Even More Giving: 5 More Ways Sales Negotiators Can Use Concessions

You can never say it too many times: in order to reach an agreement with the other side during a sales negotiation, you ALWAYS have to make some sort of concession(s). The trick to doing this correctly is to make sure that you don’t make so many concessions that when a deal is struck that … Read more

Giving To Get: How A Sales Negotiator Makes Concessions

Sales negotiating is all about concessions. You make them, the other side makes them. Finally, if enough has been given, then you should be able to reach a common middle ground where a deal can be struck. The trick is knowing how and when you should make your concessions. Here are some tips from the … Read more

A Sales Negotiator’s Friend: “Just The Facts, M’am”

So there you are, getting ready to fire up your side of a sales deal when all of a sudden you get hit with a volley of facts, averages, and statistics. You’re hit! Each one of those figures came with a sharp point that has embedded itself, perhaps fatally, into your arguments. Is there any … Read more

How Sales Negotiators Can Defend Against The Good Cop / Bad Cop Tactic

I like movies. I especially like police movies. I’m guessing that one of the reasons that I like movies with police in them so much is because it’s almost a given that sometime during the movie the police heroes will resort to using the “Good Cop / Bad Cop” negotiating tactic. Every sales negotiator out … Read more

No Authority / Full Authority Sales Negotiations

Sales professionals really don’t like to enter into a negotiation naked. When you don’t have any authority to make concessions, you basically feel pretty naked. Likewise, if you have full authority, then you’ve got a whole other set of problems. Back to the poor sales negotiator who has no authority. Hold on a minute, they … Read more

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

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

Negotiating Self Defense: Countering The Reverse Auction Tactic

I’ve always liked superheros. From my earliest days of reading comic books to my current-day trips to the movie theater to see Spiderman and Iron Man, I just don’t seem to be able to get my fill of superheros. I believe that superheros, although fictional (probably – however I still have hope), can teach us … Read more