Posts Tagged ‘tactic’

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The Secret To Dealing With Deadlines: What Negotiators Need To Know

Friday, April 8th, 2011
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Will You Know What To Do When Time Runs Out?

Will You Know What To Do When Time Runs Out?

Just how long do you think that your next sales negotiation is going to last? I’ve got news for you – it may not last as long as you may think that it’s going to last. The reason is that either side of the table may use deadlines to help hurry things along. If this happens, will you recognize that it’s happening and, more importantly, will you know what to do when it happens to you?

What’s The Big Deal With Deadlines?

Are we all clear here on just exactly what a deadline is? A deadline is a device that can be used by either side in a negotiation to move the discussion along. Basically it’s a way to get to the end of the discussions quicker.

Just because one side of the table presents the other side with a deadline does not mean that anything is going to change. Deadlines only work if the other side of the table believes that it’s real. Oh, and sometimes they aren’t – deadlines can be made up just to help the side that’s making it up.

As a negotiator you’ve got two skills that you need to develop. The first is that you’ve got to be able to realize when a deadline is being used to motivate you to agree to a deal quicker. The other skill that you are going to need is the ability to deal with deadlines when they are presented to you. The good news is that both of these skills can be learned.

How Buyers Use Deadlines

Buyers are generally willing to work with someone who is trying to sell them something for as long as they think that they are going to be able to get a good deal from them. The quicker that they can get to a deal, the faster they can move on to the next deal. Deadlines are a powerful tool for buyers to use to accomplish this.

Buyers can use a wide variety of methods to impose deadlines on the other side of the table. One such method is to say that funding for a purchase will be going away quickly and so a deal must be struck soon. Another is to say that an they will be making a purchase, but if a deal can’t be reached quickly then it will have to be made with another firm. Finally, stating that other parties will be involved in approving any deal and that they soon won’t be available for some period of time is another time-tested method for buyers to impose deadlines.

How Sellers Use Deadlines

The other side of the deadline coin has sellers on it who like to impose deadlines almost as much as buyers do. Sellers are often working with multiple buyers at different firms and so they need to determine if a deal is even possible as quickly as possible. Using a deadline can help to get to the end of a negotiation quickly and this will free up time to work with other parties on other deals.

Sellers also have a collection of classic deadline techniques that they like to use. These include stating that a price increase is coming soon and the current price may not be available for much longer. Tying the delivery date to the date that an agreement is struck is another way of establishing a deadline. Finally, stating that there is a limited supply of what is being negotiated for can provide the sense of urgency that comes with a deadline.

How You Can Defend Against Deadlines

Detecting that a deadline is being used against you is the first skill that you need to have as a sales negotiator. The next skill that you need to develop is the ability to defend against a deadline.

The first thing that you need to realize when you are presented with a deadline is that it may not be real. A deadline is just another negotiating tactic and you need to view it as being such. Do not allow a deadline to force you into rushing to make decisions that really require more time.

Instead, what you need to do is to be skeptical about any deadline that is presented to you. After having been presented with a deadline, your next step has to be to start to test it. Ask questions and dive deeper to find out what the implications of missing the deadline are and why they are tied to the deadline.

More often than not, you are going to discover that a deadline is not a fixed thing. Instead, a deadline just like everything else in a negotiation is up for debate and can be changed.

What All Of This Means For You

Deadlines are a powerful tool that can be used by either side in a negotiation. Instead of allowing the other side to believe that they have unlimited time to complete a negotiation, the use of a deadline causes the discussions to move more quickly with a sense of urgency.

Buyers use deadlines to move a deadline forward so that they can either reach a deal with a seller or move on and start negotiations with another seller. Sellers use deadlines in an attempt to close a deal quicker. No matter who is using a deadline, when you are presented with one you need to spend some time questioning if it is a real deadline.

Deadlines will always be a part of modern negotiations. Your responsibility as a skilled negotiator is to be able to recognize when a deadline is being used and to then know how best to deal with it.

