Negotiation Skills Training for Everyone

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For most salespeople and sales organizations, negotiating with prospects and customers is a daily challenge.  We build our organizations with some of the best people, the best equipment, and facilities and even the best tools, only to find out that in order to get more business we must discount.  At least, that’s what we think.  Do you know most people are conditioned to lower their prices?  A typical salesperson knows that the prospect will be asking for a discount.  They hear it all the time, and even brace themselves for it during a sales call.  Hold that thought for a moment.

Did you know that the number one excuse a prospect gives to a salesperson when they don’t buy is about price?  In other words, when we as potential buyers have decided not to use a company, we bring up price as the number one excuse of why we can’t buy from them.  Why?  Because it’s easy and non-confrontational.  Furthermore, even when we do buy from someone, we ask for a better price because, why not?  What do we have to lose?

Thus, salespeople become conditioned that discounting is ok, acceptable and simply part of the process.  Right?  Wrong!  Let’s start by reviewing the messages that we unconsciously send to our prospects when we decide to lower prices:

We admit, “It’s not worth full price”
It tells them that perhaps we were taking advantage of them; that we have room to move
That discounting is acceptable; come back again in the future and we’ll do that again for you
The product or service is not valuable to them
Make a decision today that discounting should be more of a rare occurrence than a typical thing that you do.  Start with a mindset that says, “I will not discount”, “We are worth the price that we quote”, “My company won’t be profitable long term if I give away margin”.  Now, let’s face it – just because we have this new founded belief system does not mean you won’t get the request to discount and feel the pressure to do it.  So, let’s give you some simple techniques that can help when you’re faced with these situations.

Technique #1: Prospect:  “Can you do any better?”  Salesperson:  “Let’s say I go back and look at everything and find out we can’t, what happens then?”  Again, we are not saying you absolutely cannot discount, but why not ask what happens if you can’t discount before you do.  They very well could respond with, “I’m still going to order from you – I just thought I’d ask”.  Another version of this might be, “Wow.  I didn’t expect that.  That’s not something we do.  Now what?”  If you prefer, you can always use the opposite, which can be effective as well:  “Let’s say I go back and look at everything and find out we can – what happens then?”  At the very least you secure the order in this case, and don’t have to leave while you endlessly follow up only to hear, “No” at the end.

Technique #2:  Prospect: “Can you come down 10%?”  Salesperson:  “What if I go back and find out we can only come down 1% at most – what happens then?”  Similar to above, but in this case you are coming down just slightly.  If you offer something large or end up “splitting the difference” with them, they figure out that you had more profit for yourself in the project to begin with.  Not good.

Technique #3: Prospect:  “I have a better price from someone else”  Salesperson: “Interesting.  Can I ask you, why do you think they came in so low?”  With this technique you’re sending a message that perhaps the competitor did something wrong or maybe they aren’t doing so well?  Additionally, the message is sent that you won’t be discounting; that your price is accurate.

Technique #4: Prospect:  “If you can’t come down on price, I don’t think I can use you”  Salesperson: “You know, you can make the easy decision to say, “no” to the price, but keep in mind that you’re also saying “no” to all of the features you told me you liked”.  This technique takes the price out of the equation and immediately points to value, which is where we want to be in the discussion, of course.

Technique #5:  “Can I get a discount?”  Salesperson: “Sounds it’s not what you’re looking for?”  This technique some people call “the takeaway”.  In effect, the technique uses reverse psychology to have the person ask themselves, “Do I really want to lose this opportunity?”  Said at the right time, in the right situation it can be quite effective.

Negotiating skills is an important part of selling.  Although these “one-liners” won’t necessarily get prospects to simply hand over their wallet, they are effective starts to negotiations that will have the prospect respect you more.  Also think about it this way – if they are negotiating with you they are probably not seeing the value of your product or service at that moment.  If that were the case, price would be much less of an issue.  Spend time on discussing the value of your product or service and how it helps them solve their problems and concerns.  Better yet, find out what those problems and concerns truly are and sell to those issues.  And, be prepared with your negotiation “one-liners” and you just might close more.