Speaker 1: All the data suggests that early stage anchors have a
Speaker 1: profound impact on how the whole conversation and negotiation you're
Speaker 1: going to go and what gets included that creates value
Speaker 1: for both sides.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Audible Ready podcast, The show that
Speaker 2: helps you and your teams sell more Faster. Will feature
Speaker 2: sales leaders sharing their best insights on how to create
Speaker 2: a sales engine that helps you fuel repeatable revenue growth.
Speaker 2: Presented by the team at Force Management, a leader in
Speaker 2: B to B sales effectiveness. Let's get started.
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast. I'm
Speaker 3: Rachel Klatt Miller. Today we're going to be talking about
Speaker 3: preparation and specifically preparing for negotiation focused conversations. Joining me
Speaker 3: today is our own Timkato.
Speaker 1: Hi, Tim, Hello, Rachel. Good topic for today.
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, and we talk about prep a lot. But
Speaker 3: I'm excited for this conversation because we're going to talk
Speaker 3: specifically as it relates to negotiating your deal. And our
Speaker 3: first tip is one that we talk about all the
Speaker 3: time but obviously can't emphasize enough. Your biggest impact on
Speaker 3: your negotiations and your prep is to start your process early.
Speaker 3: In the sales process.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, you know, a lot of people, a lot
Speaker 1: of prep going on, and people have a tendency to think, yeah,
Speaker 1: we got to get ready for this negotiation. Of course,
Speaker 1: the ones I'm working on right now, I'm saying, and
Speaker 1: of course we started months ago, right, But you know,
Speaker 1: the thing to keep in mind, we say one of
Speaker 1: our core premises all on is start the negotiation process
Speaker 1: before the other side believes we're negotiating. And frequently that
Speaker 1: sounds like customer facing activities, and there's a lot of them,
Speaker 1: but it also implies preparation because what's the old idea, right,
Speaker 1: preparation equals readiness, and there's a lot that could be
Speaker 1: thrown at us in negotiations, customer facing negotiations that we
Speaker 1: got to be ready for. So starting early also means preparing.
Speaker 1: But it's a very very powerful concept. But just think
Speaker 1: of this if prep isn't your thing. About readiness, the
Speaker 1: thing I want to mention Rachel for people to understand
Speaker 1: is readiness for what part of the negotiation process, right, props,
Speaker 1: Because prep is a little different. Here, am I in
Speaker 1: the early stage of the negotiation process, mid stage, late stage,
Speaker 1: So I think we'll probably get into talking a little
Speaker 1: bit about some of the core concepts for early, mid
Speaker 1: to late But just to frame our conversation a little bit,
Speaker 1: it's preparation. Preparational lined with where I happen to be
Speaker 1: at the process.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, because it can change and you never know
Speaker 3: when your customer is going to bring up something that
Speaker 3: you want to be ready for, right, So that's our foundation.
Speaker 3: So let's get into some of those key areas. How
Speaker 3: about anchors and how you're going to deal with anchors.
Speaker 3: You never know when they're going to bring those up, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, anchors. Just to remind some people, if it's been
Speaker 1: a while or if you're just getting used to it,
Speaker 1: you know what the heck is an anchor. It's a tactic.
Speaker 1: It's just tactics. Both sides do them. An anchor technically
Speaker 1: are the things that are set or done by either
Speaker 1: side in an attempt to influence the negotiation, an attempt
Speaker 1: to influence what's included, an attempt to create some parameters.
Speaker 1: Oh I don't have that much budget. Oh you want
Speaker 1: to get this done by the end of the quarter.
Speaker 1: Things like that, Things that are set or done to
Speaker 1: try and create a frame of reference for the negotiation.
Speaker 1: So when you think about anchors, they occur all the time,
Speaker 1: there's no question about it, and we have to be
Speaker 1: ready for those. But early stage anchors, Rachel, all the
Speaker 1: data suggests that early stage anchors have a profound impact
Speaker 1: on how the whole conversation negotiation you're going to go
Speaker 1: and what gets included that creates value for both sides.
Speaker 1: Early stage anchors, I want you to think about them
Speaker 1: when when you talk about readiness, have a plan. It's
Speaker 1: not just a defensive plan. We tell people all the time,
Speaker 1: know what anchors are so you could recognize them so
Speaker 1: that you don't unintentionally become a victim. Someone says, oh,
Speaker 1: your competitor is really offering an aggressive price. That's an
Speaker 1: example of an anchor. We're all used to hearing that one, right,
Speaker 1: But imagine if that comes out at the beginning and
Speaker 1: it's said a little bit more professionally. Hey, listen, your
Speaker 1: competitor has some challenges, true, but those challenges aren't insurmountable.