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

P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Negotiator Newsletter are now available. Learn how to close more deals — faster. Subscribe now: Click Here!

Question For You: At what point in a negotiation do you think that you should start to use a deadline?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Have you ever changed something about your appearance that made you look dramatically different? How did that go over with your family, friends, and coworkers? I’m willing to bet that right off the bat there was some shock when they first encountered your new look. However, over time that faded and things got back to normal. What happened is that they eventually came around to seeing you the way that you see yourself. When you are negotiating a deal, this same concept can be a powerful factor in helping you to wrap up a negotiation…

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Posted in deadlines | 2 Comments »

Using The Bogey Tactic To Get Your Way In A Sales Negotiation

Friday, October 29th, 2010
Image Credit If Your Wallet Is Empty, Then It's Time To Bring In The Bogey Tactic

If Your Wallet Is Empty, Then It's Time To Bring In The Bogey Tactic

So there you are in a sales negotiation, you like what is being offered to you but there is one small problem. You don’t have enough money to buy it. What can you do? Walking away is of course one option; however, maybe there’s something else that you can do. It turns out that this is right time for you to pull out the bogey tactic and give it a try.

The Bogey Tactic

So just exactly what is the bogey tactic? This is when you simply don’t have enough money to buy what is being offered to you during a sales negotiation and you tell the other side that.

The beauty of the bogey tactic that, if done correctly, it can turn into a win-win approach to reaching a deal. There’s a very good chance that either you’ve used it in the past or it’s been used on you (successfully probably!)

How To Use The Bogey Tactic

When you are in the role of a buyer who is involved in a sales negotiation, the bogey tactic can be your best friend. Here’s how you would go about using it.

Let’s say the other side of the table has presented you with a proposal. What they are offering is great, but you simply don’t have the cash to pay for it. What to do now?

Using the bogey tactic, you’d tell the other side that you like their proposal, but it was currently out of reach of your ability to pay. This would cause two things to happen on the other side of the table. First, they’d be pleased that you are interested in their proposal. Secondly, they would instantly start trying to think of ways that they can still make this deal happen.

You may need to prove your point. This can be done in a bunch of ways. Your goal will be to show to the other side how much money you do have to spend and why additional funds are not available to you.

What You Can’t Accomplish Using The Bogey Tactic

If you are trying to get a lower price from the other side, the bogey tactic probably isn’t going to help you out. However, what it can do is actually get you more for your money. As the other side works with you to find a way to make the deal happen, more choices will be presented to you to choose from.

Just having more choices doesn’t mean that the cost to you is going to decrease. However, by choosing wisely you can end up getting more value for the money that you do end up spending.

Why Sellers Like The Bogey Tactic

Just to be completely fair here, sellers like the bogey tactic also. The reason is because when the buyer uses the bogey tactic, then the seller knows that they are close to making a deal.

There are two things that a seller can do once the bogey tactic starts to be used. First they can test to see if the buyer ready is at the limit of the amount of money that they can spend. Often times there are still additional funds that can be tapped and the buyer just needs motivation to find them.

If this turns out to be true, then the next step is to change what is being offered. By substituting less expensive options for what was in the initial proposal while keeping the price at the customer’s upper end, the profit margin on the deal can be increased.

What All Of This Means For You

All too often during a negotiation you’ll be presented with a proposal that meets your needs, but which exceeds your budget. When this happens, you can use the bogey tactic to see if you can move closer to completing a deal.

When you use the bogy tactic, you reveal to the other side of the table that you like the proposal that they are making; however, it’s too expensive. This encourages the other side and motivates them to work with you to find ways to lower the price of their offering.

The bogy can work for both the buying and selling sides of the table. The key thing is that by revealing why an offer is too expensive, you may open the door to moving closer to making a deal that works for both sides. Don’t fear the bogey!

