiation Skills

Brian Dietmeyer Has Some Reminders About Good Sales Negotiation Skills

The basics of sales negotiations are pretty straightforward; however, it can be easy to lose sight of them as we talk about tactics, preparation, and detailed sales negotiation skills. Maybe it’s time that we took a step back and got an expert to remind us about what we really need to be doing in our next sales negotiation?

Introducing Brian Dietmeyer

Brian Dietmeyer is the President / CEO of a company called Think! that offers business-to-business negotiation training. He’s also written a book called Strategic Negotiation: A Breakthrough Four-Step Process for Effective Business Negotiation.

Awhile ago Brian sat down with the folks over at SellingPower magazine and went over the fundamental things that we all have to remember when we start a sales negotiation. He does a pretty good job of hitting most of the bases.

The video included below (sorry RSS readers, I think that you’re going to have to visit the blog to see the video) is only about 5 minutes long. Brian does a good job of pointing out three things:

  • How to reach an agreement with someone who is NOT an agreeable person.
  • The importance of facts and data in any sales negotiation.
  • The role of greed & fear in a sales negotiation.

Brian is, of course, trying to sell himself, his company, and his book but he only does this briefly about halfway through the video – it’s still a good video.

A 5-Minute Sales Negotiation Interview With Brian Dietmeyer

Questions For You

Do you agree with Brian – would having the right facts & data allow you to reach an agreement with a difficult customer? Do you think people’s fear of sales negotiations comes from the fact that they are afraid that they don’t have the right data? Do you think the 3 offer technique would work for you? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

So this time around, we’re going to do things just a bit differently. There’s a video that has been going around on YouTube that does a pretty classic job of capturing just how ridiculous negotiating between vendors and clients can be.

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3 Secrets Successful Sales Negotiators Use To Win

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
3 Secrets That Top Sales Negotiators Know

3 Secrets That Top Sales Negotiators Know

Ok, so I’ll be the first to admit it – I used the forbidden word “win” in the title. In sales negotiations we prefer to not say “win” because it implies that there is also a “loser”. and that’s not a good thing. How about if we try something like “3 secrets to always walking away feeling successful“?

It’s All About Patterns

Successful sales negotiators are good at what they do because they know what they are doing. That being said, they also have developed patterns for conducting sales negotiations that serve them well. If you want to improve how your sales negotiations turn out, then taking the time to study these patterns will help move you towards your goal.

The 3 Secrets

  1. Control Your Location & Time: Just like most sports teams, the sales negotiator who conducts a negotiation on his / her home turf tends to do better. Negotiating at your base of operations makes life easier – you have better access to information and people and you spend less time searching for things that you need to complete the deal. Additionally, although there is no one perfect time to conduct sales negotiations, every deal has its own best time. Late on Fridays can often be a powerful time to close a deal quickly!
  2. Understand Your B.A.T.A.N.A?: Before you start any sales negotiation, you need to make sure that you have a good understanding of what your Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement (BATANA) is. If the talks break down, what will your next action be? Knowing this in advance gives you more power while you are negotiating.
  3. Start High, Give In Slowly: If you are negotiating to sell something, you need to plan the negotiation in advance. This means setting your price high enough so that you have room to allow the other side to “bring you down”. During every negotiation, you will have to make  concessions to the other side. Studies have shown that sales negotiators who make their concessions in smaller increments seem to end up doing better.

Next Steps

The art of sales negotiations does not have one magic “sliver bullet” that suddenly transforms an average sales negotiator into a top-notch sales negotiator. Instead, there are a 1,000 negotiating skills that provide the scaffolding that we all need in order to climb to the next level negotiating. Get this right and you’ll be well on your way to being able to close better deals and close them quicker.
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The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.

Questions For You

Have you ever had to conduct a sales negotiation in a location that was less than ideal for you? How did that deal turn out? What was the best time that you ever conducted a sales negotiation? What was the worst? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Wouldn’t it be great if the best sales negotiators in the world could drop by our place and sit down with us for awhile to share what they’ve learned? If you knew that they were coming, what questions would you ask them?

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