After being in sales for almost 20 years, I have the humble opinion that the most challenging phase of a sales process is the negotiation stage. No matter how many self-help books you read or how many hours of training you get, trust and collaboration are absolutely essential for a win-win negotiation to take place.
Detailed and thorough planning is essential before negotiation. This will help reduce the trading cycle time and result in rich results.
Listed below are some of the key questions a salesperson should ask before reaching a negotiating table:
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Have I identified the appropriate decision makers?
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Are all decision makers adequately convinced about my offer?
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Who will be at the negotiating table?
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Who should accompany me to the negotiating table?
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Do I have all the relevant information from the other party?
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Have I developed specific objectives / strategies for each issue to be negotiated?
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List of concessions that can be awarded.
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List of concessions you would expect.
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Deadline within which you could close the deal.
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Have I rehearsed the negotiation conversation?
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When will I go out based on:
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Ethics
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Service demands
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Value added
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Price
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Adoption of negotiation tactics
In the list mentioned above, most sellers don’t consider when to back out of a deal; but this can help close more sales. Here are some benefits of exercising the ability to walk away from a deal:
- Show your belief in what you believe: When you continue at the negotiating table long after your final concession has been made, you are letting the other party believe that you can offer more. On the other hand, if you politely show that you have achieved your end result by walking away, the other party will be convinced and believe what you say. I learn this as a sales executive selling timeshares. My manager walked away from the table saying, “I’m afraid we may not be able to serve you” when the customer was craving too many additional offers. I was surprised by my manager’s response, but within minutes the customer ended up purchasing the membership and said, “I’m happy as long as it delivers what it promised.”
- Help clients loosen control of the ‘positions’ they occupy: Arguing with people who are too stubborn to let go of their position leads to a lose-lose or lose-win outcome. In any case, it is a ‘loss’ for you. In such situations, it is better to walk away from a deal. During my days selling children’s books for one of the largest trading houses in India, a retailer insisted that they could not accommodate book stalls in their store. Regardless of the concessions she gave him, he just didn’t move from his post. I just told him that I was not interested in doing business and started to walk away. This made the stubborn negotiator nervous and he granted me a position, albeit a smaller one.
- Empower the buyer to sell our position to their bosses: There are times when we cannot reach the top decision maker. In such cases, the broker, following the instructions of his boss, tries to make the best of the deal. These intermediaries do not resign their position or make concessions. But the tables turn when we start to drift away. They do this primarily to tell their bosses that if they hadn’t given the concession, we would have dropped the deal.
These points simply show that getting out of a deal also needs to have a strategy that you execute at the trading table. In other words, be clear about when to get out of the deal. I can already hear many marketers saying that this is easier said than done; But trust me, this is easy if and only if you have a long list of prospects at any given time and are not overly reliant on this sale.
This is why training and customer service negotiation skills training are frequently recommended for dirty personal.
