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Crazy Sales Negotiators Can Often Get Their Way In A Negotiation

How do you view yourself when you are conducting a negotiation? Do you see yourself as poised, confident, and above all rational? I think that most of us see ourselves this way. However, it turns out that we might be missing something here – there is a real power in being irrational sometimes…

Just What Does Irrationality Look Like During A Negotiation?

So let’s think about this for a moment: do we really know what rational people look like? I mean, we think that we do. We believe that we have conversations with them each and every day. They seem to keep their voices in a low conversational tone, they listen quietly when you are talking to them and they respond with carefully though out responses to what you’ve just said.

So if we can all agree on what the negotiation style of a rational negotiator is, it does bring up the question of just exactly what does the negotiating technique of an irrational negotiator look like?

The answer is that it looks pretty much like what you would expect it to look like. Irrational behavior takes on many different forms during a sales negotiations. The first is that you start to reject what the other side of the table says without having a good reason. Another sign that you may be an irrational negotiator is if you start to express a lot of emotions during the negotiations.

Irrationality can take on many different forms. The other side may present you with very rational arguments, but you don’t have to agree with them. You have a number of different choices: you can be partly logical, illogical, even go all the way and be illogical.

How Powerful Is Irrationality?

I can almost hear you saying “Why should I be irrational during a sales negotiation?” In fact, if I want to engage in principled negotiation should I even consider using irrational negotiations? When we look at the negotiation definition that we all use, we realize that the best way to look at irrationality is that it is just another tool that needs to be in everone’s negotiator’s toolkit.

The other side of the table will be spending the entire time that you are negotiating trying to read your mind. Trying to figure out what your next step is going to be. When you start to work some irrationality into your negotiation process, you will confuse them.

This is a powerful negotiating technique; however, you may struggle to pull it off. It really comes down to what your natural negotiating style is. If you are a highly logical person who rarely shows any emotion during a negotiation, then you may struggle to start to incorporate irrational behavior into your negotiations.

What Does All Of This Mean For You?

In the classic sci-fi TV show “Star Trek”, the bad guys have a cloaking device that allows their spacecraft to disappear. As a sales negotiator it turns out that you have your own form of a cloaking device: the power of behaving irrationally.

The other side of the table will always be trying to read your mind and pre-anticipate what your next move is going to be. Using your ability to be illogical can throw off the other side. Being illogical means that at times you become unreasonable, you start to show a great deal of emotion or you simply don’t agree with what they have presented, no matter how clear and logical it is.

In order to have successful negotiations, you need to be able to take on multiple identities during a negotiation. Becoming an illogical negotiator is one such identity and the sooner you learn to use your illogical powers, the sooner you’ll be on your way to closing more deals successfully.

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

Question For You: What time in a sales negotiation do you think would be the best to start to introduce more of your emotions?

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

P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Negotiator Newsletter are now available. Learn what you need to know to do the job. Subscribe now: Click Here!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

So it turns out that one of the key personality characteristics that may have gotten you this far in your career may actually be hindering your ability to negotiate. Yep, in the world of negotiating, there’s no place for a nice guy.

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1. Sales Negotiators Know That They Don’t Have To be A Know-It-All Can you remember back to when you were in school?...
2. Why Good Sales Negotiators Say The Same Thing Over And Over Again I love to negotiate. Give me an objective, sit me...

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Don't Worry – Your Brain Is Big Enough

Can you remember back to when you were in school? At the end of the term in each class there would be a big test that would determine if you had learned what had been taught to you. You’d do all of your homework and then you’d take extra time to study for the test hoping that most of that information would stay in your head long enough for you to pass the test. Well good news, sales negotiations are not like school tests – you don’t have to know everything in order to do just fine.

Why We Think That We Need To Know Everything

When something is being negotiated, for some odd reason we place an extra burden on ourselves: we believe that we need to know everything that there is to know about this negotiation. What we forget is that a negotiation process is just that – a process. The other side isn’t really expecting us to know everything.

Problems can pop up if we start feeling obligated to provide an answer to every question that gets asked. In a principled negotiation you should feel comfortable not knowing everything.

In fact, if you ever get involved in a negotiation in which the person on the other side of the table always has an answer for every question that you ask, consider yourself lucky. What’s going to happen is that they are going to end up talking too much as they struggle to answer all of your questions and they will end up revealing too much.

