Sales Negotiation Training

Sales Negotiation Training: The Ultimate Course to Winning Negotiations.

This sales negotiation training course will take you through all the steps on how to effectively negotiate and win more deals. The insights will show you how to get buyers to sit up and pay attention to what you have to offer. The skill to position yourself to close deals with major corporations, organizations, or individuals.

The sales negotiation training course introduces a detailed approach to the topic of negotiation. With 14 video lessons and a 46-page ebook to download, you will explore all the fundamental sales negotiation tactics, communication, perception, and impression management techniques. How to get desired outcomes for all the parties involved and the issues that sales negotiators face in the negotiation process.

This sales negotiation training course will propel your selling to the next level and beyond. In this online sales training course, you’ll learn:

1. How to create your negotiation position.
2. How to apply the feel-think-act approach.
3. What is perception framing?
4. How to speak with purpose and build relationships
5. How to identify interests and drive the deal.
6. The skill of using objective criteria in negotiations.
7. Develop your BATNA.
8. The techniques to frame your offer correctly.
9. How to create multiple offers.
10. The skill to negotiate successfully and seal the deal.

Everyone negotiates something every day. Negotiation is a basic means of getting what you want from others. It is back-and-forth communication designed to reach an agreement when you and the other side (customer or prospect) have some interests that are shared and others that may not be. The very best negotiators seek a mutually beneficial outcome, thus avoiding taking an unyielding position. They are able to divorce themselves emotionally from the process and focus on what both sides can accomplish together.

Successful negotiations have two parties who understand win-win outcomes and approach the negotiations from an abundance mentality versus a scarcity mentality. That is, both parties see an abundance of opportunity as opposed to a scarcity of opportunity before them. With this in mind, they are both willing to approach the table with an earnest desire to satisfy everyone’s needs as best as possible and do not see the solution as scrambling and competing for precious little. So, a successful negotiation begins with an attitude and understanding that both parties must win.

Sales negotiations are not about positions.

People routinely engage in positional bargaining. Each side takes a position, argues for it, and makes concessions to reach a compromise. Any method of negotiation may be fairly judged by three criteria: it should produce a wise agreement if agreement is possible. It should be efficient. And it should improve or at least not damage the relationship between the parties. (A wise agreement can be defined as one which meets the interests (pricing, delivery, support, quality, etc.) of each side to the extent possible, resolves issues fairly, is durable, and takes the relationship into account.)

Source: Sales Negotiation Mastery For Salespeople – Online sales training courses

5 STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL SALES NEGOTIATIONS

The following discussion provides an explanation of the five strategies and how they can help salespeople better achieve their goals while bringing greater value to the customer’s business.

1. SEPARATE THE PEOPLE FROM THE PROBLEM

In a traditional bargaining situation, the interaction proceeds based on positions and counter-positions. The discussion can easily turn adversarial as the customer raises objections about price or other difficult issues. It is as if the parties are sitting on opposite sides of the table, conducting a tug-of-war to achieve a “win for our side.” With a principled negotiation approach, on the other hand, the salesperson focuses on the problem and how to solve it. The idea is to be “hard on the problem and soft on the people.” The customer and the salesperson take the perspective of sitting on the same side of the table and, from there, work together to come up with alternative solutions that will benefit both. From this perspective, it’s possible to have a productive discussion of the customer’s concerns and offer answers and solutions rather than a counter-argument or opposing position that can undermine the relationship.

2. IDENTIFY THE INTERESTS BEHIND THE POSITION

In a traditional bargaining situation, people tend to take a firm position and stick to that position. The focus is on “what I want,” and each side is intent on justifying their respective positions. In a principled negotiation process, the focus is on the interests behind the position—the range of issues that are at stake in the negotiation. Paying attention to interests helps uncover the “why” behind a position. While a position tends to be inflexible and fixed, interests open up different perspectives and opportunities to offer options. If a customer takes the position “I must get the lowest price,” interests may include “my boss will want me to show that I got the lowest price” or “my company needs me to help maintain our cash liquidity.” The salesperson might say something like, “Now that I understand what is really important to you, if I showed you a way to meet your cash flow needs, would you be interested?”

Interests may also include political concerns, such as accommodating other stakeholders’ wishes, or a business objective, such as attaining a certain level of ROI. A customer may have a personal interest in minimizing risk in making a purchase; another may want to be seen as innovative and leading-edge. Whatever the interests, it’s critical to keep asking questions to find out what they are and align with them to smooth the path to mutual agreement.

3. INVENT OPTIONS FOR MUTUAL GAIN

In the diagram, the path to a win-win agreement lies in creating a bigger pie—exploring ways to expand the available options. Knowing the customer’s interests will help achieve this objective. For example, suppose the offer on the table is a bundled solution at a certain price. The customer, however, has an interest in keeping costs low because of a company-imposed budget limitation. If interests are openly explored, the salesperson has an opportunity to help solve the problem. Options might be offered—a flexible financing or leasing arrangement might be put on the table, or the solution might be unbundled, allowing the company to purchase elements of the solution in smaller increments. The solution has now been altered to align with the customer’s key interests.

The point is, unless you understand the interests behind the position, you may not think of creative options that allow for an “expanded pie” solution.

4. INTRODUCE INDEPENDENT STANDARDS

Independent standards are another way to align with the customer’s interests. They represent objective criteria that can be used as a measuring stick for choosing among alternatives and defining some limits. Examples of independent standards might include accepted market value, industry performance benchmarks, other research, or credible third party references. If the salesperson and the customer can agree on such standards, they provide a way to evaluate a proposal from a position of common ground. Both parties can now view the offers on the table from the same perspective.

If you suggest an independent standard, it should be something that is important to the customer. Independent standards should never be used to show the customer that he or she is wrong; rather, the intent should be to help reinforce or support a customer interest. For example, if the interest of the customer is to demonstrate to a manager that the price for the deal is a good value, then an independent standard such as market value/price can be used to justify or reinforce the customer’s choice.

5. KNOW YOUR BATNA

In traditional bargaining, negotiation can reach an impasse when either side becomes inflexibly committed to a particular outcome; for example, when the salesperson cannot accept a price below a certain amount, and the customer is determined not to pay above a certain price. It is very important in situations like this that a salesperson has a BATNA—a Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement.

Before engaging in a negotiation, salespeople should clarify their overall interests with respect to the account as a whole. Besides to close a sale, these might include ensuring the possibility of future business, expanding relationships with a range of contacts, getting referrals to other customers, or establishing a beachhead with a smaller offering. Any or all of these interests—which are outside of the current negotiation with a particular customer—help inform the salesperson’s BATNA. If the customer doesn’t agree to all the features of a proposal at a price that is still good business for the salesperson, the BATNA, carefully considered ahead of time, can come into play. The salesperson can negotiate from a position of strength and still walk away with a win—achieving an acceptable outcome while maintaining customer satisfaction and building a trusting relationship with the customer.

It is important to reiterate that the BATNA is an alternative outcome that is acceptable to you and still constitutes a win. Having a good BATNA eliminates some of the pressure to achieve just one ideal outcome and prevents the feeling that you are losing if you don’t win that one outcome. In short, the BATNA takes emotion out of the picture and increases the likelihood of rational and effective decision-making.

If the salesperson can make an educated guess or find other ways of anticipating the customer’s BATNA, it is highly useful, since it helps the salesperson in offering options that are aligned with interests and may even include the customer’s BATNA.