Posts Tagged ‘plan’

Plan Your Next Negotiation, Negotiate Your Plan, Be Successful

Friday, January 27th, 2012
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In order to be successful in a negotiation, you need to have a plan

In order to be successful in a negotiation, you need to have a plan

When I’m working with negotiators who are trying to become better, they always ask me what the secret to moving to the next level is. For years I always told them that there was no “silver bullet” that would allow them to make the jump. It was just going to take a lot of hard work.

Lately I’ve decided that I’ve been wrong. It turns out that there is one thing that any negotiator can do that will allow him or her to move up to the next level. This secret turns out to be something that all of us should be doing anyway. In fact I think that it should really be part of the negotiation definition: planning the negotiation.

Negotiating Is Dynamic, Why Bother To Plan?

Nobody could possibly object to the idea of creating a plan to guide your actions during a negotiating session, right? If this is what you think, then you’d be wrong. I get a lot of push back from my clients when I suggest this.

What they tell me is that they view negotiations as being a dynamic thing. They don’t think that a plan will do them any good – it will quickly become useless and so why waste the time creating one in the first place?

I have a saying that I share with my clients when they say this: plan your work, work your plan, and it will all work out. Yes, a lot of things that you can’t possibly anticipate may happen during a negotiation process. However, by having a plan you’ll know where you want to go during the negotiations and you’ll know how you want to get there.

The Best Way To Develop A Negotiating Plan That Will Work

If I’ve been able to convince you that having a plan for your next negotiation is the way to go, then perhaps your next question will be how can you get better at creating plans for negotiating? It turns out that this is actually pretty easy to do.

The first thing that you’ll want to do is to do some role playing. Because of the dynamic nature of negotiating, you’ll never be able to know exactly how the other side is going to react to your proposals. If you can get someone to play the role of the other side of the table, then when you make your proposals you just might be surprised by their reaction. This is a good thing – you can update your plan to take this kind of reaction into account.

Additionally, during the actual negotiations you will want to make sure that you and your team have enough time to make sure that you are staying on plan. This means that you should plan on taking frequent caucus breaks. Only by re-synching with your team will you be able to get your side of the table back onto your plan if things have goon awry.

What All Of This Means For You

All of us want to become better negotiators. We spend a lot of time researching new negotiation styles and negotiating techniques; however, it turns out that one of the most powerful ways to become better has been under our noses all along: practice planning. It’s so simple that we’ve overlooked it for too long.

Sometimes a negotiation seems to be too dynamic. I mean how could you ever hope to plan for something that changes that much? However, it turns out that by having a plan, you’ll always know where you want to go and how you’ll get there.

In order to make sure that your plan will work for you, you can take the extra step and do some role playing before the actual negotiations start. By doing this you can adjust your plan so that it accounts for the actions that you believe that the other side may take.

Having a plan gives you something that every negotiator needs before a principled negotiation starts: self-confidence. If you know what you want and how you’re going to get it, then there’s a much better chance that what you’ve negotiated is going to end up producing a good deal for both sides.

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

Question For You: How much time do you think that you should spend creating a plan for your next sales negotiation?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

The goal of any negotiation is to get the other side of the table to see things your way. Hmm, how are we going to make that happen? What you are going to have to do is to become skilled at finding ways to support the position that you are taking. In order to get better at doing this, I’ve got 5 tips that will boost your skills…

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Remember: “Negotiation” Spelled Backwards Is “Change”

Friday, July 2nd, 2010
Image Credit Sorry -- There's No Way To Calculate How A Negotiation Will Go

Sorry -- There's No Way To Calculate How A Negotiation Will Go

So what’s the secret to conducting a successful negotiation? Is it taking enough time to plan? Is it picking the right place to hold the negotiations? Turns out that none of these are the right answer. Instead, if you want to be successful you need to do one simple thing: plan for everything to go wrong.

The Power Of A Good Plan (Not!)

Now I don’t want you to get me wrong here, but I’ve got some news for you that just might come as a surprise to you. Yes, it is important to plan out each of your negotiations. You want to take the time to do your homework, identify what the other side is really going to be looking for, and come up with a plan that you think is going to allow you to get what you want out of the negotiation.
Umm, this is where things get just a bit awkward – for you see, that plan is never going to work out. What none of us take into consideration (not like we can) is just exactly what the other side of the table is going to be doing during the negotiation. In a nutshell, they are going to be actively working against us. They are going to be trying to foil our every attempt to get an upper hand during the negotiation.
Ultimately what this means is that the carefully laid out plan that you had come up with before the negotiations started will very quickly turn into junk due to changes in circumstances. Dang it – why can’t the other side just do what you want them to do?

