Insights on Business and Sales Negotiations

Nogotiation Blog

Insights on Business and Sales Negotiation

Join us for insights on how to negotiate a winning balance, where where both sides understand and appreciate the value they receive. As a result, you are more likely to forge a long-lasting relationship that yields more and better opportunities in the future. This idea underpins K&R Negotiations’ Win Wisely™ approach and underlines the importance of using leverage wisely.

Negotiation Examples: Knowing How the Other Team Approves a Deal

August 10, 2012

Knowing how people are measured for bonuses, rankings, commissions or promotions helps you determine the personal motivations that can be just as important as company position when it comes to closing the deal. Simply making someone’s job easier can be a major motivation. Here’s a software negotiation story from the K&R files: It was the middle of the fourth quarter and the software sales team of Company X was trying to sell a $650K software monitoring solution to a major financial institution, Company Y. The customer IT executive had been convinced a few months earlier that the solution would help them tackle certain technical issues in serving their international accounts. The Company X sales team was getting pretty frustrated with a sale that should have been easy. They…

Six Principles Every International Negotiator Must Know: Negotiation is a Continuous Process

July 31, 2012

This is the eighth post in a series entitled: The Principles of International Negotiation: Finding Universal Value in a Complex World If you are skillful in building a good negotiation process, your negotiations with your client should never end because you’ll be doing repeat business. If negotiations are a building block for successful relationships, then they must be seen as a form of interval training, not a single sprint. Since negotiation work can result in a long-term future (or no future), success in that work will create business relationships that make doing business easier and more rewarding for all parties. Negotiations do not end with the contract signing. In fact, some of the most difficult negotiations may begin after the initial contract is signed. This is particularly…

Negotiation Examples: Preparation is Key

July 25, 2012

Often, successful sales negotiations rest on preparation. How do you go from hard work to successful outcomes? What's the actual process? It's preparation. Preparation means always gathering information to gain an understanding of the motivations and objectives of the other side as well as our own. Without this understanding, we're merely guessing at the terms (the requirements) that might satisfy the other side. How can you solve the other side's problems if you don't know what they are? Good preparation also gives you confidence. If you go into a conference, speech or business meeting fully prepared, you exude confidence. The people in that room perceive that confidence and react the same way - they have confidence in you, your product and your expertise. Without adequate preparation…

Negotiator Training: Principled Concessions

June 15, 2012

A critical aspect of successful negotiation is the art of principled concessions - the ability to induce changes in position from the other side using a persuasive, value-based rationale. Not only does this preserve credibility, but the other side feels good about exchanges made in this manner. We cover this principle in some depth during our negotiation seminars, walking attendees through the step-by-step practice of principled concessions. But what exactly is a principled concession, as opposed to an unprincipled one? The definition of a principled concession is: "A change in an offer made with a credible business rationale for that change." Principled concessions preserve the credibility of the person conceding. When they include both a business rationale and a strong…

Negotiation Examples: Building a Value Case

June 1, 2012

All negotiators should build a value case for the positions they would like the other side to accept. As a buyer, you would like the seller to understand the value of doing business with you because, for example, you are a flagship account and a reliable customer who pays on time. As a seller, if you don’t build a value case for the product or service you’re selling, the buyer may not see that value. Even if they see the value, they may see it very differently than you do or they may not acknowledge it, since acknowledgement of value gives you leverage. In addition, failing to articulate value may affect your credibility. The buyer may feel you are not listening to what matters to them – and, as a result, you lose credibility. Alternatively, in acknowledging the value…

Six Principles Every International Negotiator Must Know: Concessions Easily Given Appear of Little Value

May 7, 2012

This is the seventh post in a series entitled: The Principles of International Negotiation: Finding Universal Value in a Complex World It’s a worldwide phenomenon: You’re on vacation in a foreign country and decide to buy a souvenir. You know you shouldn’t pay the price they’re asking, so you make a lower offer on that “locally produced” carving. The vendor takes it. As your purchase is being wrapped, you’re thinking, “That was too easy. I could have bought it for less.” We’re not trying to teach you to deprive starving artists of their living. But whenever someone asks for and easily gets a concession, it immediately reduces the perceived value of that concession. In business negotiations, where more is at stake, the requester will often press for even deeper discounts…