The four important areas of preparation in negotiating:
- Analyse the Customer – Identify decision making patterns and sequences
- Analyse own offer – Components of offer, their value to Customer and relative cost to us. Points on which we have room to relax or extend concessions.
- Analyse the most significant competitor – Do a SWOT with a difference.
- Arrive at tactics – Cover both tactics and counter tactics to plan for.
The benefits of good homework on sales negotiations are immediate and tangible. You know in advance what and where you can concede and what will be a walk-away position. So, chances are that you will not give away too much. You will be ‘surprise-proofed’ and not swayed by emotions. Developing a comprehensive negotiation checklist specific to your requirements with detailed preparation points on all the above four areas will be helpful.
Winning business needs more than just effective selling. For business to be profitable your sales team needs to be able to manage your margins and achieve favourable terms for you and satisfaction for your clients. Explore Mercuri International’s approach to negotiation skills in this section
World-Class Negotiation Skills
Mercuri International Sales Consultants have a proven track record of helping our clients to secure improved margins and commercial terms. Many people see the development of negotiation skills as just a by-product of sales training, but of course it takes specific competences to negotiate effectively:
- A detailed understanding of the offer
- Insight into customer psychology
- Excellent listening skills
- Understanding the difference between what is said and what is meant
- Tactical nous
- The importance of compromise
- Knowing when to “walk away”
Our sales consultants bring as much passion and practical know-how to the challenge of developing negotiation skills as they do with our Powerful Sales Performance methods, so you can rest assured that your negotiation process can be as robust as your sales process – Contact us to find out more about an In-house Negotiation Skills course at your site for your team.
Your team, with the help of our sales consultants, may not end up on Dragons’ Den but they will win more business, with better terms, utilising the Mercuri International’s Professional Negotiation Skills Training.
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Relationship-Based Negotiating
Better Negotiator – A Mercuri digital learning path
