Most buyers attempt to minimize the complexity of business negotiation by simply saying, "Well, your competitor's price is lower."  Chances are your buyer cannot get the "same thing" cheaper.  In virtually every business negotiation where there are professional buyers on one side of the deal and professional sellers on the other, the business solution being negotiated has virtually no chance of being "the same" as what your competitor is offering.

Buyers say these things because the selling world has trained the well -- i.e. they work -- but not because the tactics are based on fact.  If two providers were offering the same thing, then why not always use the web and /or reverse auctions and both parties could obtain higher margins by eliminating the people representing the buy and sell side?

So, knowing it's in the best interest of buyers to attempt to commoditize our offering, what do we do?  Well, let's remember that precedents have long been set and true commodities do exist; t-bills or pork bellies, as examples, point to price as the only differentiator.  So it takes a long time to reverse those precedents and change the conversation -- and that's where practice and patience come in!

Thanks to our exhaustive research, we now know 97% of verbal tactics can be anticipated and prepared for.  Can business negotiation really be this systematic and simple?  Yes!  If you're willing to collect the right data and prepare.  Find out more by requesting our white paper entitled, "I Can Get The Same Thing Cheaper" (and other negotiating myths...)