It's not an event that's isolated around closing a deal. It's about the ongoing
management of the relationship. You're listening to the audible Ready podcast. The show
that helps you and your teams sell more Faster. Will feature sales leaders sharing
their best insights on how to create a sales engine that helps you fuel repeatable
revenue growth, presented by the team at Force Management, a leader in B
to B sales effectiveness. Let's get started. Hello and welcome to the Audible
Ready Sales Podcast. I'm Rachel klep Miller joining me today as our own Tim
Cato. Hi, Tim, Hello, Rachel. How are we doing today?
I'm doing great. I hope you are not always happy when we get
a chance to talk about sales negotiation, right right. As many of you
know, Tim is so good at helping us with our sales negotiation. So
that's the topic of today, negotiation, and in particular sales negotiation. There
is a difference. I mean we're going to talk about that, yes,
right, because you know we are in sales consulting and companies in our industry,
training companies tend to lump all negotiation skills into one bucket, and sales
tends to have its own nuances and ones you want to manage effectively if you're
going to be a great seller. So today Tim is going to go through
these nuances and what that means for you as a salesperson as you approach your
negotiations, as you approach your sales processes. What is that mindset you need?
So Tim, let's kick it off. Let's start with the first one.
We go there. Let me just add one little thing. You're right,
Rachel. We tend to look at what's going on in the marketplace and
we offer up new ideas things to do. A lot of times those look
like activities, tactics, best practices. But today we're going to talk about
what I think is maybe the ultimate best practice when we're getting ready to approach
sales negotiations with our customers. You said it, it's our mindset. The
way we think about what we're going to do can have a huge impact on
our behavior, the outcomes of our behavior, and what we're trying to get
done. So this is a little different. It's not just how to.
I think it's the ultimate how to, which sits above all those other things
we've often talked about on other podcasts. But I'm excited to get into the
mindset because the way we think about these things has a, like I said,
a profound impact on the way we execute in the moment exactly. Thanks
for setting us up there. So, Tim, we're going to run through
some different nuances today as it relates to sales negotiation. Let's start with this
first one, the big one, right, negotiation is not an event,
right, you know we're going to talk about four, but this is this
is one of the big ones. There's a lot of nuances there. But
I want you to think about, as you said, Rachel, the difference
between a sales negotiation and other forms of negotiation, and that is, we
have a tendency to think of negotiation with our customer as a step in our
sales process. But we are all trying to win a deal as the beginning
of an ongoing relationship, or maybe we're already in an ongoing relationship. So
this idea of negotiation as a step in our sales process, I think is
one of the first mistakes that we make because it's different. In a sales
negotiation, it's really about the daily activities we go about and creating and managing
an ongoing customer engagement. It's not just the beginning. It goes on all
the way through. Some laugh and say, you know, sales negotiation starts
pretty much from hello, it goes on thereafter. So I think the mindset
when we think about it is that it really is part of the ongoing daily
practice of managing the customer engagement, not just the initial sale. Not just
the initial let's get in agreement. It's on an ongoing basis. You will
negotiate every day with an existing customer, whether it's who will be involved in
a meeting, how much rigor will they put into an implementation, how many
people get involved while things change, Let's adjust what goes on all the way
through to hey, it's time maybe for a renewal or an expansion. So
I just think it's not an event that's isolated around closing a deal. It's
about the ongoing management of the relationship. And the end of that is the
mindset. It kind of changes your approach. Yeah, you're not going to
push it off till the end, right, that's your approach for the every
conversation. So the next thing we need to remember is as sales people,
right, we don't just disappear after the negotiation. We negotiate and we go
away, You're gonna have to see these people. You want to work with
them, you want to keep adding value. So that's another nuance of sales
negotiation. Yeah, and this one's somewhat related because it does tie back to
it's not an event. But I think the thing for us to remember it's
not only not just a step in our sales process. Sales negotiation is more
than closing a deal. You know what we need to do. Even on
the other side wants to make it all about what's going on to close an
agreement, close the deal. We got to keep in mind that it is
about setting up our success and their success over the life cycle of our relationship.
Think about it this way. When I focus on the customer achieving the
outcome they money in my conversations, my upfront selling, my discovery, the
way I put together my recommendations. If I'm just focused on closing my deal,
I'm only to to include certain things in it. But when I broad
my perspective and while doing that, their perspective to what's going to be required
for them to achieve their success, that sets us up to do a lot
of different things, and we start expanding the items that are in the negotiation,
the things that should be considered. As an example, we're selling technology,
we might focus on integration. Wow, if you go with my solution,
it's automatically integrated, great, Well, that helps them make a decision
to buy. But then I say, let's talk about ongoing things like user
functionality, like people having control, like visibility to what's going on afterwards.
