Dr. Jim Anderson explains why it can be so difficult to reach an agreement during a negotiation — there are ghosts in the room!
Dr. Anderson shows that the other side of the table has to make sure that many parties have their needs met by any agreement that is reached. He shows you how to make sure that you can “see” all of the ghosts in the room…
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Let your mind drift back to the last sales negotiation that you were involved in. When talk finally got around to negotiating a deal, after all of the PowerPoint slide shows, all of the RFP responses, maybe even the product bake-offs, who had the upper hand – you or the other side of the table?
The upper hand in any negotiation is held by the side that has the most power. In sales negotiations, power is a slippery thing. It’s hard to tell how much of it you have and likewise, it’s hard to tell how much of it the other side of the table has. Despite all of this, it’s a critical part of the process – “he who has the most power in a negotiation will probably end up being MORE satisfied by the outcome.”
What all of this means is that you’ve got to get better at evaluating the situation: you’ve got to know how to find out how much power you have and how much the other side has.
Sales people have known for a long time that negotiation is a process of information discovery. During this discovery process you learn what your sources of power for this particular negotiation are. That being said, there are three negotiating rules that will help you to learn more about your power during a negotiation:
These three rules of negotiating power are your ticket to success. At the end of the day, every time that we enter into a negotiation we’re hoping that we come out of it feeling satisfied with what we were able to accomplish – we didn’t give away too much and we got what we needed.
In order to get this type of satisfaction we need to have enough power on our side to enable us to get our way on those things that count.
Realizing that negotiating power is a state of mind and that we have control over how much of it we have will allow us to use it to close better deals and close them quicker.
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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!
At the end of the day, negotiating is all about power , who has it, who wants it, and what to do with it. You can read every book out there, you can attend every training class offered, you can even do your own field research, but ultimately what you will be trying to find out is how you can boost your power when you are in a negotiation.
I’ve got some great news for you , you don’t have to do all of that reading, attend all of those classes, or even do any field research. I’ve pulled together the top 10 ways that you can boost your negotiating power. Without any further ado, here they are:
Power is a tricky thing in the best of circumstances. During a negotiation, it is even more challenging to deal with. Since it can’t be seen or measured, all too often negotiators decide that there is nothing that they can do about it , you either have it or you don’t.
It turns out that this is not correct, negotiating power is something that the great sales negotiators know how to grow and cultivate. There is no one thing that you can do to build up your negotiating power, rather there are a lot of little things that you can do.
Print out this list and bring it along with you the next time that you start a negotiation. Review it the night before the negotiations start and then put it somewhere where you can easily see it during the negotiations. You’ll be amazed at just how much power you find that you have after all.
What is the one thing that you believe that you need to do to boost your power in your next negotiation?
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It’s all too easy to get caught up in the theory of negotiating and sometimes we forget to take the time to look around us and see other deals that are being made – and learn from them. If we needed a recent deal to teach us a lesson, the $20 billion dollar Clear Channel private equity buy-out would be a good example — because it almost didn’t happen!
Having some bargaining power when you are involved in a sales negotiation is a good thing. Have super bargaining power is much, much better. Most of us do a few things to prepare for a negotiating session, but are we doing enough? The answer in most cases is no. Let me tell you what you can do to fix this…
The following tips for how to gain more power for your side of the table during a negotiation come from the professional negotiators who do this for a full time living and who have been doing it for many years. Read on and learn from their experiences.
All too often as sales negotiators we can spend all of our time focused on the deal being negotiated. Since any agreement that we’ll be able to reach will be between two people, we need to spend some time focusing on making the other side of the table comfortable enough to say “yes”.
This has nothing to do with what’s being negotiated and has everything to do with the negotiating environment: is there plenty of food and drink? Have you taken the time to get to personally know the other side of the table? These things may seem small, but they can play a big role in making the other side more comfortable in saying “yes” to you.
If you’ve ever seen an expert negotiator working, you’ve seen a pen in their hand and a notepad in front of them. The reason for this is because they know that one of the unspoken secrets to doing a good job of negotiating is simply remembering what has already been discussed. Writing everything down will allow you to remember what concessions have been made by both sides and will allow you to move forward instead of just spending time chasing your tail.
One point that is easily overlooked by most negotiators we prepare for a negotiation session, but not by the great negotiators, is that how we look will play a big role in determining how much power the other side will be willing to give us. Normally this means that we should try to dress like the people who are two or three levels higher in our organization than we are. However, if you are trying to convince the other side that your funding is limited, then “dressing down” would send the appropriate message.
Being the only person on your side of the table can not only be lonely, it can also be dangerous. Having another set of eyes and ears is invaluable in collecting information about how the other side is reacting and how things are going. Negotiations can move so fast at times that there is no way that a single person can stay on top of everything that is going on.
This is almost a variation of the “defer to a higher authority” tactic, but if you have well accepted external material that you can refer to during the negotiation, then issues that pop up can be quickly resolved (hopefully in your favor).
The difference between a good negotiator and a great negotiator is not that the great negotiators have access to some secret powers. Instead, it comes down to the simple fact that through experience they’ve learned lots of small details that when taken together serve to strengthen their bargaining position.
What this means for you is that you can move from being a good sales negotiator to being a great sales negotiator simply by taking the time to learn what these details are. Once you’ve mastered them, you’ll be that much closer to being unstoppable!
What is the one thing that you could do that would have the greatest impact on your bargaining power during your next negotiation?
Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.
At the end of the day, negotiating is all about power , who has it, who wants it, and what to do with it. You can read every book out there, you can attend every training class offered, you can even do your own field research, but ultimately what you will be trying to find out is how you can boost your power when you are in a negotiation.
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