Tweet

I WANT A BETTER DEAL - TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT!

Written by: Wayne Berry

Article Overview: I often hear sales people say to me, “Everything was going well, we’d been talking for weeks and then suddenly when I thought my prospect was ready to buy, they wanted to negotiate a better deal. I didn’t know what to do!” So what should they do? I am often asked if I have some kind of “Silver Bullet” cure to solve this problem. The truth is, there is no one simple answer to this question. A better question to ask is, “How do I avoid ending up with a situation like this?”

I WANT A BETTER DEAL - TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT!

Have you ever had a prospect or customer say this to you?

I often hear sales people say to me, “Everything was going well, we’d been talking for weeks and then suddenly when I thought my prospect was ready to buy, they wanted to negotiate a better deal. I didn’t know what to do!”

So what should they do?

I am often asked if I have some kind of “Silver Bullet” cure to solve this problem.

The truth is, there is no one simple answer to this question.

A better question to ask is, “How do I avoid ending up with a situation like this?”

You see this situation is NOT the negotiation.

It’s the end result of the negotiation. It’s the symptom, NOT the cause of the sales person’s dilemma.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all over for the sales person

This situation is NOT the negotiation. It’s the end result of the negotiation. It’s the symptom, NOT the cause of the sales person’s dilemma.

However it’s not all over for the sales person if they possess some good negotiating skills.

It’s not too late to salvage the situation.

A better strategy would have been to avoid getting into this situation in the first place.

The problem is most sales people do not understand that negotiating is a process, not an event.

I hear sales people say things like, “It was all going well for 2 hours until the end, and then the prospect wanted to negotiate.”

I’m sorry but I’ve got some bad news for you if you’ve ever felt this way.

The negotiation did NOT occur at the end of the 2 hours.

It began at the beginning of the interaction with the prospect, and if the prospect is a good negotiator, it actually began long before the prospect started talking with you.

Too many sales people fail to understand this, and end up with an event called “being pressured for a discount”. They think that this is the negotiation. It’s not. They been negotiating for 2 hours and just didn’t realise it!

So what can you do to avoid ending up as “Shark Bait”?

How do you avoid being forced into an unprofitable deal, or even losing the deal altogether?

Here are a few quick thoughts.

1. Learn about negotiating.

It doesn’t come naturally in our culture. It’s a skill that you should develop if you are serious about your career in sales. Not having these skills is costing you big time in lost sales, lost profits, lost commissions and lots of stress.

By the way, many of your prospects ARE developing these skills – ON PURPOSE. They are not just playing it by ear. That’s for amateurs.

Next important thing to do is...

2. Understand what’s happening

There are 6 stages in every negotiation. They are;

a. Preparation.
b. Rapport.
c. Gathering Information
d. Exploring Options
e. Trading Concessions
f. Nailing Down The Deal

We don’t have the space here for a full explanation of each of these phases, however realise that all negotiations involve these phases. They can take seconds, hours, days or months depending on the negotiation. Learn about them and understand what happens in each phase.

3. Know that you have more power than you think in every negotiation

The problem is most sales people think that their prospect has all of the power. That’s simply not true. There are more than 20 sources of power in most negotiations. Problem is if you don't know what they are, you will feel helpless. Find out about them. Next...

4. Beware of the ploys, gambits and dirty tricks

Negotiating is game. However it’s a game where a sales person can get hurt if they don’t understands the moves, the ploys, the gambits and the dirty tricks that people use. I teach sales people how to spot and counter more than 30 “popular” ones. If you don’t understand them, learn about them.

Sales people who understand negotiating don’t become “Shark Bait”. They write profitable business and enjoy success.

I received an email about a month ago from one of our clients in London...

John King is a graduate of one of my negotiating workshops and his company sells large scale manufacturing equipment in the UK and Europe.

John wrote in his email...

"Wayne we were getting murdered in deals where we were up against cheaper competitors. My sales people were slashing prices and our margins were suffering badly. We were going backwards fast. I remembered that negotiating game we played in your workshop and thought that's the answer. You probably didn't even know about it but I ordered a copy of your audio programme, “Get the best deal every time”. I wanted my sales people to learn the lesson that I learned that night.

Well I thought you might be interested to know that this decision has added more than $5 million good old Aussie dollars to our GP over this last 12 months. I sat my guys down and we went through each CD one at a time at our sales meetings and also they listened every day in their cars and at home. We developed some new strategies and used that 15 page check list of yours. Well you're right, negotiating skills make all the difference. When I think of all the dollars we gave away before my guys got "Top Gunned", I could cry. Thanks mate. I owe you a big beer."

I love getting emails like John's and his story will shortly join our collection of Inspiring Success Stories and Testimonials at our Web Site. You'll read another one there too from Michael Giuliano who tells how developing his selling skills through Top Gun has added more than $2 million to his earnings over the last 10 years.

Anyway the lesson is - get those negotiating skills!

I will be providing some more negotiating tips in another article. Anyway until we speak again...

Have a great week this week. Make it a great week!

Wayne Berry CSP*

Related Articles
  4 Travel tips for Business Owners-stop worrying!
  Market Your Company With Your Voice Mail Message
  Business Travel: What If Your Business Travel Is a 6 Month Deployment to Iraq?
  A rise in Customer Service?
  Improving the Bottom Line With Qualification

Article Tags: bad news, dilemma, end result, interaction, negotiating skills, negotiation, negotiator, sales person, salvage, shark bait, silver bullet, simple answer, truth



Related Forum Posts
Re: Startup blogs - Hi Jason, This is a good thread to revive. In his book,The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferris divides the meat into four key sections that spell DEAL! 1. D = Definition 2. E = Elimination 3. A = Automation 4. L = Liberation I think the point about an "exceptional blog" is certainly valid. My guess is that Tim Ferris is referring to bland, boring blogs that managers are paying junior employees to "maintain". Complete waste of resources. But, for us work-at-home-onliners getting started with a blog is one of the best things we can do, and if it fails to make us any money, it's only because it is not exceptional enough, or because the products it promotes are not what people are looking for. DH


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The Right Job - Part Five 'Compensation'

12 Principles to Spark Innovation

Unspoken Yet Important Rules for Book Proposals

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.