Those might not be part of the initial sales conversation, but they're part of
what's going to be required to make them successful. And we broadened the topics
by broadening the conversation, which means we also broaden the number of people that
we're talking to. And you know that's a big part of this. We'll
talk about in a minute, but it's really a significant thing. I'm here
not to close a deal. My mindset is I'm here to set up this
ongoing relationship. And if you think of it that way, one more mindset
thing, Rachel, think about for a net new customer. We always talk
to our customers, you know, prospects. While when you work with us,
it's going to be special. We're we're going to have an ongoing relation
and it's going to be great. Look at all the people that say we're
awesome. We tell them we're going to really work together with them. Well,
well, you know what, people that have the mindset that negotiation is
about adding value to the ongoing relationship. Our negotiation is the first demonstration of
what that relationship's going to look like. So if we go into it with
the mindset of it's all about closing my deal and I'm focused on my side,
and unfortunately that translates to some short term tactics to get a deal done,
I send a message that could have an impact for years to come in
the way we work with that customer. So when I forced myself to have
the mindset this is actually the beginning of an ongoing relationship, and I'm going
to approach it with the mindset that that's what I'm doing. And oh,
by the way, my negotiation is my devo of what that ongoing relationship is
like. Those are two mindsets that recognize the difference of a sales negotiation offers
a great opportunity for us to use the negotiating and the way too advance our
relationship. Yeah, and to your point, when you think about the post
initial agreement. That also widens the things that you can anchor on that things
that are valuable to the customer. That can broaden what you might put in
your multiple options. It gives you more to work with right town Well,
and you know, Rachel, we've all experienced a common perception in the sales
negotiation. We may deal with somebody that's called a buyer or procurement or supply
chain, whatever those words are we use, and you know a lot of
us believe they just want to focus on one thing. I don't totally buy
in on that. That's probably a result of what we talked about me.
But if they do, this mindset is really important to always remind them there
are other things beyond your buying this solution. You know, you've got people
in your organization that want to use it, that want to achieve outcomes.
So keeping them focused on that comes from you keeping focused on that, and
as you say, that's the way to get real value. Okay, So
first, mindset, negotiation is not an event, it's ongoing process. Second
one, it's more than just that initial deal. We want to think about
how we're creating value and managing the ongoing relationship. So what's our next one,
Jim? You know, again, a little bit of a nuance.
I think I remember the first time I read a book or maybe watched a
movie that had a negotiation. One of the things that we all focus on
is let's make sure we're negotiating with the person that's got the power and ability
to finalize an agreement. I generally agree with that, But here's a little
nuance in a sales negotiation, right, it is not a one on one
event. There are multiple people on the customer side that have interests. I'll
go back to the example I just use up procurement person. Right. They
represent a lot of different internal interests, different functions, different groups. They
may position themselves as the one and only you deal only with me, but
we all know there's a lot of functional areas, a lot of people behind
them that they're buying on behalf of our side. It's not just us,
right, We've got a lot of people on our side that have interests.
The product team, the services team, the sales team, the success team,
the marketing team. There's a lot of players on both sides. So
the mindset has to be from the beginning, my job. If I tied
us back to the first item, Rachel, right, negotiation is not event,
it's an ongoing process. Well, what that means is they're the beginning
of the process. So from the very beginning, if I understand that a
sales negotiation is not a one on one activity, it actually involved in many
people, then from the beginning, I'm going to expand a broad mind nut
of all the different functional areas people and the related interest that they might have
that we need to weave into the negotiation so it does not artificially get narrowed
down to the smallest number of items that makes it difficult for them to achieve
the outcome they're looking for and for us to differentiate. So from the beginning,
my mindset is broad the number of PEP both functions, interests that I'm
dealing with, and then that is both helping them get more value, but
it actually helps me later on in the negotiate team. We might do when
someone tries to narrow the conversation down to, oh, say something like price.
You know I have the ability to say, yes, price is important,
but how does that compare to these other twelve things that people in your
organization have said are important. It's just the way, that mindset. There's
a lot of players on their side, there's a lot of players on my
side. Now that adds a level of complexity, but that complexity creates advantage
for both sides. It's the pathway understanding that that mindset. It's the path
that leads us down to being able to deliver more value and then protect more
value with the end. Yeah. Absolutely, we're broadening a lot here.
We're broadening our view of the deal and how we provide value. You want
to broaden your view of your people because when your negoti shading, particularly if
you're treating it as a process, there's a lot of different players in your
company that you need to manage and in your customer's company. And we always
need to remember that it's not just our company and the customer company. There's
always a third party involved, your competition or maybe some other competing use of
funds. Yeah, that's the setup for the fourthought of what makes it different.
Hey, remember I said it's us negotiating with them, No, it's
us negotiating with many people on their side. But it's also the you know
what's looming right around the corner or hovering over top of our negotiation. This
is this thing called the competitor or an alternative. Sometimes the competitor is somebody
else that does what we do, another company. Sometimes a competitor is they
are going to just not do something. Yet you know the competitor is business
as usual. Yeah, we got a lot of issues. You've highlighted one
we're not going to deal with yet. I consider that a competitor as well.
