Now The Customer Wants to Negotiate! Part Two – Negotiation Timing, Strategies & Skills

In my last blog post on negotiating, I shared when to negotiate and what is the difference between selling and negotiating. This blog covers when to negotiate, your strategies for negotiating and overview of the skills employed in negotiations.

WHEN TO NEGOTIATE

Salespeople can make negotiations unnecessarily difficult by negotiating when they don’t have to or by negotiating too soon:

• Before there is a mutual interest in making a commitment
• Before they have enough information

To avoid such situations, begin negotiating only after the four negotiation criteria have been met. The Four Criteria to move to Consultative Negotiating are:

• Gain a conditional commitment from the customer.
• Propose deliverables, terms and conditions, and price.
• Attempt to resolve each customer concern with selling skills.
• Confirm that all customer concerns have been expressed.

Until you meet the four negotiation criteria, you try to sell the value of the deliverables, terms and conditions, and price you initially propose. When you meet the four negotiation criteria, you are ready to make the transition from selling to negotiating.

DEVELOPING A NEGOTIATION STRATEGY

Once you have assessed your insight into both the customer and sales points of view, you develop a negotiation strategy. To create a strategy:

• Define the differences between your initial proposal and what the customer is asking for instead.
• Set goals.
• Generate possible strategies to resolve each difference.
• Evaluate the alternatives in terms of win-win2 outcome.
• Plan your approach to discuss and resolve the differences.

Once you have defined the differences between you and your customer, and set your relationship and negotiation goals, begin problem solving by generating possible negotiating strategies to resolve each difference.

TYPES OF NEGOTIATION ALTERNATIVES

In sales negotiations, there are four types of strategies to use to resolve a difference:

• Make a trade-off.
• Add an enhancement.
• Split the difference.
• Make a concession.

For each difference you have defined, use these strategies to generate as many different alternatives as you can. The more alternatives you generate, the greater your chances of finding an alternative that leads to a win-win2 agreement between you and your customer.

THE SKILLS OF LEADING A CONSULTATIVE NEGOTIATION

Your challenge during a negotiation is to manage the interaction with the customer in a way that achieves the win-win2 agreement you’ve planned for—which means taking the initiative by setting a positive tone and guiding the course of the discussion.

Leading a consultative negotiation includes three skill areas:

• Position the negotiation. Make sure that everyone present shares the same understanding of the situation and agrees on how to continue the conversation.
• Resolve differences. Test the acceptability of various alternatives and agree with the customer on alternative(s) for resolving each difference.
• Secure final agreement. Gain the customer’s commitment to a new proposal and document the agreements and commitments.

You can capture a summary of these Key Negotiating elements by downloading the summary charts for Consultative Negotiating.

Negotiating does not have to be stressful, but a discussion that leads to a win-win outcome for you, your company and the customer.

Have a great week being the B2B sales person you have potential to be!