Speaker 1: And just so you know, a lot of what's made
Speaker 1: us easier for us to handle those challenges, or their
Speaker 1: pricing is unbelievable, or their service, what they're willing to do,
Speaker 1: or what they include, or their technologies got some advantages years.
Speaker 1: Those are the kind of things that get said seemingly
Speaker 1: casually early in the conversation. But imagine, let's just go
Speaker 1: with the one I just talked about, they got some
Speaker 1: technology advantages that you don't have. If I get anchored
Speaker 1: on that early, imagine the impact that can have on
Speaker 1: the rest of the conversation. So anchors, they have a
Speaker 1: profound impact on the negotiation. Early stage anchors have a
Speaker 1: kind of an oversized impact on how the whole conversation goes.
Speaker 1: So one part of it is recognize them when they happen,
Speaker 1: so you don't unintentionally get pulled into that that as
Speaker 1: the reality. It's just an anchor. But let's keep in
Speaker 1: mind something else, Rachel. If they can anchor, we can anchor.
Speaker 1: They might anchor to create vulnerability for us early. We
Speaker 1: can anchor early on to expand the conversation to bring
Speaker 1: more things in. Yes, technology is important, and you should
Speaker 1: have the most advanced technology, But so are integrations right,
Speaker 1: So is reporting right, so is user acceptance right, leveraging
Speaker 1: data right. So you can have a lot of advanced technology,
Speaker 1: which is great, but if your people can't use it,
Speaker 1: it doesn't work within your tech stack. It's a problem.
Speaker 1: So I might want to have my own early stage
Speaker 1: anchoring strategy. Now, as I said, anchoring can occur along,
Speaker 1: but that's a big one think about early stage anchoring.
Speaker 1: They may do it purposely, they may do it unintentionally
Speaker 1: because it's just the way they roll. We should have
Speaker 1: a plan on anticipating what they are, what are we
Speaker 1: going to be hearing from them, know how to manage
Speaker 1: it in the moment, but also have our own plan
Speaker 1: for anchors we're going to try and establish early to
Speaker 1: broaden the conversation and to make sure we don't overrotate
Speaker 1: on one thing and miss something else. Because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, Rachel, we all know our job
Speaker 1: is to help make sure a customer doesn't buy an
Speaker 1: unintentional mistake, and sometimes our anchoring helps them remember things
Speaker 1: or know things that will keep them from buying mistake.
Speaker 1: So anchoring is a very very important part of preparation,
Speaker 1: not only in anticipation what you might run into, but
Speaker 1: our own anchoring strategy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, prepping for things through both sides of that. And
Speaker 3: another area of preparation is your list of give guests,
Speaker 3: making sure you and the account team, your deal team
Speaker 3: are clear on the concessions that you can make and
Speaker 3: more importantly, what you want to ask for in return.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's you know, you use the word there.
Speaker 1: I'm not big on concessions. I'm big on trading. That's
Speaker 1: a concession. Sounds like we're giving something up. No, I'm trading.
Speaker 1: I know you something, but I want something. I know
Speaker 1: that's what you meant.
Speaker 3: I know about it, But I should have said trading.
Speaker 1: That's all right, that's all right, Rachel. You know, that's
Speaker 1: why we do these for you too. The point on
Speaker 1: establishing a known list of give gets, having a plan
Speaker 1: for that, it's very difficult to do that early stage.
Speaker 1: But around mid stage give gets start to become something
Speaker 1: we should be filtering into the conversation. I like to
Speaker 1: start with the end of mind and work backwards. One
Speaker 1: of the things I know in my years with working
Speaker 1: with people that buy for a living, they dislike surprises
Speaker 1: at the end as much as we do. We dislike
Speaker 1: it when they bring somebody new in it, there's another consideration,
Speaker 1: or they throw something at us late. You know, it's like, ah, well,
Speaker 1: they don't like it when we do it either. So
Speaker 1: one of the things about why I think figuring out
Speaker 1: our give gets strategy is more of a mid stage
Speaker 1: is when we start that part of the process for
Speaker 1: me to start thinking internally the internal negotiation, what some
Speaker 1: of the give gets I'm starting to map out socialized
Speaker 1: internally in my own organization, make sure I've got a
Speaker 1: level of alignment on the things that we do want
Speaker 1: and the things we might be willing to trade to
Speaker 1: be able to get there. So there's an internal side
Speaker 1: of give gits. And then once I've got some clarity
Speaker 1: on that, at least initially, guess what I can start
Speaker 1: anchoring into the conversation. The things that we're interested in,
Speaker 1: like a deal by the end of this quarter would
Speaker 1: be important to our organization, Like including our premium service
Speaker 1: package might be something that's valuable to work them, having
Speaker 1: someone like you in an industry that we're targeting, being
Speaker 1: willing to do a case study, or be able to
Speaker 1: talk about your success at a user event, whatever those
Speaker 1: things might be. Hey, as long as we're talking about