What To Do When You Just Don’t Know The Answer

All of this, of course, leads to the big question. What should you do when you don’t know the answer to something that comes up during a sales negotiation? If someone asked you for a negotiation definition, I think that your answer would be to tell them that a negotiation is a process by which agreement is reached. Part of this process is the asking and answering of questions.

When one of these questions is asked of you and you don’t know the answer, this is the time for you to be straightforward with the other side and simply say “I don’t know”. You’ll need to follow this up by saying “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” This type of response is expected and you won’t lose any face by using it.

Keep in mind that telling the other side that you don’t know the answer to a question that they have asked doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t know the answer. It is perfectly permissible to not share an answer that you do know with the other side. Additionally, there will be times that you may want to share only part of the information that you know, or perhaps you’ll just want to put off sharing what you know until later in the sales negotiation process.

What All Of This Means For You

As sales negotiators we often like to think of ourselves as being all knowing. The reality is actually quite different – there is a lot out there that we just don’t know.

During a negotiation we need to have the confidence in ourselves to be able to speak up when we don’t know the answer to something. In fact, you might know the answer but that doesn’t mean that you have to answer a question. There is no shame in telling the other side that you are going to have to check on something or do some research before you’ll be able to answer their question.

Having the self-confidence to not have to have all of the answers is one of the great negotiating styles that is all too often overlooked. We all have different negotiation styles, but not pretending to have all of the answer is one style that we should all adopt.

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

Question For You: When you don’t know the answer to a question, what do you think that you should say to the other side?

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

P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Negotiator Newsletter are now available. Learn what you need to know to do the job. Subscribe now: Click Here!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

How do you view yourself when you are conducting a negotiation? Do you see yourself as poised, confident, and above all rational? I think that most of us see ourselves this way. However, it turns out that we might be missing something here – there is a real power in being irrational sometimes…

Related posts:

1. The Accidental Negotiator In The News! Dr. Jim Anderson was recently interviewed by the web site...
2. Why Good Sales Negotiators Say The Same Thing Over And Over Again I love to negotiate. Give me an objective, sit me...
3. Sales Negotiators Know The 6 Words That Let Them Fight The Law – And Win! Talk about running into a brick wall! Sometimes when we...

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Sometimes You Want To Be A Broken Record During A Sales Negotiation

I love to negotiate. Give me an objective, sit me down across the table from somebody who has what I want and let me at them. However, as gung-ho as I am, there are times that I run out of new things to say. I’ve said it all. What should I do next?

Say It Again Sam

When you enter into a sales negotiation, you (should) have a very clear set of objectives that you want to accomplish. Every negotiation is different and so it can take a number of different paths.

You’ll generally have a chance to state your case. It’s what happens after that which can make life interesting. Specifically, if the other side doesn’t really respond – if they are not angrily attempting to counter your every demand, you may find yourself in an awkward situation.

The other side has not agreed to your requests, but they haven’t not agreed to them either. What’s a negotiator to do?

It turns out that the answer is rather simple – just start repeating yourself. That’s right: say what you’ve already said once again. If when you’re done, things are still getting quiet, then start it all over again and tell ‘em what you’ve already told them.

Why Repeating Yourself Is So Effective

All of this might strike you as a bit wacky. I mean, if you’ve told the other side what you want and why you want it, what need could there possibly be for you to start to repeat yourself?

This might surprise you a bit, but there is a very good chance that the other side of the table may not have heard what you said the first time that you said it. There are all types of studies out there that show that people will do a better job of picking up on what you are saying if you repeat it (over and over again).

Professional speakers discovered this a long time ago and during their speeches they’ll touch on the same points multiple times. As negotiators, we need to have the courage to do the same

We need to realize that if the opportunity presents itself, then we need to seize it. Repeating ourselves may be the one thing that it takes to reach a deal in our next negotiation.

What All Of This Means For You

Even the best of us can run out of things to say during a sales negotiation before we’ve reached a deal with the other side. We’ve said what we had to say and now we’re running on empty.

Never fear – a good sales negotiator knows that the sounds of silence need never drift across the negotiating table from your side. Instead, back things up and identify your key points again. Once you have them in hand, repeat what you said the first time – over and over again.

