Posts Tagged ‘price’
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
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Email Is A Powerful Tool, But Is It The Right Tool For Sales Negotiations?
I might be setting off a bit of a firestorm with this idea, but here in the 21st Century do you think that it is possible to conduct sales negotiations using more smart phones and less human contact?
The Need For Modern Solutions
The #1 attraction of using a smart phone (Blackberry, iPhone, or whatever) in the first place is that it can speed just about anything up. The immediacy of e-communications allows deals to develop quicker and to move at speeds that once were unimaginable. However, when it comes to sales negotiations, things can get a bit trickier.
What we are all just starting to deal with here are the questions that come up surrounding e-mail negotiations. Some of these questions include:
- Is it possible to conduct sales negotiations completely via email?
- What impact does this have on what kinds of information can be shared during the sales negotiation?
- When is human contact called for?
The New Rules
Using email as a central part of any sales negotiation changes a number of things. The first is that anything that you put into an email will live forever and may come back to haunt you. It is a great way to send information to the other side, keep almost perfect records, and make sure that everyone involved is informed on where things stand.
At the same time there are pitfalls that everyone must be aware of. These tend to show up whenever there are conflicts or misunderstands. The problems come about because the one thing that email does not do well is communicate emotions or nuances.
So what are the “new rules” in this world of email supported sales negotiations? Here are a few of them:
- Slow Down: do not write and send emails on the fly. Remember, these things live forever. I prefer to write the email one day, save it, re-read it the next day and then send it. I’m always careful to leave the “To:” field blank while I’m composing an email JUST IN CASE the “send” key get pressed too early.
- Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires: in order to prevent those cases where misunderstandings start small but keep getting blown out of proportion, don’t use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, multiple !!!!!, or including flip comments (“How about making a real counteroffer?”).
- Don’t Forget The Phone: In every sales negotiation, there will probably be a time in which it would be better if you picked up the phone and talked with the other side instead of sending them another email. Realize that this moment exists, look for it, and act when it shows up.
Lessons Learned
The take-away from all of this is that times are changing. Gone are the days that all sales negotiations could take place face to face. Negotiating via email is here to stay and we all need to get used to the new rules of the game.
The experts who have been living with this new way of doing business have one final suggestion for all of us. They recommend that prior to starting the negotiating process, all parties meet in person. This is the key to allowing everyone to understand their body language and how they react to things. In the end, this is critical so that you can understand the true intent behind the words in their emails.
Do you negotiate via email today? Has there ever been a miscommunication caused by email? What caused the problem? How was it resolved? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.
Tags: Blackberry, buy, buyer, buyers, communication, communications, conflict, deal, deals, how to deal, how to negotiate, iPhone, management, money, negotiate with, negotiating, negotiating skills, negotiating tips, negotiation, negotiations, price, sale, seller
Posted in communications | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
Sales Negotiations With Japanese Partners Require New Skills
All too often Americans (like me) think that we know everything. The reality is that our society has only been around for a bit over 200 years and we’re just getting started. That’s why it can be valuable for a sales negotiator to take a look at how societies that have been around for 1,000′s of years negotiate. Like, say, Japan…
The U.S. really started to take a look at how we dealt Japan in the 1980′s when trade between our countries exploded. What people quickly realized is that both sides of the table were fundamentally different. There for the first decade or so, U.S. sales negotiators were getting taken to the bank more often than not because the Japanese sales negotiators were doing a better job.
Over time HOW these negotiations were being conducted was closely studied. Three techniques quickly became apparent:
- Considered Response / Respectful Silence: when Japanese sales negotiators are on the other side of the table, be prepared to sit quietly. Western sales negotiators don’t know what to do when nobody is talking – and the Japanese know this. They can sit, work out math problems, draw in long breaths, etc. and say nothing for minutes at a time. This is all designed to get you to become flustered and give in on a point or say something that you shouldn’t say.
- KAN – “Seeking Heavenly Approval”: Western sales negotiators like to focus on the here and now. Japanese sales negotiators realize that this deal is just part of a much bigger relationship. After the details of the agreement have been worked out and it appears as though you are close to closing the deal, members of the Japanese team will pause. They will consider if they really want to do this deal with you – is it going to be worth it in the long run, or are you just going to be too much of a hassle to deal with? This moment is called KAN – reaching “heavenly approval”.
- Time & Money: the Japanese view the sales negotiation process differently than their Western partners do. We in the west see it as something to race through and quickly get done with. The Japanese view it as something to be nurtured. They set aside enough time to do it properly. They resist attempts to wrap it up quickly. They will revisit points over and over again in order to test your resolve. This is how Japanese sales negotiators turn time into money.
It is entirely possible to enter into sales negotiations with Japanese partners on the other side of the table and come out with an agreement that you feel good about. However, you need to fully understand how they see the world and adjust your sales negotiating style to this situation.
Have you ever had a chance to negotiate with a Japanese team? Were there long, uncomfortable periods of silence? Did they seem to slow things down and do more thinking as the end of the negotiations approached? Did you remember to budget enough time for the negotiation or did they budget more time than you had? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.
