Overcoming Negotiation "Dealbreakers": K&R’s MID Chart of Goals™

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How often have you encountered a “must have,” a “need” or a “dealbreaker” in a negotiation? People on both sides of the table can be unnecessarily painted into a corner when these supposed “non-starter” positions are expressed.

But in reality, there are very few dealbreakers in negotiations. More often than not, the true problem is that people in negotiations have trouble breaking down the issues and organizing them in matter of importance. Either as partners in the negotiation process or during our negotiating seminars, we help our clients break down each issue on the table so they can identify and separate means (how we’ll get there) and ends (the desired destination). Once ends and means are untangled, it is amazing how many seemingly intractable issues are suddenly neutralized. Read more

Negotiation and Leadership

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K&R Negotiations’ Mladen Kresic Pens Guest Piece on Negotiation and Leadership for the Hartford Business Journal

K&R Negotiations co-founder and CEO Mladen Kresic recently penned a guest column for the Hartford Business Journal’s Talking Points section. The guest post discusses Kresic’s recent encounter with Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Paul Bucha, who was a captain of the 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War and, later in life, a successful business leader and chief executive.

While accompanying his son’s Cub Scout troop to hear a talk given by Bucha, Kresic was struck by how the principles of leadership described by the speaker were indispensable qualities for a good negotiator. Read more

Opportunity Forensics: Accurately Predicting When Your Deals Will Land and How

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While many believe themselves proficient at sales forecasting, often these critical predictions are based on arbitrary timelines ("It’s the end of Q4!"), emotion and opinion. The fact is, opportunities progress, and then close (or not) for predictable reasons, and at predictable times. Opportunity Forensics™ moves sales forecasting out of the subjective realm and into a specifically directive process where you can identify the tasks that will deliver revenue you can count on.

We assist our clients by developing a methodical filtering process that identifies the gaps with their prospects and assists them in developing action plans to move them to closing. This innovative approach to sales forecasting replaces subjectivity with objective, measurable forecasts and provides a framework for a customized sales process based on how your sales team sells.

K&R Opportunity Forensics™ builds your ability to understand and analyze all aspects of the sales process. Our clients learn:

  • Why clients act or don’t act.
  • How to persuade, and what value arguments to make at what time.
  • Which factors determine when and if an opportunity will close. Early in the process, you will understand what you can and cannot control.
  • How to apply a specific, repeatable structure to assess and improve value statements, and make a simple prediction of time to close.
  • The Value Matrix™ – the attributes of value and its use in persuasion.
  • Timestamps – what are the elements that can be used to influence time to close?
  • Execution leverage – internal and external teamwork.
  • Degree of difficulty – how incumbency and the customer’s business condition affect the timeline.

K&R Opportunity Forensics ™ can show you the milestones of your sale, enlighten your sales team to where they are in the sale, and their likelihood to close.

Once you understand the precise tasks ahead, they can move forward. This adds certainty to your sales teams forecast and keeps your team from working on opportunities that are not going to close. Reliable forecasts provide rippling benefits throughout your organization – from sales, to planning, to manufacturing, to resource requirements.

Find out more about how Opportunity Forensics™ can improve your sales performance.