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Based on 20 years of coaching negotiation in 47 countries, we will share the 1 tool to leverage to avoid deep discounts. While it’s simple, none of the sales leaders we worked with were leveraging it prior to our consulting with them. Click on the link below to access the 5-minute video. 

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Those words are: "I can get the same thing cheaper!" You've heard them many times. Now, how did you react to them? That reaction could be costing you much more than you think.

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In her book The End of Competitive Advantage, Columbia Professor Rita McGrath states:

"Long term structural advantage is gone and being replaced by a series of short term transient advantages."

This means we need to do two things to survive:

• Constantly innovate.
• Get these innovations into the hands of our salespeople as soon as possible to leverage them as quickly as possible.

We’ve spoken with multiple leaders that tell us the following story:

1. We saw a competitive opportunity and developed a new product or service, acquired a new business, etc.
2. We announced our new and improved value proposition at sales kickoff.
3. Product and marketing produced playbooks and enablement took the team through rigorous sales methodology training.
4. Financial incentives were put in place.

By and large the sales team didn’t make the transition but kept selling the old value proposition and solution. 

Why is this, given the steps above taken by the organization? The #1 reason?? The confidence of the sales team. Salespeople do not want to take the risk of losing a deal or losing face having new conversations for the first time in front of a customer (even if we’re in front of them on a screen).

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To start, a study of email, telephone and face-to-face negotiation (published in Harvard Business Review) notes the following:

• No surprise but the best outcomes for both sides were reached face-to-face
• On telephones, it was more win/loss where one party ended up with a significantly better outcome
• Email negotiation had the highest level of impasse (50% vs 19% face to face)

Given our choices of text, email, or phone calls, we strongly suggest video conferencing as the next best alternative. I think we’re all aware that “if an email can be misconstrued…it will.be.” Which is why we all know to be very cautious with our written word absent verbal and physical cues as conflict can easily arise. Interestingly, I did just read an article that emoji’s might actually help replicate some of that human interaction and clarify intent with email! 😊

Keep in mind a few facts when you’re forced to conduct negotiation via email:

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‘I sent my customer a proposal. They accepted it on the spot with no changes, and I closed the deal,’ said no salesperson ever!

Salespeople must understand that submitting a first proposal to their customer is an invitation to the negotiation dance. A dance that includes price concessions, line-item negotiating, demands, and giveaway pressure. Even if you have executed your sales process flawlessly, there will always be missing information and uncertainty in a customer negotiation. With the best intentions, salespeople set out to sell solutions only to end up negotiating price. They believe customers will view and negotiate the package as a whole. When in reality, customers enthusiastically negotiate line by line, and then inevitably pull price out of the equation and place a bullseye on it.

What if there was a better method of changing the conversation with your customer from delivering pricing to delivering value solutions? A method that would help keep you in control, manage the uncertainty, and close larger deals more quickly for you and your company? There is. Multiple Solution Options

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Q: Are you sick of hearing these 10 words from your customers?

“I can get the same thing cheaper from your competitor!”
Or, when the customer says,
"We want you to match the 10% discount offered by the competition.”  
As a sales executive, you know too well, when negotiating on price…

• Buyers treat your brand as a commodity
• Your sales reps run to their managers to get quick price discounting, thus…
• You have to ‘buy the business’ to make the sale
• And your sales cycle lingers on, taking too long

With potential buyers seeing you the same as everyone else. Because you sound like everyone else. They made it about price. And your reps are unable to change the conversation.
 

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You could argue that when it comes to sales success, no skill is more important than negotiation.  

For reps and sales leaders, effective negotiation can often be the difference between a crushed number and a missed quota. The best sellers are able to “change the conversation” from price to value.

So how can you train reps and raise the overall negotiation competency of your organization to be among the best in the world?

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B2B buyers are now mimicking B2C buyers. We are all aware that the role of retail salespeople is dwindling as buyers buy online. All the  information is out there in terms of what everybody else thinks of the product, its features and benefits, how users perceive it, how your service is rated, etc., so we no longer need that sales rep. 

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