Your Defense Against Changes: Part 1

The fact that the other side of the table is going to be actively working against you really should come as no surprise to you. Hey, you’re basically doing the same thing to them! What you need here is a way to defend your carefully laid out plan against their crafty ways.
The concept of how you need to prepare to do battle to save your plan is actually pretty simple – the execution is another story. What you are going to want to do is to sit down with a colleague prior to the negotiation and do some role-playing.
You will, of course, want to play you. You’ll need your partner to play the other side of the table. What you want them to do is to frustrate your every move. You really want them to require you to do two things simultaneously: defend the positions that you are laying down and resist their clever arguments / positions.
You’re going to hate doing this. However, it really is the best way to discover where your arguments are weak and how you’re going to need to do a better job of resisting the other side’s proposals.

Your Defense Against Changes: Part 2

What’s a sales negotiator to do when the other side does something that makes their game plan completely moot? The worst thing that you can do is to continue to negotiate without a plan.
What you do need to do is to stop the proceedings. Call for a break. Ask for a timeout. Just do something to cause the negotiations to come to a halt. Give yourself some time to think about what’s just happened.
This is the time that you’re going to have use to come up with a new plan very quickly. The ability to adjust to changing negotiating circumstances and to adjust your strategy to meet the new reality is the mark of a great sales negotiator.

What All Of This Means For You

Planning is the right way to prepare for your next sales negotiation. However, professional negotiators will tell you that no matter how carefully you plan, you are going to discover that your plan will very quickly become out of date.
What you need to do is to work with a partner when you are preparing for a negotiation. That partner needs to attack your positions and offer their own positions that you need to find ways to push back against. It’s tough work but it will prepare you for the battle that lies ahead.
Remembering that you will need time during the negotiation to regroup and create new plans is critical. Remember, a sales negotiation is not a race to get to the end, but rather much more like a dance where how you conduct yourself during the negotiation will determine what your final score is.

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

Question For You: Do you think that it is even worth it to create a plan if it’s just going to get tossed out the window early on?

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

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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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Deadly Sins Of Sales Negotiations: Hope And 3 Others

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

When Playing The Sales Negotiation Game, You Can't Just Hope To Win<br><a href=We all hear so much about the smooth Donald Trumps of the world that we can fall in to the belief that everyone shows up for a sales negotiation better prepared than we are. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, there are four common sales negotiation mistakes that even really smart people make all the time. Are you making any of them?

The 4 Deadly Sins Of Sales Negotiations

It turns out that the reason that so many sales negotiations turn out poorly for negotiators is because they enter into the negotiations with the wrong state of mind. Instead of preparing for the negotiation, they go in with a “let’s hope for the best” type of mindset. How can they possibly hope to do well?

Sales negotiators who have this type of mind set more often than not don’t do well during a negotiation. They fall prey to the four deadly sins of sales negotiations:

  1. No plan
  2. Bad agreements
  3. Poor reading skills
  4. No follow up

Your Plan Is That You Have No Plan!

While I worked for Siemens, there was a large French-Canadian director who would occasionally explode in strategy meetings and shout at people that “Your Plan Is That You Have No Plan!” In a sales negotiation, this is often the case when people enter into the negotiation without a plan.

Instead of a plan, they have hope. Hope that things will go well. That they won’t make too many mistakes. That the other side will make mistakes. A sales negotiation is a journey, not a destination. You need to have a plan (concessions, demands, questions, schedules, etc.) for how you are going to get to where you want to go.

Agreement Without Clarity

During everyday conversations with friends and coworkers, we all have a tendency to agree to things that we may not have a full understanding of. This is a polite way of keeping the conversation going even when we may not fully grasp what they are saying – we figure that we can pick it up later on.

This same type of behavior during a sales negotiation can be disastrous. If you don’t take the time to fully understand what you are agreeing to, you may find yourself quickly in a bad situation. Call for a break, take a time out, or ask the other side of the table to better explain something before you agree to it.