This odd but strangely powerful technique will allow you to fill the space in the negotiation and can work miracles – hearing your points again may cause the other side of the table to adopt them as your own. Realizing that not every word that tumbles out of your mouth has to be a novel thought is something that can empower every sales negotiator.

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

Question For You: Do you think that it is possible to repeat yourself too much during a sales negotiation?

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

P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Negotiator Newsletter are now available. Learn what you need to know to do the job. Subscribe now: Click Here!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Got a great email from reader Nadir Benouali the other evening. Nadir has a fantastic set of negotiating experiences and was willing to share them. Nadir is a US citizen of Algerian origin, and speaks Arabic, Spanish, and French. He has spent the last 20 years negotiating business around the world which provided exposure to all of the differences that the world has to offer.

Related posts:

1. Sales Negotiators Know That A Good Bargain Can Close A Deal When you are negotiating with the other side of the...
2. Sales Negotiators Need To Be Good Pressure Thinkers Let’s face it: a sales negotiation is a high-pressure situation....

Ok, so it’s time to get down and dirty about this sales negotiating stuff. Time after time I keep seeing sales negotiators making the same two mistakes over and over again and it just has got to stop. You can build the best product in the world, have the best sales team, but if you keep dropping the ball when it comes to negotiating the sale, then it’s all for naught.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

The Rolling Stones got it right when they released a song with this name. All too often I see sales negotiators busily writing down every demand that is made by the other side during a negotiation.

Hold on a minute here, do you expect to get everything that you ask for during a sales negotiation? I suspect not. Why do we all seem to automatically assume that the other side is not going to be willing to reach a deal with us unless all of their demands are met?

The reality of the situation is that the other side, just like us, expects to only be partially successful. Now of course, this is not going to keep them from making a lot of demands on us. However, by no means do they expect to be 100% successful.

A key point that we need to remember when we are involved in a sales negotiation is that many of the concessions that the other side may be asking for were not created by the negotiator who is sitting at the table. Rather they were passed to him or her with instructions to include them in the negotiations. What this means for you is that the other side is obligated to make the demand, but may not have a lot vested in getting what they are asking for on this point.

Additionally, in the world of horse-trading that modern sales negotiations are conducted in, you need to expect the other side to include several “straw-issue” requests. These are demands that they really have no hope of actually getting you to agree to; however, once on the table they can be used as bargaining chips.

It’s All About The Value To The Customer

Whatever the product you are trying to sell, it certainly has some benefits associated with it. All too often sales negotiation professionals overlook one of their most powerful tools – using the benefits of their product to strengthen their side of the discussion.

What we need to realize as negotiators is that by simply taking the time to customize whatever the benefits that our products have in order to address the specific needs of the other side of table (or their customers) we can strengthen our negotiating position.

To take this one step further, if we are able to actually associate a dollar value with each of our product’s benefits then we will be in a much stronger position. Not only will this increase the perceived value of what we are bringing to the table, but it will also help to diminish any other offer that might be competing against us.

What All Of This Means For You

A sales negotiation is very much like a carefully scripted dance. Both you and the other side have your roles to play and how you play them depends on what the other side does.

As sales negotiators we need to remember that just because the other side asks for something, it doesn’t mean that they truly expect to get it. We also have to take the time to study what we have to offer and to turn its benefits into quantifiable dollar value benefits for the other side or their customers.

Nobody ever said that this negotiating thing was going to be easy to do. If we want to be successful, then we’re going to have to take the time to understand what the other side is up to and we’re going to have to remember to do our homework before we start our next sales negotiation.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Negotiating Help For Technical Staff

Question For You: Do you think that your product’s benefits are more valuable to the other side or to their customers?

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

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Can anyone remember what happened way back in November of 2007? That’s when all of the writers in Hollywood went on strike. After that the Screen Actors Guild walked out. Talk about a mess. Well guess what, in the first half of 2011 this could all happen again – those contracts are once again just about ready to come up for re-negotiation once again…!

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© Dr. Jim Anderson for The Accidental Negotiator, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ask for things they never expect to get, concessions, customer’s needs, customize benefits, demands, dollar value, objectify benefits, product benefits, straw-issue

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Sometimes The Best Way To Get To “Yes” Is To Say “No

So What’s So Hard About Saying “No”?