Speaker 1: it right now, looks like we're on a path. I
Speaker 1: know you're not committee yet, but maybe it makes sense
Speaker 1: for us to exchange some legal documents and me to
Speaker 1: be in contact with your legal team to start working
Speaker 1: through master agreements and things like that, because we are
Speaker 1: moving kind of fast here, so we might need to
Speaker 1: do things in pillow. All I'm doing is anchoring into
Speaker 1: the conversation midstage some of the things that will make
Speaker 1: this a great deal for us as well. Don't want
Speaker 1: to give surprises to people at the end with my
Speaker 1: give gifts, like I offer something, I ask for something
Speaker 1: in return, and they say, where'd that come from? You
Speaker 1: know what? Why am I just finding out about this
Speaker 1: right now? I want to start that early externally with
Speaker 1: the customer, internally with my team to make sure everybody's
Speaker 1: on board. I know it doesn't happen every listener that's
Speaker 1: going to be listening in us, Rachel, but sometimes the
Speaker 1: left hand in the right hand in our own organization
Speaker 1: don't always align on what the gift gets ought to
Speaker 1: be be great if we started with an approved list
Speaker 1: of things to think about. Some of our clients have those,
Speaker 1: but you don't need an approve list to start that
Speaker 1: process early internally, start anchoring in the conversation with the
Speaker 1: customer so that when you get to those points middle
Speaker 1: towards the latter stages of the negotiation. You've got a
Speaker 1: foundation of give gets, you can't start working with which,
Speaker 1: By the way, Rachel, sometime the give gets is the
Speaker 1: process like negotiate how we're going to negotiate. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: want to make sure everybody's ready for this year end deal.
Speaker 1: I might need to negotiate access and timing on the
Speaker 1: decision process for example. So a lot to be said there,
Speaker 1: but early stage anchoring, yes, or a curse throughout? Good
Speaker 1: to have our early stage anchoring strategy. Give gets, start
Speaker 1: mapping them out and anchoring them into the conversation with
Speaker 1: customer mid stage.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And the last thing you want to happen is
Speaker 3: to end a call or leave a conversation and be like, oh,
Speaker 3: why didn't I say that? You know, backtracking kind of
Speaker 3: weakens the authority that you have in the conversation.
Speaker 1: Well, there's nothing like a plan to avoid that, right Ray.
Speaker 3: You want to perhaps so you're able to execute in
Speaker 3: the best way possible in front of your customer.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: Another positioning tactic that we teach is the importance of
Speaker 3: multiple options, giving the customer choice as it relates to
Speaker 3: their value, their outcomes, and our interests and multiple options
Speaker 3: are also a way to help you prepare and execute
Speaker 3: a great negotiation strategy.
Speaker 1: Of all the best practices we talk about, Rachel, I
Speaker 1: think this is the most powerful, underutilized concept that is
Speaker 1: out there relative to professional sales and negotiation negotiating with
Speaker 1: a customer. Multiple options. These are classically MEDTI late stage
Speaker 1: activity shaping. Multiple options The basic idea for those of
Speaker 1: you that don't recall on it, old Rachel, you'll put
Speaker 1: some links into the show or some other conversations we
Speaker 1: had on that, but multiple options is basically dispelling the
Speaker 1: myth that I'm moving towards one final proposal to a customer.
Speaker 1: What multiple options are intended to do is to present
Speaker 1: multiple pass forward to a customer framed against different business
Speaker 1: outcomes they're reaching. It's not the option one, Option two,
Speaker 1: Option three, the premium package from US, the Premium Plus package,
Speaker 1: and then the ultimate package. That's what you get at
Speaker 1: a car wash. This is not a car wash. We're
Speaker 1: dealing with more complex situations. We like to frame multiple
Speaker 1: options around things that would be motivating to the economic
Speaker 1: buyer in there. This is the low cost, maximize efficiency approach.
Speaker 1: This is the expand into new markets approach. It is
Speaker 1: the drive flexibility into our data management press, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But we're framing, building, titling these options around something that
Speaker 1: would be motivating to the economic buyer to invest in.
Speaker 1: And then below each of those branded topics, we would
Speaker 1: create a bundle of package that we believe would help
Speaker 1: them achieve that based on our discovery, based on our anchoring,
Speaker 1: probably including some give gits. But it's not just one.
Speaker 1: It might be two, it might be three. Now, the
Speaker 1: science behind using multiple options, Rachel, is I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to convince someone of everything in my one option. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to present different pass forwards so that can happen.
Speaker 1: Remember I said it was mid to late stage. I
Speaker 1: may present some directional options coming out of discovery and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I see two or three different ways we could go.
