Posts Tagged ‘no’

5 Steps For Preparing For Your Next Sales Negotiation

Friday, June 11th, 2010
Image Credit A Plan Is What You Need To Have BEFORE You Start A Negotiation

A Plan Is What You Need To Have BEFORE You Start A Negotiation

So let’s say that you were going to drive to some place far, far away. Let’s go a step farther and say that you sorta knew where you were going to go to, but that you had never been there before. Can you imagine yourself just jumping into the car and driving with doing any planning? Believe it or not, this is exactly how some sales negotiators jump into a negotiation.

What, Me Plan?

So how would you get ready for that long car ride? I’m betting that you’d fill up the gas tank. You might check the air in the tires. Probably you’d pack some food and bring along some tapes / CDs to listen to. You might even go so far as to get a map (or these days a GPS system) and figure out how you were going to get from here to there.

It turns out that the same set of basic steps need to be taken by a sales negotiator before starting any negotiation. During a car trip you sure don’t want to run out of gas, go hungry, or lose your way. The same can be said of a sales negotiation.

5 Things You Have To Do Before You Start Any Negotiation

To help get you properly prepared for your next sales negotiation, I’ve got some suggestions. Here are five steps that you need to take before you sit down at the negotiating table:

  • Create A “Want” List: How can you be successful during a negotiation if you don’t know what you want? Take the time to create a list of what you want to get out of the negotiation. Be careful here: not all wants are created the same. Make sure that you distinguish between the ones that you can’t live without and the ones that would just be nice to have.
  • Pick A Start And An End Point: Before you start any negotiation, you can pretty much identify the main issues that will be coming up during the negotiation. Take the time to determine what your starting offer is going to be for each of these points. Many negotiators do this step and then forget to do the next part – make up your mind as to where you are going to be willing to end up on this point.
  • Deal With “No”: Arguably the word “no” is one of the most powerful words in the English language and it can stop any sales negotiator in his / her tracks if you aren’t prepared for it. Before the negotiation starts you need to assume that the other side is going to say “no” to every proposal that you make. Knowing this, you need to decide in advance how you are going to react when they say it.
  • Pick Your “Gets”: It’s a fact of life during any negotiation that you’re going to have to give in on some points. Knowing that this will happen, before the negotiation you need to make a list of what you’re going to get from the other side when you make a concession to them.
  • Set The Scene: All too often it’s after a negotiation has started that a negotiator discovers that where and when the negotiation is happening is not in their best interests. Take some time before the negotiation is even scheduled to pick where and when you want it to happen – make sure that it’s easy for you to get to (and to leave) and that it works with your schedule.

What All Of This Means For You

There’s probably not a sales negotiator out there that won’t agree that taking the time to do a good job of planning is a key factor in determining how a negotiation comes out. However, all too often we just don’t do this well.

It turns out that there are a sequence of planning steps that you need to perform before every negotiation. By doing these steps, you’ll be cool, calm, and collected when things happen during the negotiation and you can keep your focus on what matters the most – getting the best deal!

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

Question For You: What do you think the best way to remember all of the different things that you want to get out of a negotiation is? Put them on a piece of paper on the table in front of you?

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

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Have you ever wished for three wishes? Maybe you’d keep one of these wishes in you back pocket and then someday when you found yourself in the middle of a sales negotiation that just wasn’t going your way, you could whip it out and come out a winner? Well, I don’t have any wishes to share with you, but I’ve got some ways for you to come out of your next negotiation feeling like you won it before you even started…

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2 “Never Fail” Secrets To Getting Your Way In A Sales Negotiation

Friday, May 21st, 2010
Image Credit Sometimes The Shortest Words Are The Most Powerful

Sometimes The Shortest Words Are The Most Powerful

Hey, did you read any of those Harry Potter books (or at least see one of the movies?) If you did, then you probably got drawn into the world of magic and wizards that the books are all about. It sure seems as though in these stories that there is a magic portion or a curse to do just about anything. The stories are fiction but it turns out that sales negotiators do have some real magic that they can use to get what they want during a negotiation…

The Power Of The Word “No”

For some odd reason in Western cultures there seems to be a social stigma associated with saying the word “no” to someone – even when we’re in the middle of a sales negotiation. If you want to be successful, you’re going to have to learn to get over this hang up.

I’m not talking about just saying “no” and then turning your back to the other side of the table. Instead, I’m going to suggest a two-part “no” strategy. The first part, naturally, consists of you saying “no”. The second part is where you take the time to explain to the other side of the table WHY you said no. The goal here is to explain your reasoning in a clear and logical fashion.

One of the reasons that so many of us really dislike saying (or sticking with ) a “no” is because we think that it’s going to make the other side of the table feel bad. What’s interesting about this is that more often than not, we’re wrong about this.

Getting a “no” from us might be exactly what the other side of the table wants. It closes the door on this part of the negotiation and so they can move on to the next part. If asked by their bosses, they can at least say that they asked and we said “no”.

In the world of negotiating, just about everyone agrees that the Japanese are the best at saying “no” . They have a way of saying it in such a way that you don’t feel bad when you hear it: “yes, but …” or “no, maybe…”.

Give Them An Opportunity To Vent

Just how do you think your response of a “no” is going to make the other side of the table feel? Sad? Angry? You bet! When they are feeling this way they are going to want to vent, let off some steam. If you are wise, you’ll go ahead and let them do this.

The reasoning behind this strategy is subtle, but complex. By allowing the other side to go on a rant, you are deliberately not restricting their actions. If you tried to do this they just might go postal and storm out of the negotiations. By allowing them to do some yelling, you are providing them with a safe way to work through their frustrations.

Another point that you should keep in mind is that when the other side is venting, they may actually be showing off for the rest of their team. Remember that when the sales negotiations are done, they are going to have to report to their bosses who will ask if they did everything that they could in order to get the best deal possible. Reports of their tirade may serve to convince their internal audience that they did a good job.

What All Of This Means For You

Forget the magic that Harry Potter is able to call upon, today’s sales negotiators need to find some practical magic. The good news is that there seems to be plenty of it around for us to use.

The simple word “no” can be the one word that allows you to get what you want during your next sales negotiation. You just need to find the courage to say it and stick with it. Once you’ve said it, you’ll need to give the other side of the table a chance to work out their frustration.

If you can do both of these things, then you’ll be that much closer to striking a good deal during your next negotiation. Who can say “no” to that?

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

Question For You: Once you’ve said “no” to something, do you think that you can ever change you mind and say “yes” to it without losing face?

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

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

In the world of negotiating, the actual process of negotiating is very much an art. In order to be good at it, a master sales negotiator needs to have a complete collection of negotiating tactics at his or her disposal…

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Learn To Say “No” From A Russian

Friday, March 26th, 2010
Image Credit
Sometimes The Best Way To Get To “Yes” Is To Say “No

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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