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

Question For You: Do you think that you could reveal how much you have to spend too early on in a negotiation?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

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Don’t Believe What Anyone Says Is What Sales Negotiators Need To Learn To Do

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Sales Negotiators Need To Know When To Hold The Truth - And When To Fold

Sales Negotiators Need To Know When To Hold The Truth - And When To Fold

People are either honest or they aren’t right? Umm, well not exactly. Look, in a sales negotiation everything is not as it seems. I hate to use strong words like “lying” or anything like that, but let’s just say that a healthy dose of skepticism is often a sales negotiator’s best friend.

What’s Going On Here – Can’t Anyone Tell The Truth?

The older a sales negotiator gets, the more he / she is less likely to believe just about ANYTHING that they are told. There is a reason for this! In the end, sales negotiating is all about power – who has it and who doesn’t. However, just like in the game of poker bluffing is not only allowed, it is often encouraged.

If you don’t believe me (or you don’t WANT to believe me), then think about how a buyer and a seller interact when they are trying to complete a deal to buy a house – talk about some serious poker playing!

Where Do The LInes Get Drawn?

We are in a very murky area here and it’s very easy for a sales negotiator to stumble over the line and fall into the dark side – becoming a flat-out lier. It’s necessary that you operate here, but you’ve got to watch your step.

Our house buyer / seller are going to be presenting information that may not quite be the complete truth. The house seller is going to be talking about all of the things that make the house a fantastic house – and leaving out any discussion about the leaky pipes in the basement and the squirrels that have set up a home in the attic.

Likewise the buyer is going to be trying to mask any real interest that he / she may have in buying this particular house. Additionally, the buyer will be working hard to NOT communicate how much funding he / she has to complete the purchase. Is anyone lying here? No – but they are also not telling the complete truth.

One Word – Be Skeptical

A good sales negotiator is ALWAYS skeptical about anything that he / she is told by the other side. This includes when the other side uses facts & figures (where did they come from?), experts (what makes them an expert?), and handsome bound color documents (Kinko’s can turn out great stuff overnight).

As a sales negotiator your job is to always be asking questions. Take nothing at face value and always assume that the other side is probably not giving you the complete story. This is how you are are going to transfer power from the other side to you.

Final Thoughts

Being a “doubting Thomas” is a great skill for a sales negotiator to have. One important rule of life has been give to us by the Las Vegas board of tourism: “What happens during a Sales Negotiation, stays in the negotiation.” This means that you can’t have any hard feelings about what information the other side revealed (or didn’t) during the negotiation after it is all over and done. Having a healthy dose of doubt while negotiating will allow you to close better deals and close them quicker.

Questions For You

Have you ever accepted anything that the other side has told you at face value during a  sales negotiation? Did it turn out to be completely true? Have you ever been fooled by the other side? Have you ever stretched the truth during a sales negotiation? How did the other side use the information that you gave them? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

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?

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How Sales Negotiators Can Defend Against The Good Cop / Bad Cop Tactic

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
Sales Negotiators Need To Have A Defense Against The Good Cop / Bad Cop Tactic

Sales Negotiators Need To Have A Defense Against The Good Cop / Bad Cop Tactic

I like movies. I especially like police movies. I’m guessing that one of the reasons that I like movies with police in them so much is because it’s almost a given that sometime during the movie the police heroes will resort to using the “Good Cop / Bad Cop” negotiating tactic. Every sales negotiator out there should be smiling right about now…

I guess I should take just a moment and make sure that we’re all on the same page here. The Good Cop / Bad Cop tactic is a decoy tactic and here’s how it works. The other side has at least two people. One takes a hard line and makes unreasonable demands on you. He / she also appears to be unyielding – you’ll get no concessions from them. The other person is much nicer. He / she is willing to be your friend, is a little embarrassed about his / her partner’s hard stand, and just wants to work with you to reach a deal.

Umm, the key thing to realize here is that you’re being presented with a show: both of these people are working together. They hoping to get as much out of you as possible. The goal is to get you to believe that you were lucky to get as much as you did considering just how tough the “bad cop” was.

