Posts Tagged ‘Persistence’

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?

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

Friday, January 8th, 2010
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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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Negotiators Know That Persistence (& Risk Taking) Pay Off

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Persistence And Risk Taking In Negotiations Can Pay Off

Persistence And Risk Taking In Negotiations Can Pay Off

In this world there are two types of negotiators: the good ones and everyone else. The goal of any negotiator is to become a member of the group of good negotiators. The challenge is that the path to becoming a good negotiator is not always clear. However, there are two basic skills that lay on this path: persistence and the ability to take the right risks.

Persistence Pays Off For Negotiators

Persistence is another one of those skills that we all think should be obvious to ever negotiator; however, it’s very easy to not have it. When the other side of the table says “no” to one of our offers during a negotiation, it’s very easy to lose heart and give up.

However, the negotiator who treats every “no” as a step towards “yes” is the one who will be successful in the end. Realizing that there is a reason that the other side is saying no and then being persistent enough to continue talking until you uncover that reason is the key to success.

American negotiators have been confronted with negotiators from other countries who appeared to be unmovable in their positions. Day after day the negotiations would continue with no progress being made. In the case where the Americans would return to the table and not give up, eventually progress ended up being made. The other side’s unmovable position was just a ploy to see how committed the Americans were to the negotiations.

Risk Taking Has Its Rewards

Being persistent in a negotiation is a form of risk taking: you are risking continuing down a path that may not pan out for you. However, there are other forms of risk taking that can occur during a negotiation:

  • Deadlock: The risk of encountering a deadlock faces every negotiator. The more you press a point, the greater the possibility that the other side will become unyielding. A skilled negotiator knows how to not force the other side into a position from which there is no way out.
  • Losing Current Deals: Whenever a change to an existing deal is being negotiated, both parties realize that there is a risk that they could walk away from the table with no deal at all. Often it’s this fear of losing an existing deal that will keep both parties at the table. Sharp negotiators realize this and will be willing to push harder because they know the other side of the table won’t walk away.
  • Losing Opportunities: Both buyers and sellers can potentially not realize that a deal is more important to the other side than it seems at first glance. Sellers may be trying to break into a new market or buyers may be trying to get additional suppliers. In situations like this, the other side of the table can press harder because the risk of reaching a deadlock is much less.

Final Thoughts

Successful negotiators aren’t that much different from everyone else. The things that distinguish them are actually very small details. Two of the most important features of a good negotiator are persistence and knowing when to take risks.

Persistence means knowing when to keep on even after you’ve been told “no” by the other side. Good risk taking is when you know that your persistence will pay off for you in the end. When you can combine these skills, you will have become a good negotiator and you will be able to close better deals and close them quicker.

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

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Quick: what’s the first thing that you think about when you picture your next negotiation in your mind? Unless you are Mother Teresa’s brother / sister I’ll bet that you saw yourself walking away from the bargaining table with the best deal in the world , you had gotten everything that you had wanted and more. Umm, what about the other side? That’s why win-win negotiating never works.

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The Chinese Guide To Sales Negotiation

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

Sales Negotiators Need To Learn How To Negotiate With The Chinese

Sales Negotiators Need To Learn How To Negotiate With The Chinese

Pity the poor American salesperson who goes out into the world of business and tries to negotiate. Sure, he/she is probably well equipped to negotiate with his / her American born-and-breed peers. I mean, after all, we share the same vocabulary, culture, and were brought up pretty much the same way. However, what happens when we encounter someone from a different (dare I say foreign?) culture? Like say, China…?

The world is constantly becoming a smaller and smaller place. Current economic conditions not withstanding, this is only going to speed up over time. That means that somehow we need to find a way to quickly come up to speed on how to deal with sales negotiators who come from different cultures. They think and act completely differently than we do and we are the ones who need to learn to adjust in order to make our sales negotiations successful.

Dr. Charles Karrass has spent a lot of time studying not only negotiations but also how cross-cultural negations do or don’t work. When it comes to dealing with folks from China, he’s got some suggestions for us:

  • Get Some Quanxi: Quanxi is the Chinese term for the construction of close family relations, or a joined network of relationships with the emphasis on the individual and informal groups rather than formal organizations. Building guanxi means building relationships. In sales negotiations, this means that by entering into a negotiated relationship, you are actually taking on a lot of responsibility. If things change during the contract, the other side can ask for changes and you are expected to be accommodating.
  • Watch Those Words: In negotiations with Chinese, what a word means is critically important. All too often, what a word means to you may not be what it means to the other side. Both before and during a negotiation, it would be worth your while to take the time to carefully define key words and make sure that both of you are using it the same way.
  • Persistence Pays: All too often in Western culture, we take a “no” as really meaning “no”. To a Chinese negotiator, your “no” just means “no for now” and they will feel free to revisit it over and over again to see if you’ve changed your mind. Many western negotiators have commented on this by saying that Chinese negotiators appear to grind away until they end up getting most of what they want. Chinese negotiators have both consistency and persistence – be prepared!

Yes, a sales negotiator can successfully conduct business with Chinese negotiators. However, you need to be aware that they view the world differently than you do and YOU are the one that is going to have to adjust in order to have these negotiations turn out successfully.

Have you ever had an opportunity to negotiate a business deal with a Chinese negotiator? Did they keep coming back over and over again to issues that you thought were already closed? Were there any misunderstandings over vocabulary words? Did you end up building a quanxi relationship? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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