Think! Inc.'s own Brian Dietmeyer will be interviewed on BlogTalkRadio tonight, Thursday, November 29, 2012, at 8pm ET about his new book, Poet and Warrior - Balancing your spirit and professional destiny. Brian will share the meaning and philosophy of the entrepreneurial journey. Your invited to listen!

The first step in creating value through trading is the pre-work to understand what the ideal trading items are.  It is this pre-work, in fact, that actually enhances the value that is being negotiated in a deal versus simply shifting value from one party to another.  Creating value for trading is actually good for both sides.

Many sellers continue to believe that buyers are only interested in low price.  But almost any business-to-business negotiation in which a professional buyer is involved is likely to be a complex one with multiple criteria to be met on both sides, and buyers are certainly aware of that.  Let's start by looking at the kind of analysis you need to do when dealing with professional buyers. 

Determining the answer to this question is important because it affects how both sides think of the negotiation and, as a result, how they behave.  Those who think they have more power in the negotiation tend to overestimate the value of their offer.  As a result, they're more likely to play hardball in the negotiation and are less willing to consider making trades.  And when either side is unwilling to make trades, it makes creating value difficult for both sides and increases the likelihood of impasse.  On the other hand, those who think they have less power are likely to underestimate the value of their offer, are likely to roll over too easily, and, in the process, unnecessarily give up value to the other side.

The key to establishing a successful business strategy is stakeholder involvement.  That's certainly true of all members of the company's internal negotiation system.  This means not only the field salesforce but all those in the legal department as well as in sales, product, and senior management who are involved in negotiations.  It's essential to include these groups for several reasons.  Perhaps the most important of which is they all have their own particular roles in the process, their own methods and their own interests in the outcome.

As you're preparing to close those year-end deals, we don't want you to miss out on what your peers are finding worthwhile reading:

- The classic "sales-marketing" disconnect

- Your best response to commoditization pressure

- Achieving true greatness in business negotiations

- Do you have a differentiated value proposition?

- 4 questions to ask co-workers before negotiating that deal

We very often hear people say that's it's difficult, if not impossible, to know the consequences for the other side.  And given the fact that most people don't think much about what it might mean to their customer to lose the deal, it's not particularly surprising that they feel that way.  The fact is, though, your customer really has only three likely Consequences of No Agreement (CNA):

Our deal is going through; so now we’re ready to talk “terms.” Trading gives us a powerful way to determine what both buyer and seller really want so we can use trade data to make each deal more productive and profitable.

Consequences of no agreement (CNA) analysis neutralizes virtually all of a buyer’s attempts to commoditize.  It paves the way for productive and more collaborative discussion about what is really being bought and sold. CNA analysis guides you through developing your total value proposition and mapping that value to the customer, one deal at a time, shifting the negotiation conversation away from just pricing.

At the negotiating table, the pressure we feel from commoditization is both common and pervasive. It can often be crippling because it limits our options. You think less clearly and have a harder time focusing on your goals. As a result, bad decisions are made – based on temporary conditions – that last, in some cases, forever.  Commoditization pressure is just another tactic a buyer uses to back you into a corner so that lowest price becomes the issue rather than quality, customer service, your ability to solve their business problems, a feature they might actually value or a dozen other valuable things you may have to offer.  They do this because it works; we feel the pressure and begin to react defensively.