So what’s a sales negotiator to do when you come up against a good cop / bad cop team? There are some simple ways to deal with the bad cop:

  1. Let the bad cop talk and talk. In many cases his / her own side of the table will end up getting fed up with them.
  2. Hit the big red button and complain to your / their higher authority.
  3. Leave! (This always gets their attention)
  4. Turn the tables and in public put the blame on the other side of the table for the failure to make more progress in the negotiations.
  5. Bring your own good cop / bad cop to the table.

Have you ever encountered a good cop / bad cop team when you’ve been negotiating a sale? How bad was the bad cop? How good was the good cop? How did you counter this tactic? Did the tactic work on you? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Classic Sales Negotiation Tactic: I’ve Got To Talk To My Boss…

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
The Escalating Authority Sales Tactic Is Crude But Often Works

The Escalating Authority Sales Tactic Is Crude But Often Works

Picture this scene: it was about 20 years ago (ouch!) and I was still dating my wife when she suddenly had to replace her car. She knew exactly what she wanted: a Honda Civic with a manual transmission. There was a local Honda dealer near where she lived so one evening we went there to have a talk about buying a car.

The salesman that we talked with was the “older guy who reminds you of your uncle” variety. I had an opportunity to sit back and watch my soon-to-be-my-wife bargain with him over the price. She started low, he started high, and after a bit of back-and-forth, they were still fairly far apart. Now my bride-to-be had done her homework and had called a bank to find out how much this car was really worth (20 years ago = no real Internet). So she knew what the correct outcome of this sales negotiation needed to be.

The salesman that we were dealing with looked at the gap in offered / accepted prices and said, of course, “are you sure that you can’t do any better than this”. When my girlfriend said “No”. He then said “I’m going to have to go talk with my boss about this…” And off he went.

Returning about 10 minutes later, he had a slightly lower price, but still the gulf between what my girlfriend was willing to pay and his new lower price was great. TWO MORE TIMES HE WENT BACK TO TALK WITH HIS BOSS. I couldn’t believe this – I was watching a classic Greek play being staged before my very eyes. At any rate, my girlfriend got the price that she was asking for in the end after about 90 minutes of haggling. What was going on here?

I didn’t know the name of this sales negotiation tactic at the time, but I do now. It’s called the “Escalating Authority” tactic. This tactic uses the need to have a deal approved by a reluctant higher authority in order to gain more concessions from the other side of the table.

This tactic is used by salespeople all the time. The reason that they use it is because it often works. Here’s what a salesperson can expect to get out of using the “Escalating Authority” tactic:

  • Helps to lower the other side’s expectations.
  • Causes the other side’s arguments to come out early instead of later.
  • May cause conflict within the other side’s negotiating team.
  • Causes the other side to state their negotiating demands earlier.
  • Just physically wears the other side down.
  • May end up lowering the self-confidence of the other side.
  • Uses up the other side’s valuable time.

The party that this tactic is being used on is not without defenses. There are several counter measures that can be put in place in order to diminish or eliminate the effectiveness of this sales negotiation tactic:

  • Match the other side: bring your higher level people to the table when they say that they need to go to their higher level people.
  • Walk out.
  • Bypass the other side of the table and go directly to their senior management.
  • Manage the expectations of a quick resolution on your side of the table.
  • Communicate to your side of the table what tactic is being used against you and let them know that one of its goals is to lower their expectations for the outcome of this sales negotiation.
  • Don’t repeat yourself. Force the other side of the table to relay all that you have said to each higher level of their management.

In the end, the Escalating Authority tactic is a fairly crude negotiating tool that is used most often by amateur negotiators. It can be countered easily and effectively. Keep your eyes open and make sure that you spot it when someone starts to use it on you – the best Escalating Authority tacic defense is a good offense!

Have you ever had the Escalating Authority tactic used on you during a negotiation? How did you respond to it? In the end was it successful? Have you ever had a chance to use it during a negotiation? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Posted in how to negotiate | 4 Comments »

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