Thoughtful Thursdays - On Negotiation Part 3

Last week I discussed what information you might want to have before going into a negotiating meeting with your customer. Just to be clear, we are talking about a sales negotiation.

You have what you believe to be the required information for your meeting- what next?

I suggest planning out your approach is a good place to begin. Set your objectives and be ready to accept the order as well as prepared to walk away if you reach a point that goes beyond your 'walk line'.

Preparation is essential for your meeting. Anticipate objections, be prepared to discuss them and get back to 'yes'.

The goal is to arrive at an agreement that satisfies all parties involved.It is a process of give and take, be prepared to be flexible and at the same time firm with items that are not negotiable.

I recall an occasion where the company I was working for had a mandate to reduce the days to pay by 5 days on average for every customer who was paying beyond our standard terms of 30 days. As you can appreciate, this was not received well. The value to our business was huge, and was viewed by most of our customers as unfair.

It was a point that was non-negotiable for us. At the same time, we were not prepared to reduce prices or offer any discounts for early payment.

By being prepared we were able to address most of our customers' concerns and I am happy to report we were successful in achieving our mandate.

In some cases it came down to shipping goods to line up with when the customer customarily issued cheques. In others it was to ship more often in less quantity to reduce the exposure and ease their cash flow bottlenecks. we would also offer our services to help them reduce their days to pay.

The point here is that there are many ways you can add a lot of value and thinking outside the normal scope of the supplier/customer relationship can often provide you with all the value you need to maintain your profitability and most importantly keep your customer.

Challenge yourself and come up with creative ways to close the gap and proceed confidently into you meeting.

Accept that you may have to walk away from some business if it does not make sense to continue on, but do not walk away before exploring all your opportunities.

Anyone can sell on price, a successful professional sells value.

Good selling
Richard