Sales Negotiators Should Always Have Limited Authority – Or Else!

Do you run the world yet? I’m going to guess that the answer is no (if it isn’t, then we need to talk). When we talk about being successful in a sales negotiation, we often spend a lot of time trying to figure out how we can get more negotiating power on our side. However, … Read more

Classic Sales Negotiation Tactic: I’ve Got To Talk To My Boss…

Picture this scene: it was about 20 years ago (ouch!) and I was still dating my wife when she suddenly had to replace her car. She knew exactly what she wanted: a Honda Civic with a manual transmission. There was a local Honda dealer near where she lived so one evening we went there to … Read more

A Sales Negotiator’s Guide To Dealing With A Deadlock

When driving a car, the #1 thing that most of us fear is hitting a wall. Or another car. Or pretty much anything that would cause us to come to a complete stop quickly. Why are we so afraid of this? Well duh – it will damage / destroy the car that we’re in, delay … Read more

Negotiation Battle: Tom Hanks vs. Mel Gibson

In the world of Hollywood, they have the ability to make the unreal seem oh so real. However, right now they are having a great deal of difficulty negotiating to make a contract between the big movie studios and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) become a reality. Are we going to be looking at another … Read more

Deadline? We Don’t Need No Stinkin Deadline…

What would the world of negotiating be without deadlines? I can tell you that Hollywood movies would lose a lot of their plot if the bad guys couldn’t set impossible deadlines for our heroes to try to meet. What about real life – why do people use deadlines while negotiating? It’s actually pretty simple, a … Read more