But this topic and the one we just talked about, Rachel, this
idea, it's not one on one. If you don't have a mindset and
negotiation and the process, you're going to miss the opportunity upstream to be able
to deal with these two realities of the sales and negotiation from the beginning.
If I see negotiation is more than a step in my sales process, I'll
be changing the conversation with multiple people and interests across the organization. I can't
do that in the negotiating moment. I have to have started it before from
the beginning. If I understand this as a process and I know there's a
competitor or a competitive interest out there, I have to be establishing the foundation
that will allow me to protect myself at the end. So if I know
there's that third party, there's a couple of mindsets I need to take into
account. Number One, I cannot just be focused on telling the customer the
advantages of my solution towards their problem. What I have to have is a
mindset from the beginning to help them first establish the requirements they need to address,
no matter who they work with, and then help them see how we're
a superior fit to their requirements than my competitor. I have to make it
easy for them to be able to make a comparison. And when I fail
to do that, especially from the very beginning, When I fail to do
that, I leave myself wide open for someone on the other side, either
intentionally or naively, to narrow the decision criteria and say, hey, you
are more expensive than someone else. Now, in our minds, we say,
of course we are, because we are better fit for you. But
if I haven't established that upfront to help them see, yes, I am
different than my competitor, and I I'm a better fit to what it is
you're looking for, which makes it more likely you're going to achieve the dot.
So see, these these differences and mindsets have a tendency to come together.
But the other thing I have to understand is the competitor is going to
do what competitors do. They're going to do what we do when we're the
competitor, right, we're going to put in new considerations for the customer to
think about. We're going to create competitive counter offers, all right. We
can't look at that as an inconvenience. Are Oh, I was so close
and that dirty rod and competitor did this. I expect it. So my
mindset is, you're not gonna surprise me. I know what's happening. I
put things in place even when you make a counter offer. I've done some
of my homework, so I know what those are likely going to be.
Because I've competed against shoot before, I predisposed my customer to expect those.
When I tell my champion, Hey, now that we've worked this out,
let me tell you what's about to happen. My competitor is going to make
a call to your CFO and they're going to say the following things or your
own what are we going to do to protect what we've been working on so
far to survive that counter proposal or add a minimum? Rachel, I'm going
to have work the conversation, whether it's my champion or other contexts that when
my competitor does make some kind of counteroffer or they add a new consideration into
it, I get wind of that right away. I understand it. I've
got an opportunity to weave it into the way we deal with it. And
frankly, sometimes they bring up some things that are challenging for us. We
cannot address the thing that they're bringing up. Maybe it's a new technology,
maybe it's their position in the marketplace or with this customer. You know,
they're supposed to do that. I expect it, and therefore I go back
to what I said before. It's not about one thing, It's about multiple
things. Even if there's one one thing that we don't do as well as
them, I always want to make sure I'm keeping the focus of the conversation
on what's required to be successful, and it's multiple items. So let's say
there's nine items they have to have. I help them better on eight of
those nine. I can't allow the whole conversation to focus on the one I
can't help them with. I want to focus on the bigger thing. You
know, the mindsets that go along with the differences of a sales negotiation.
You know, it's not just an event in our sales process. It's about
the overall engagement with the customer. It's not just about closing a deal.
It's a part of the ongoing relationship. It's not just a one on one
activity. It involves multiple people and interests on both sides. And then lastly,
there is that third party, the competitor. If we understand those differences,
we can go into the sale and the related sales negotiation with these mindsets
we talked about out today. That don't catch us off guard. We're expecting
it. Right, We've changed our approach, probably because we first changed our
mindself. Yeah, great way to summarize that. And you know, once
you have these mindset or account for these nuances in sales negotiation, when you
approach your opportunities, you'll see the repetitive patterns. Right. We've seen these
movies before, absolutely, and you know most people have a hard time denying
some of those differences. We don't necessarily want them to be there, but
it's just your reality of the situation we're in. So if it creates different
dynamics, great, let's make sure that we take advantage of those different dynamics
to differentiate us from the very beginning. As we've always said, Rachel,
we believe you could differentiate yourself as much by the way youself as what you
sell, and that translates directly through to the same thing. We could differential
ourselves based on the way we negotiate as much as what we're negotiating for.
That's it. That's it, Tim Cato, Ladies, Mike right now.
Yes, appreciate you joining me for this conversation today. Tim always a pleasure,
Rachel. One of my favorite topics. Yes, and Tim has joined
us several times, and sales negotiation and other topics too. But you could
really hold together a nice little playlist for yourself with Tim's negotiation episode. If
this is an area of your sales execution that you want to get better at,
be sure to check them out in the show notes. And thank you
for listening to the Audible Ready Sales podcast. At Force Management, we're focused
on transforming sales organizations into elite teams. Our proven methodologies deliver programs that build
company alignment and fuel repeatable revenue growth. Give your teams the ability to execute
the growth strategy. At the point of sale. Our strength is our experience.
The proof is in our results. Let's get started. Visit us at
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