Are you feeling the pain? Many of you told us you were in a recent survey conducted with the Strategic Account Management Association.  Ninety percent of you are facing more professional buyers who are more aggressive then ever, and you're saying there's more at stake, too:  deals are fewer, bigger, more complex and longer term.

Eighty percent of you are seeing competitors respond by irrationally lowering prices and giving away value.  Naturally, commoditization is skyrocketing.  Negotiation now plays a larger more critical role because the relationship you negotiate is the relationship you live with. 

Our suvery showed that only 17% formally plan for negotiation.  Barely 15% use formal negotiation process to execute that plan.  That leaves 85% of us with little agreement on where we want negotiation to go or how we want to get there.  Sixty-two percent have not integrated selling and negotiating processes.  A staggering 80% of us do not effectively get something in return for customer demands.

It's no wonder that when we stand up from the bargaining table, we're bruised and battered.

If you're experiencing negotiation pain, request the Negotiation for Sales Effectiveness: Benchmarking Current and Best Practice white paper.