Sales Tip No. 26 Negotiation - are you really in a position to negotiate?
October 21, 2016The current presidential election campaign in the US has me talking to quite a few clients and participants about negotiation skills. As one candidate claims to be such a good negotiator it has become a hot topic!
In any real negotiation there has to be two conditions in play. Both parties must have the will to vary the terms and both parties must have the authority to vary the terms. So here is the challenge in many negotiations - unless you have true executive authority in your organization, the ability to really vary the terms may not be yours - no matter how willing you are to vary them!
This means preparing and planning for your negotiation. You need to work out before you go into any negotiation three factors. 1) your "walk terms" (your last resort terms, the lowest $ amount for example, that if you don't get you will [have to] walk away. 2) your "like terms" (this is what you ideally would like to get and this would be a very good deal for you. 3) your "accept terms" (this is what you would accept and although maybe not what you would ideally like, is still an acceptable deal for you).
Of course you have to be at the right stage in the sale too. Most sales people start [trying] to negotiate too early - see my earlier blog / Sales tip no. 6 "are you negotiating too early?" http://bit.ly/2esPY75