Doing A Poor Job Of Reading

Looking the other side in the eye and signing a contract with a big flourish sure can make a strong impression – that you don’t have any idea what you are really signing. I learned a long time ago that he who takes the notes, ultimately controls how a meeting turns out. The same goes for sales negotiations – it really doesn’t matter what you THINK you’ve agreed to, it’s the words that make it onto the paper that really matter. Take the time to read them!

Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up!

It’s too easy to think that a sales negotiation is over and done with once the last paper has been signed and the handshakes have been exchanged. However, both sides of the table have a responsibility to follow up and make sure that the agreement is being executed by both sides. Not only is this a critical part of doing business, it can have a big impact on any future negotiations between the two sides.

Final Thoughts

A long time ago I took a scuba diving class. One of the key lessons that they taught in that class was the simple phrase “Plan your dive, dive your plan.” The same thing can be said about sales negotiations: you need to have a plan and you need to follow it if you want to have any chance of being successful.

We now know what can happen if you don’t have a plan: you’ll end up skipping ove important steps like agreeing to things that aren’t clear, not reading things that you are signing, and not following up after the deal is done. Remembering to plan your negotiations ahead of time and avoiding the 4 deadly sins of sales negotiations will allow you to close better deals and close them quicker.

Questions For You

Have you ever gone into a sales negotiation without having a good plan? Did you end up agreeing to things that perhaps you didn’t fully understand because you didn’t know what you were looking for? Did you fully read the contract before you signed it? Did you remember to follow up to make sure that the contract was being followed after it was signed? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

My daughter is currently learning about how to add fractions in school. The trick to doing this right is that you have to make sure that the denominator (the number on the bottom of the fraction) is the same for both numbers before you add them. She’s struggling with this concept and it reminds me of a key sales negotiating point – never try to do a deal using funny money.

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How To Hire A Negotiator

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
Sometimes It Is Desirable To Bring In A Negotiator From The Outside

Sometimes It Is Desirable To Bring In A Negotiator From The Outside

In life, there are some situations that you will be called on to negotiate in order to get what you want / need.  However, there will also be situations in which you have the time (and the budget!) to reach out and get outside help.

Getting outside negotiating help can be especially critical if the type of negotiation that you are preparing to start is of a very technical or detailed nature. If you can find someone who has “been there, done that” you can significantly improve the odds of being successful in the negotiations. Now the big question is just how does one go about hiring a negotiator?

The challenge in interviewing someone to do negotiating on your behalf is that negotiation is a very difficult job to do. The reason that negotiating is such a challenge is because it doesn’t just require one or two specific skills, but rather a whole collection of skills that we really don’t find in business.

At a very high level, a good negotiator has the ability to show good business sense while at the same time displaying a deep understanding of how people think and act. It is a rare thing indeed to find both of these qualities in a single individual. Couple that with any special knowledge or experience that you are looking for and choosing the wrong negotiator to represent you can appear to be all too easy.

The following 10 characteristics of a good negotiator are what you should be looking for when you are interviewing possible candidates. It’s going to take some probing on your part to uncover these traits, but it will be worth the effort:

  1. Must have the ability to negotiate well with members of YOUR team. If the candidate can’t win the confidence of your team, how can you expect him to succeed in the negotiation with the other side?
  2. Must show that he/she has the ability to construct a plan and the commitment to follow it through. The ability to realize that not all information may be available before the negotiation starts and the willingness to check facts and alter plans as new details emerge are also critical.
  3. Did I mention the need for sound business sense? The ability to see through the fog of negotiations and identify the issues that will have an impact on your bottom line is key.
  4. The ability to deal with both ambiguity (both before and during the negotiations) as well as conflict during the actual negotiations.
  5. The willingness to aim high when setting goals for the negotiations.
  6. The ability to realize that a negotiation is a process and the patience to wait for the other side to reveal more so that the process can move forward.
  7. The ability to personally connect with both your team and the other side. Yes, negotiation is a business process, but the personal touch can make all the difference when it comes to closing the deal.
  8. A realization that his / her personal integrity is what matters above all else.
  9. The ability to, no matter how heated a discussion gets, listen with an open mind to what the other side is saying.
  10. The self-confidence that is needed to see a negotiation through from start to finish.

What else do you think should be added to my list? Is there anything on the list that you think could be dropped? Which one of these 10 items is the most important in your opinion? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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