Posts Tagged ‘deadline’

Negotiators Know The Power Of Not Making Up Your Mind

Friday, August 12th, 2011
Image Credit Knowing Which Way To Go During A Negotiation Is Not Always Necessary

Knowing Which Way To Go During A Negotiation Is Not Always Necessary

I hate to negotiate with people who don’t know how to negotiate. Knowing this you might think that I’m always expecting the other side to be on top of things, know what they want and have a plan on how they are going to get there. It turns out that you’d be wrong – sometimes not being able to make up your mind is more powerful than knowing where you are going.

The Power Of Not Knowing

The concept of not knowing what you want to do or where you want to go seems to go against the grain of how we like to picture ourselves as negotiators. Instead, we like to see ourselves as bold and confident – knowing where we’re going to go even before we get there.

However, what we forget is that every sales negotiation is a stressful situation. Any decisions that we make during a negotiation are decisions that we’ll be making under pressure – and all too often those types of decisions are bad decisions.

A lot of people don’t realize just how much effort goes into not making your mind up. It’s actually quite easy to focus on one path of action. Not selecting where you want to go is much harder.

How To Use Indecision To Your Advantage

So maybe not being able to make up your mind is a good thing? In some ways the answer to this question is yes, it can put you into a more powerful position when you are negotiating.

One of the biggest benefits of not being able to make up your mind during a negotiation is that you are in no position to reach a deal. This means that if the other side wants to settle quickly, then they are going to have to be the ones who make concessions to move both sides close to close.

This also means that you get to control the flow of time. You cannot make up your mind for as long as you want to – you’re in charge of that. This can end up frustrating the other side of the table and once again this may lead them to making even more concessions just because they want the negotiations to be over and done with!

What All Of This Means For You

One of the big secrets that most negotiators who are just starting out don’t realize is that a bit of indecision can be a powerful tool during a negotiation. You’d think that knowing exactly what you want to be doing and where you want the negotiations to be heading would be necessary, but it isn’t.

The power that comes from being indecisive comes from the simple fact that you can’t reach a deal with the other side because you don’t really know what you want. This means that the other side can’t force you to do something that you don’t want to – you don’t know enough to make a mistake. This is going to result in the other side making more concessions to you just to keep things moving along.

Despite what your mother may have told you while you were growing up, the brightest people don’t always finish first. Sometimes when we don’t know what we want to do we can end up coming out ahead!

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

Question For You: How do you think that you can make yourself remain indecisive during a sales negotiation?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Talk about running into a brick wall! Sometimes when we are in the middle of a negotiation, especially with a state or federal official, we come face to face with a regulation that prevents us from getting what we want. Is it time to give up? Nope, you just need to know the magic 6 words that you need to say…

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The Secret To Dealing With Deadlines: What Negotiators Need To Know

Friday, April 8th, 2011
Image Credit
Will You Know What To Do When Time Runs Out?

Will You Know What To Do When Time Runs Out?

Just how long do you think that your next sales negotiation is going to last? I’ve got news for you – it may not last as long as you may think that it’s going to last. The reason is that either side of the table may use deadlines to help hurry things along. If this happens, will you recognize that it’s happening and, more importantly, will you know what to do when it happens to you?

What’s The Big Deal With Deadlines?

Are we all clear here on just exactly what a deadline is? A deadline is a device that can be used by either side in a negotiation to move the discussion along. Basically it’s a way to get to the end of the discussions quicker.

Just because one side of the table presents the other side with a deadline does not mean that anything is going to change. Deadlines only work if the other side of the table believes that it’s real. Oh, and sometimes they aren’t – deadlines can be made up just to help the side that’s making it up.

As a negotiator you’ve got two skills that you need to develop. The first is that you’ve got to be able to realize when a deadline is being used to motivate you to agree to a deal quicker. The other skill that you are going to need is the ability to deal with deadlines when they are presented to you. The good news is that both of these skills can be learned.

How Buyers Use Deadlines

Buyers are generally willing to work with someone who is trying to sell them something for as long as they think that they are going to be able to get a good deal from them. The quicker that they can get to a deal, the faster they can move on to the next deal. Deadlines are a powerful tool for buyers to use to accomplish this.