Tags: bargaining, communication, communications, deals, how to deal, how to negotiate, Japan, Japanese, money, negotiate with, negotiating, negotiating skills, negotiation, negotiation skills, negotiations, price, sales negotiation, sales negotiations, sales negotiators, satisfaction, satisfied, success
Posted in how to negotiate | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
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.
Tags: buyer, Chinese, communications, consistency, definitions, ideas, market, marketing, money, negotiating, Persistence, price, Quanxi, sales, sales negotiations, sales negotiators, salesman, salesperson, saleswoman, seller
Posted in Chinese | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
A Telephone Is A Two-Edged Blade For Sales Negotiators
What’s your mental picture of a typical sales negotiation? When you close your eyes do you see a lushly carpeted board room with a large oval table in the center and padded leather chairs all around it? If so, then in most cases you are sadly mistaken.
An amazing number of sales negotiations occur over the telephone. Everyone has one and in fact in this day and age of mobile phones we all seem to have more than one phone. Given that by using the phone you can reach someone directly at almost any time, phones have become an important tool in negotiating sales.
However, as with any tool, a phone can be a danger to any negotiator’s hope of success. Using a phone to negotiate can be quick and easy, but that’s actually part of the problem. I’m not telling you to not use the phone, I’m just saying that you need to watch out when you do. Here are some of the things that can go wrong when you use the phone to negotiate a sale:
- Deal / No Deal: Because you can’t look the other side in the eye when you are negotiating with them on the phone, it’s entirely possible that you may conclude the call thinking that you have a deal when you really don’t.
- Can You Hear Me Now?: What you think that you are saying is not necessarily what the other side is hearing. However, since you are on a phone, there is no way for you to realize that they have gotten the wrong message.
- What Did You Say?: Often when we are negotiating on the phone, we are out and about. Although we may reach agreement, it won’t count until such time as we write it down. That may be hours later and what we write down may be different from what we agreed to.
Once again, the phone is a powerful sales negotiation tool; however, you have to be careful how you use it in order to make sure that you don’t get burned.
Have you ever used the phone as part of a sales negotiation? Did you have any communications problems? Were the problems on your side or on the other side? When did you first realize that there was a problem? How did you finally resolve this problem? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.
Tags: art of negotiation, communication, communications, contract agreement, deal, deals, how to deal, ideas, money, negotiating skills, negotiation, negotiation skills, negotiation style, negotiation tips, negotiations, price, sales, sales negotiation, sales negotiations, salesman, saleswoman, telephone
Posted in communication skills | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
Lacking Authority Can Leave Sales Professionals Feeling Naked In A Negotiation
Sales professionals really don’t like to enter into a negotiation naked. When you don’t have any authority to make concessions, you basically feel pretty naked. Likewise, if you have full authority, then you’ve got a whole other set of problems.
Back to the poor sales negotiator who has no authority. Hold on a minute, they actually do have a lot of authority. Here’s what they have:
- the authority to collect information and represent the other side of the table back within his organization.
- the authority to attempt to create a “both win” type of negotiation.
- the authority to establish both support and commitment with the other side of the table.
- the authority to deal with different members of his organization in the role of a specialist.
- the authority to try to reach a deal on a personal level.
The sales professional is really only prevented from giving in to any of the other side’s demands. Since he / she still has the ability to negotiate, it’s worth the effort because there is the possibility that the other side will make concessions and a deal can be struck, or at least valuable information about the other side will be collected.
If you’ve ever been in a no authority sales negotiation situation, then you’ve probably dreamed of having the ability of being in a sales negotiation where you had full authority. Careful what you wish for – this isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.
The reason that full authority is not necessarily what you either want or need is because the name is actually misleading. Full authority simply means that whatever you agree to is what your side of the table will end up having to do. This can lead to disaster. Here are some reasons why you might not want to have full authority when you enter a negotiation:
- Both sides of the table may not have equal authority.
- Both sides of the table may differ in stamina or physical qualities.
- Either side may not be properly prepared.
- Either side may be role playing.
- A side may be more secure than the other.
- A side may be busier than the other.
- A side might be more wealthy than the other.
- A side might be more emotionally involved than the other.
- Either side may have better support staff.
Should you find yourself in a sales negotiation with full authority, all is not lost. There are several ways that you can get out of this predicament. Here are a couple of suggestions:
- Say that you are not familiar with how things operate.
- Indicate that you will need to check with the board of directors.
- State that there is a legal problem.
- State that you need to check with a government agency.
- Say that this may involve anti-trust issues.
- Indicate that this deal actually depends on another deal that is currently being negotiated separately.
- State that you have to tell your coworker / partner.
If none of these “escape” techniques work for you, you can always fall back on the old reliable – “I don’t know”. You may feel foolish for saying it, but at least you won’t end up negotiating a bad deal.
Have you ever entered into a negotiation with no ability to make concessions? How did you feel? How did that negotiation turn out? Have you ever had full authority in a negotiation? How did that turn out? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.
Tags: authority, bargaining power, communications, concede, concession, concessions, deals, how to deal, how to negotiate, money, negotiations, persuasion, price, sales, success
Posted in authority | No Comments »
