Don't Leave Money on the Negotiation Table - Top Five Negotiating Behaviors

In my twenty years of training, coaching & selling, I have worked with one,000's of sales professionals & observed them selling & negotiating in classroom role-plays & in actual client meetings. Irrespective of the industry or the negotiation setting, there's behaviors that top performers consistently demonstrate. To be effective & maintain the competitive edge, you need to be able to demonstrate the ability to do the following:

#1 - Learn - Before you move from the selling phase to the negotiating phase of the sales cycle, learn as much as feasible about the needs of your client. Make definite you understand how the client defines value. It is also important to know the client's business priorities & who/what you are competing with for the business. When you spend the proper amount of time learning, you can then negotiate from a point of value & not cost.

#2 - Think before you speak - Always use pauses strategically. Plenty of people feel the necessity to fill the void if no is speaking. You do not need to fill the void & actually, a pause is often a welcome break. Pausing is critical after the other person has asked you to make a concession.

#3 - Get all the cards on the table - Do not give up anything before you know everything. In case you give something up early, you may find that later on you did not need to make the concession. For example, let's say that in the beginning of the negotiation, you concede on cost & drop it by 5% to keep the customer happy. Then, later on you find out that the customer wishes the order rushed & that time is more important than funds. It is impossible to return on the original concession. You may finish up giving something up in addition to the fee.


#4 - Move slowly - In case you require to build a relationship with this person, do not rush to come to agreement. When negotiators rush, they make mistakes and mistakes cost funds! Move slowly both in speech and in changing the agreement.


#5 - Maintain confident body language - If your client pushes back on terms or cost, be sure that your body language does not give the appearance of a lack of confidence or a belligerent attitude. Do not cross your arms, move your chair back or scrunch your brow. Sit up, move forward slightly, and maintain a quiet composure.


Adopted from a written by Linda Berke. Linda Berke is President of Taylor Performance Solutions, Inc. a New York based consulting and training firm. The Taylor team focuses on providing fully custom-made training to support business and individuals when they require to increase sales, enhance service, improve in-house training and create strong leaders. All training and training solutions are designed to bring immediate business results and help you exceed your goals.