Buyers can use a wide variety of methods to impose deadlines on the other side of the table. One such method is to say that funding for a purchase will be going away quickly and so a deal must be struck soon. Another is to say that an they will be making a purchase, but if a deal can’t be reached quickly then it will have to be made with another firm. Finally, stating that other parties will be involved in approving any deal and that they soon won’t be available for some period of time is another time-tested method for buyers to impose deadlines.

How Sellers Use Deadlines

The other side of the deadline coin has sellers on it who like to impose deadlines almost as much as buyers do. Sellers are often working with multiple buyers at different firms and so they need to determine if a deal is even possible as quickly as possible. Using a deadline can help to get to the end of a negotiation quickly and this will free up time to work with other parties on other deals.

Sellers also have a collection of classic deadline techniques that they like to use. These include stating that a price increase is coming soon and the current price may not be available for much longer. Tying the delivery date to the date that an agreement is struck is another way of establishing a deadline. Finally, stating that there is a limited supply of what is being negotiated for can provide the sense of urgency that comes with a deadline.

How You Can Defend Against Deadlines

Detecting that a deadline is being used against you is the first skill that you need to have as a sales negotiator. The next skill that you need to develop is the ability to defend against a deadline.

The first thing that you need to realize when you are presented with a deadline is that it may not be real. A deadline is just another negotiating tactic and you need to view it as being such. Do not allow a deadline to force you into rushing to make decisions that really require more time.

Instead, what you need to do is to be skeptical about any deadline that is presented to you. After having been presented with a deadline, your next step has to be to start to test it. Ask questions and dive deeper to find out what the implications of missing the deadline are and why they are tied to the deadline.

More often than not, you are going to discover that a deadline is not a fixed thing. Instead, a deadline just like everything else in a negotiation is up for debate and can be changed.

What All Of This Means For You

Deadlines are a powerful tool that can be used by either side in a negotiation. Instead of allowing the other side to believe that they have unlimited time to complete a negotiation, the use of a deadline causes the discussions to move more quickly with a sense of urgency.

Buyers use deadlines to move a deadline forward so that they can either reach a deal with a seller or move on and start negotiations with another seller. Sellers use deadlines in an attempt to close a deal quicker. No matter who is using a deadline, when you are presented with one you need to spend some time questioning if it is a real deadline.

Deadlines will always be a part of modern negotiations. Your responsibility as a skilled negotiator is to be able to recognize when a deadline is being used and to then know how best to deal with it.

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

P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Negotiator Newsletter are now available. Learn how to close more deals — faster. Subscribe now: Click Here!

Question For You: At what point in a negotiation do you think that you should start to use a deadline?

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

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Have you ever changed something about your appearance that made you look dramatically different? How did that go over with your family, friends, and coworkers? I’m willing to bet that right off the bat there was some shock when they first encountered your new look. However, over time that faded and things got back to normal. What happened is that they eventually came around to seeing you the way that you see yourself. When you are negotiating a deal, this same concept can be a powerful factor in helping you to wrap up a negotiation…

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Deadlines Make Sales Negotiators Give It All Away

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Sales Negotiators Can Give It All Away In The End If They Are Not Careful

Sales Negotiators Can Give It All Away In The End If They Are Not Careful

Every sales negotiation has some sort of time limit associated with it. You might have an hour, a day, or even longer to conduct the negotiations, but there is some point in time at which you’ll run out of time to talk. This is when most sales negotiations fall apart.

The Problem With The End

Studies of negotiators has revealed a disturbing fact about all of us. During a normal negotiation we engage in a process in which we give a little bit and take a little bit. Pretty much what you would expect in any transaction. However, then the news arrives.

When we are informed or we become aware that the window to negotiate is coming to a close (perhaps someone important needs to leave for the airport), then for some weird reason one side or the other makes a mistake.

The Big Mistake

When we become aware of an approaching deadline, all too often we start to make big concessions to the other side of the table that we wouldn’t normally make. What happens next is that they don’t make big concessions to us, instead they make smaller concessions which causes us to make more big concessions.

