Successful negotiations: helpful tips

You can’t maybe you even shouldn’t avoid negotiations. Negotiations happen in private and in your work life. This is why you have a great advantage, if you know how to reach a successful agreement.

You are starting negotiations now, and you are excited and perhaps even anxious. But you should employ some guidelines for negotiating that will help you and the customer relate well to each other and to move efficiently towards an agreement. Let’s examine some of these guidelines that will help enhance your chances of reaching a successful conclusion to your negotiation efforts. Good luck!

Demonstrate respect

Each of the people at the negotiating table brings a different perspective to the negotiations. They may also have different motives, goals, desires, and intentions in being there. Plus, we have preconceived notions about each other, make judgments about each other, and develop opinions about each other – all in the flash of a first impression. All of these differences are between you and the other people you will negotiate with, yet they don’t have to become barriers to reaching a successful agreement. You simply need to be willing to respect each other’s ideas and opinions, no matter what they might be.

This includes willingness to:

• Listen to each other’s ideas, even if they seem unrealistic at first

• Ask questions and explore different possibilities

• Put aside any negative personal feelings in order to facilitate the process of reaching an agreement

• Respect another’s position while still refocusing the conversation on interests and value

Reaffirm the value statement in sales

An excellent way to start a negotiation conversation is to begin by agreeing, in detail, on how the customer will benefit from your proposal. You can do this in terms of a value statement, where you state or list the value that the customer will receive if you are all able to agree on the terms of the sale.

Define the Problem

The problem you are usually facing during negotiations is that you have the same goal (having the customer experience the value that a purchase would provide), but you don’t agree on how to get there. For example, you might both agree on the sale, but not on the price, the installation date, the rate of technical service after the sale, or any other agreement terms.

In order to solve the problem, you should explore and review what each side’s goals and interests are. You will find that there are bound to be some additional goals and interests that you have in common. For example, both sides would want a successful implementation and both sides would want customer satisfaction. As you find the goals and interests that you share, you are beginning to forge your agreement. This process will also help you identify the exact points on which you disagree. It’s very important during this stage to keep the problem separate from the person expressing it. You want to be able to examine any points of conflict objectively, always keeping in mind your mutual goals.

Collaborate

If you have followed the previous guidelines, you should be in an excellent position to collaborate with the other party. You have acknowledged that a disagreement exists, but you’ve also agreed to work together to generate solutions to it. You know that you’re going to need to work together if you are ever going to reach an agreement and you can continue to focus on the mutual benefits of coming to consensus.

Whatever you do from here forward, be sure that you are keeping your mutual goals in mind. Although it can be tempting to overpromise in order to reach a deal, doing so will come back to bite you later on. Instead, be sure that you promise only what you are certain you can deliver. If you need to follow-up with other members of your team or organization before you can make certain concessions, then be sure to do so quickly and get the response to the customer as soon as possible. Demonstrating that you are reliable helps to foster trust, which will in turn reinforce your collaborative efforts.

If you want to learn more about successful negotiations, take a look at the free eBook “Negotiating Sales” written by MTD Training.

 
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