As I work with sales negotiators and teams of negotiators I am constantly surprised by just how hard it is for them to say one simple word: “No” . I’m not sure if it’s the way that we’ve been raised or if we all have some built-in need to make other people happy, but we sure seem to like the word “yes” more than we like the word “no”. Normally, this is no big deal – I mean who wouldn’t want to hang out with somebody who is always agreeable. However, this inability to say “no” can spell disaster when you are in a negotiation…

There Are A Lot Of Ways To Say No

The classic Russian sales negotiator is always shown as sitting on the other side of the table saying “no” (or “Nyet” if you prefer) over and over again. Why can’t we be more like them?

When you are in a sales negotiation, it’s sorta like you are dancing with the other side of the table. You go back and forth as you both try to drive the best deal for your side. However, there is one important difference between this interaction and dancing: you have a goal that you are trying to reach.

What the Russians know and we need to learn is that by saying “no” we can drive the other side closer to the goal that we want to achieve. If we don’t learn how to do this, we can get trapped in a sales negotiation that just keeps going on and on and on.

As with all things in life, saying “no” isn’t just as simple as saying the word and then being done with it. Instead (and as the Russians have shown us in countless international negotiations) there are a 1,000 different ways to say no and you really should learn them all.

The simplest way to say no is to simply say it. And then say it again. And again. And again. Often times the first few times that you say it, the other side of the table will ignore you – this isn’t what they want to hear. However, if you keep saying it over and over again, they will eventually get your point.

For variety, you can get up and storm out of a sales negotiating session. They do say that actions speak louder than words and by physically leaving you are very clearly saying “no”. When you return, that “no” is still on the table and the discussions can pick up from there.

Finally, silence is a very powerful way of saying “no” . Just by sitting there and not saying anything you send a very powerful message to the other side of the table and they’ll quickly get your point.

How To Say “No” And Leave The Other Side Happy

Clearly if you become known as the sales negotiator who always says “no”, you’re going to develop a reputation. You want to be careful and make sure that you use this powerful weapon to help reach a deal with the other side.

The power of the “no” comes from the simple fact that after you’ve been saying “no” for awhile, any time that you say “yes” to the smallest concession, the other side will experience a thrill that will make them happy. You can use this to your negotiating advantage.

What All Of This Means For You

All too often we try to hard to make others happy all the time. When we are involved in a sales negotiation, we need to turn this tendency off otherwise it may inhibit our ability to strike the best deal possible with the other side of the table.

The ability to say “no” is a powerful tool that we all have. There are many different ways to say “no” and as a sales negotiator you need to learn to use them all.

The real power of saying “no” is that when you finally get around to saying “yes” you’ll be that much closer to reaching your negotiating goal.

Question For You: Do you think that it is possible to say “no” too much during a negotiation?

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

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

How many times have you really wanted something only to discover that its price was too high? What did you do then – give up and go away? As sales negotiators we are taught that everything can be negotiated; however, in our personal lives (as well as our professional lives), if we see a price written down, we shrug our shoulders and say “well, that’s that” . Turns out that we’ve been getting it wrong all this time…

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© Dr. Jim Anderson for The Accidental Negotiator, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: concessions, good deal, no, returning to the negotiating table, trying to make people happy, walking away

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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?

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

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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© Dr. Jim Anderson for The Accidental Negotiator, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dealing, focus, listening, product knowledge, risk, risk management, self-confidence, sense of humor, time scale

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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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© Dr. Jim Anderson for The Accidental Negotiator, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bad judgement, good judgement, hard work, judgement, opposition, patience, Persistence, personal connection, personal involvement, refusal to give up, stamina

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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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© Dr. Jim Anderson for The Accidental Negotiator, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: agreement, Detail Orientated, lack of detail, logical thinking, networker, networking

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.

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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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Post tags: Brian Dietmeyer, business, buyer, deal, deals, difficult customer, fear, greed, offer technique, sales negotiation, seller, Think!

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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© Dr. Jim Anderson for The Accidental Negotiator, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bargaining, BATANA, best deals, buy, buyer, buyers, concession, concessions, Contracts, deal, deals, how to deal, location, money, negotiating, negotiation, negotiations, planning, price, sale, sales, seller, strategy, success, time