It turns out that this type of behavior is practiced by both experienced and inexperienced negotiators. The only real difference is that the inexperienced negotiators made bigger concessions than the experienced ones did.

Why Do We Behave This Way?

In all honesty, this type of behavior really shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of us. It all boils down to one simple fact of life: humans have a tenancy to make very bad decisions when we are under pressure. Clearly, the last few minutes of a negotiation is the worst time for us to be making concessions.

What To Do About It

If we can accept that we are poor decision makers when we are under pressure and if we don’t want to give away the farm at the end of a sales negotiation, then what’s a sales negotiator to do? In the end this is all about self-discipline.

You need to limit yourself to only making small concessions during the negotiation and you need to space them out during the negotiations instead of bunching them up at the end. As the end of the negotiations draws near, before you make ANY concession keep asking yourself:

  1. Why should I make this concession, and
  2. Can this deadline be negotiated?

If you can keep these questions in mind as the negotiations wind down, then you’ll be all set to close better deals and close them quicker.

Questions For You

Have you ever given anything away at the end of a negotiation that you wished that you had not? Has the other side ever made big concessions to you during the last few minutes of a negotiation? Have you ever caught yourself before you make a big concession that you would have regretted? Do you use this tendency for the other side to give in at the end as a negotiating tactic? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.
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The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

I’ve been amazed  over and over again to see sales negotiators just give away their negotiating power to the other side time after time. They just don’t realize that they are doing it. Let’s see if we can put a stop to this…

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Deadline? We Don’t Need No Stinkin Deadline…

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
Deadlines Show Up During Negotiations, But Are They Real?

Deadlines Show Up During Negotiations, But Are They Real?

What would the world of negotiating be without deadlines? I can tell you that Hollywood movies would lose a lot of their plot if the bad guys couldn’t set impossible deadlines for our heroes to try to meet. What about real life – why do people use deadlines while negotiating?

It’s actually pretty simple, a deadline is an effective communication tool. Deadlines can be used by either side to apply pressure to the other side and force them to make a choice. If the party that’s under pressure chooses to accept the deadline, then the deal will be done. Otherwise, who knows?

You see, the trick with deadlines is that when you are presented with one you can never be quite sure that it’s real. In the game of poker this is called bluffing. The one thing that we do know about a deadline is that if we accept it, everything will be resolved. However, there will always be that unanswered question as to what would have happened if we had not met the deadline…

One solid piece of advice is given by experienced negotiators: always be skeptical of any deadline that you encounter during a negotiation. These types of fixed time limits have a tendency to come and go.

Now having said this, you also have to realize that in real life sometimes a deadline is real. If you choose to not meet it, then you are running the very real risk that this may kill the deal once and for all.

In order to help you see your way through the deadline maze, here are three questions that you need to ask yourself anytime that you encounter a deadline during a negotiation:

  1. For The Other Side: what deadlines do you know about that the other side has to live with? Do you know what will happen if they miss their deadlines?
  2. For You: what deadlines have been placed on me by either my team, my organization, or myself? Will these deadlines limit how effective I can be during this negotiation?
  3. Renegotiation: Is is possible for my team to renegotiate any of the deadlines that have been placed on us by our own people? Who says that we can or cannot?

As much as we all dread having the other side throw a deadline at us, we need to remember that deadlines are an effective tool that we have in our own bag of tricks. Studies of negotiations have been done and they have revealed that deadlines do one thing very well – they force the other side to make a decision.

All too often in a negotiation, things can be dragging on for too long. If you find yourself in this situation where the other side appears to be resisting making up their minds, then perhaps a deadline is called for.

This type of situation often shows up when the other side is faced with an especially difficult decision. They will drag their feet longer in order to avoid having to make up their mind. If you can convey to them that there is a sense of legitimacy to your deadline, then you can use this powerful tool to close the deal faster.

Have you ever been presented with a deadline during a negotiation? Were you able to determine if it was a real deadline? Did you meet the deadline or did you skip it? What happened then? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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