We're coming up to the end of the first quarter of the year.  Salespeople are looking at their numbers and thinking about what they need to do to meet their goals.  Is this you?  Are you willing to do anything to complete this business negotiation and close the deal with your customer?  

Our research and global fieldwork have shown that virtually every negotiation, regardless of who's conducting it or where it takes place, can be blueprinted in exactly the same way.  This is extremely important, because we also found that everything that takes place in the course of a negotiation - the planning and the research as well as all the tactics used in the final face-to-face meeting - is ultimately driven by that blueprint.  But what is it?  It's essentially a picture of the entire negotiation, a picture that can be determined by anwering two questions for those on both sides of any deal:

Despite the creation and implementation of sales processes, there is still one area of sales that was considered, and is still considered, a tactical, reactive, and behavioral art:  the art of negotiating.  Because of the way business was conducted in the past, the fact that no established processes for sales negotiating existed didn't present any particular problems.  However, the same market forces that 20 years ago drove sales to shift from a personal relationship model to a more process-oriented and analytical one are now driving the need for a new approach to negotiating. 

Each day we are feeling the pressures of the increasing numbers of professional buyers attempting to commoditize our products and services, and putting pressure on top and bottom line.  The need to invest in core competencies, like negotiation, has not been stronger in the last 50 years!  At the same time, having salespeople out of pocket for multiple days of generic "training" is also a challenge.  This is exactly what faced Information Builders, a business intelligence and integration firm.

Great news to share with you!  getAbstract now has its recommendation of B2B Street Fighting available in Chinese.

Ryder is a world leader in the supply chain and transportation management solutions industry. After the company completed a four-year restructuring program, and operating in a highly competitive market, Ryder determined the company's organization focus to be:

Selling is a process through which the seller identifies how the solutions he offers resolve a buyer’s needs at a given point in time. Whereas negotiation is the process through which both parties agree to the terms of a deal, which is better for both than any other alternative deal. Some people have stated there should only be a negotiation when there is a genuine commitment from both the buyer and seller towards a conditional sale. However, I think this approach is somewhat short-sighted.

For many years, we have been asking our global clients for the most common and most difficult verbal negotiation tactics they face every day.  Their buyer's comments many sound different, but they all have one thing in common.  Whether buyers are asking for a price discount, an extended warranty or some other concession, the message is loud and clear:  they want something, they want it now and they want it for free... or less!  From our research and from what we have observed, they are very likely to get it!

Just as you would never dream of starting to build a house without a conventional blueprint, you can't build a deal that is worth negotiating without a plan to get where you are going.  The processes of data collection and analysis are key steps to what we at Think! call "blueprinting" a deal.  Blueprinting is a convenient way to view data-based preparation and analysis in its most basic and raw form; it essentially describes the steps needed to get your arms around all the moving parts in a complex B2B deal.

Trading helps you keep all the pieces of a deal in context, so you can keep the conversation away from price alone. Put simply, trading is the art of asking the buyer for something in return when he makes demands of you - whether for a lower price or other concessions. Trading is the heart and soul of negotiating. Done well, it combats pressure from the buyer to reduce the price of a deal or give away all manner of "stuff" for free, and sometimes less.