Shut Up is What Sales Negotiators Should try to learn to Do!Posted by Newell Boyer on May 28th, 2021 Negotiation is about power. The trick to walking from a sales negotiation feeling satisfied about what you were able to achieve is to make sure that you walk Into the negotiation with an increase of negotiating power than the other side has. Sounds easy doesn't it? I've been amazed again and again to see sales negotiators just hand out their negotiating power to the other side time after time. They just don't realize they are doing it. Let's see if we can eliminate this... JUST HOW DO Sales Negotiators Lose Power? Negotiating power can be a be a funny thing. You can have a lot of it rather than even know it. Likewise, you can give it away and not be aware that you are doing so. There are a great number of ways to lose power but the #1 way is for you to run your mouth too much. Ultimately negotiating power is focused on having more info. Whichever side of the table has more information about the other side gets the power. website can be used against you, so you desire to retain it as tightly as possible. How To Hold On To Power THROUGHOUT A Sales Negotiation If only it had been as easy as keeping your mouth shut! Nope, there are a number of items that you can do in order to ensure that you keep the upper hand when it comes to negotiating power during you next sales negotiation: Don't Talk Business: In the small talk that occurs prior to the start of any sales negotiation, don't talk about business. You might be in a position to not give away any secrets, but maybe you'll make a mistake. Stick to weather, sports, family - anything but business. Let The Other Side Do The Talking: Better still than you talking is getting the other side to talk, and talk, and talk. In the same way you can leak power to another side, the more they talk the higher the odds that they can say something that will provide you with more negotiating power. Keep Your Timeline A Secret: By the end of a fiscal quarter, negotiating with a salesperson who has recently met his / her quota is completely different from negotiating with person who hasn't. If you are this salesperson, don't let another side know predicament - also don't mention if business has been slow, or if you've got product piling up all over the place. Don't Start With Discounts: All too often salespeople begins a sales negotiation they are anxious to close by supplying a discount or various other enticement to another side right from the start. Don't do this - though it might have worked in some other negotiation, if you start this way then your other side won't start to see the value in your offer and you may have lost power even prior to the negotiations have begun. Tell Everyone ON YOUR OWN Team To Shut-Up!: Even if this discussion sinks directly into your brain, it is possible to still lose power by comments that the engineers, procurement staff, and even the lawyers on your own team make. Make an effort BEFORE the sales negotiation begins to huddle together with your team and explain to them that the more they talk, the more negotiating power they'll be giving away to another side.Like it? Share it! More by this author |