Negotiations Skills Training
With
over twenty-five years of proven industry experience, the
Negotiations
Training Institute of America is the recognized leader in
negotiations training, consulting and performance coaching. Through public open
enrollment seminars and private on-session training sessions, we
have helped leading corporations, non-profit organizations and governmental
agencies improve their ability to
negotiate
better outcomes for their constituencies.
First-time
negotiators as well as those with the greatest
competitive
drive and amount of first-hand experience and
negotiations
wisdom can benefit from our time-tested workshops. Whether focusing
on
negotiating
a contract with a vendor or jumping in to the often-stressful
car buying process to
deal
with a dealership, our courses provide useful skills, proven techniques
and various classroom role plays to help you
become
more aware of negotiations that you must face on a daily basis.
For more information on our negotiation skills training courses please
contact us.
Negotiations
Training
There's
More than Revenue at Stake:
Negotiating with
Customers
Ask anyone in
sales and marketing and they'll be quick to tell you that more than
money is at stake during a
sales
negotiation. Generally, while the primary concern most have
when negotiating
with a customer is money, other areas also come into play:
* Potential
for good/bad word-of-mouth "advertising" (bad news travels
fast)
* Potential to become a referenceable account
* Positive publicity (press release, even participation, etc)
* Credibility within an industry (ex: effects of landing a marquee
company in the food and beverage industry)
*
Internal
references that can lead to additional business in other departments
or divisions
Remember that
you're not just negotiating for money, shipping terms, completion
times or product specs. You're trying to build a
long-term
relationship that can pay off not only in the near-term but
also in the long-term. A struggling company trying to build a name
for itself stands to gain a great deal by landing a large client
name with a household name. The ability to say a company like Dell
or ExxonMobil uses your products or services can be tremendously
effective when trying to win new business.
Listed below
are some general DOs and DONTs of negotiating with prospects or
existing customers:
What to Do When
Negotiating with a Customer
- Approach
negotiations as
problem-solving
sessions, not as bargaining sessions designed to outdo the
other party. If you follow our suggested consultative selling
approach, you will already be in tune to the idea that you are
working towards
providing a solution rather than pushing a product or service.
Project
a professional image of a trusted advisor, not of just another
organization hawking its products or services.
- Deal with
common areas of agreement first. You can
build
a strong foundation for agreement by knocking out the "easy"
issues first. This strengthens goodwill and makes it easier for
both parties to work together to resolve areas where there may
be greater disagreement or conflicting concerns.
- Come up
with items that are easy for your team to provide to the customer
that are considered by them to be of high value. Your customer
may place a great value on receiving expedited shipping terms
while your company can easily absorb those costs. Is there something
you can provide very willingly that will be of benefit to your
customer? One word of caution: Just because a
concession
is easy to make does not mean you should make that evidently clear
to the customer. If you cheapen the value of a concession, the
customer may not see it as valuable as they once did.
- Seek to
negotiate based on the future of your relationship with your customer.
While you shouldn't roll over in order to earn a customer's business,
you should make every effort to act in a good-faith manner to
build loyalty and effectively lock out the competition.
- Make sure
your customer feels they are important. Even if your client list
is made up of a thousand companies, you should make your client
feel like they are at the top of the list. Even small deals can
mushroom into large opportunities. Take care of each and every
customer to build a pipeline of goodwill and
future
business.
What Not to
Do When Negotiating With a Customer
- Don't be
too quick to discount. One of the greatest pitfalls of a sales
negotiation is the willingness many have to agree to a discount
to earn a
customer's
business. Not only does this reduce the size of a sale by
leaving money on the table, it can also leave a bad impression
on customers. Being to quick to discount cheapens your product
or service and leaves customers wondering if you had been overcharging
them in the past.
- Don't let
customers use competition against you. When a customer points
out that a competitor is willing to provide the same product or
service at a lower cost, focus not on the competitor but on your
product or service. Utilize benefit statements to show why your
product or service is not like the competition. Help them understand
that the reason your price is X rather than Y is because of particular
Features, Advantages and Benefits (what we call FAB statements).
- Don't be
afraid to walk away. That's right? Every one of us will eventually
find ourselves walking away from potential business when a
customer's
requirements become too unreasonable. Granted, walking away
from potential revenue is painful. Yet, agreeing to irrational
terms that lead to losses or potential legal action can be far
more painful. Consider the ramifications of what a customer is
requesting. If the danger is too high, be prepared to walk away.
The customer may change their tune. If not, you've saved yourself
a future headache.
- Don't Let
Yourself Get Trapped by "Standard Operating Procedure".
One of the worst things you can do during a negotiation is fail
to
be
creative. Some companies have one way of doing things - it's
their way or the highway. We believe you should
approach
negotiations with an open mind. Think about "different"
ways of doing business or providing your products or services.
Being flexible and open to ideas will help you score points with
your customer and can help you win a larger piece of business
than originally expected.
For Negotiation
Skills Seminar information please
contact
us.
Related:
Negotiation Course
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