Speaker 1: Which way makes the most sense to you. I may
Speaker 1: be in a scenario, Rachel, where the technical buyer is
Speaker 1: suggesting one thing, the finance people might be suggesting something else,
Speaker 1: and the end users might be suggesting something else, and
Speaker 1: I might not know early on which is kind of
Speaker 1: the most dominant thought there. I may share some or
Speaker 1: you know, some mid stage directional options without pricing. Just
Speaker 1: say hey, we could go this way, this way, or
Speaker 1: this way, and listen to how they respond which one
Speaker 1: of those directions resonates most that I could go forward
Speaker 1: later stage, I might be presenting recommendations across two or
Speaker 1: three different outcomes they're trying to achieve and create a
Speaker 1: bundle of what goes on now. The logic of presenting
Speaker 1: multiple options, Rachel is I can say, hey, here's one right,
Speaker 1: this will meet one of your needs. The people in
Speaker 1: the technical buyers, this is what they were looking for,
Speaker 1: the finance team, they were looking for this. Here's another
Speaker 1: approach we could take. The end users they were looking
Speaker 1: for this out come. Here's another approach we could take it,
Speaker 1: and here's what goes on behind it. What we know, Rachel,
Speaker 1: is every once in a while a customers say, oh,
Speaker 1: I'll take this one. I'm the technical buyer, it's my money,
Speaker 1: we're the ones, and everybody's on board that we're going
Speaker 1: with this one. But you know what happens most often, Rachel,
Speaker 1: someone says this one over here for the technical buyer.
Speaker 1: That makes a lot of sense to me. But I
Speaker 1: do like these two things from the one you created
Speaker 1: for the finance people and their interests and I like
Speaker 1: these two things from the end user. One. What have
Speaker 1: we just done. We've opened up the door for trading.
Speaker 1: Our give gets Rachel right, and now we're trading back
Speaker 1: and forth to reach an agreement. So multiple options, Why
Speaker 1: is this part of preparation? You do not create multiple
Speaker 1: options in the moment. It's not I come up with
Speaker 1: these at the variant. You're building them again, socializing them.
Speaker 1: I like, before I present multiple options, make sure everyone
Speaker 1: internally is on board with a couple different approaches. We
Speaker 1: might need to take my champion. I like to enlist
Speaker 1: my champion and helping me frame those multiple options in
Speaker 1: the most motivating way. You know, A multiple options sometimes
Speaker 1: is aligned with one functional areas interest and I and
Speaker 1: another one but another functional areas interesting. I want my
Speaker 1: champion give me some guidance on this and then guess what.
Speaker 1: I also have to have my team being clear on
Speaker 1: what we're trying to get. So multiple options a very
Speaker 1: powerful way to design trading into the end of the
Speaker 1: negotiation process as opposed to mandates for concessions, but building
Speaker 1: them out and building them out in a way that
Speaker 1: doesn't look manipular. We've all had bad options shared with
Speaker 1: us Rachel, you can have this thing that's exactly what
Speaker 1: you want. It's a little more expensive, a little more COMPLAIX,
Speaker 1: but this is exactly what you want. Or I can
Speaker 1: sell you this other thing that by comparison won't even
Speaker 1: be close to what you're looking for, but I'm giving
Speaker 1: you a lower price option. You know it's those options
Speaker 1: appear to be manipulative, and I know as a buyer,
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to go with your high priced one. That's
Speaker 1: what you're trying to get me to do. Doesn't take
Speaker 1: a very sophisticated buyer to see through that. That's why
Speaker 1: framing the options around a viable business interests, giving them
Speaker 1: the guidance on what goes inside. It's such a better
Speaker 1: approach than saying, here's a one size fits all that
Speaker 1: I've probably inflated in the anticipation you're going to want
Speaker 1: to take things out. What I'm doing, I'm shooting myself
Speaker 1: in the foot for the future, Rachel, right design mandates
Speaker 1: for concession into the way I present my recommendation. I'd
Speaker 1: rather freate a scenario where we're trading back and forth
Speaker 1: to reach agreement. That's what multiple options do. Yeah, gotta
Speaker 1: prep them in advance. Internally, you gotta practice sharing them.
Speaker 1: You got to enable some support from champions or others,
Speaker 1: and then you've got to be able to deliver them
Speaker 1: and be able to adjust them along the way. Anchors
Speaker 1: give gits and multiple options. Guess what, By the time
Speaker 1: we get to multiple options, it's just a big old anchor.
Speaker 1: It involves a lot of back and forth, give gits,
Speaker 1: and it's a way to drive agreement towards the end.
Speaker 1: So we picked three things to talk about here. They're challenging.
Speaker 1: Can't do them in the moment, got to prepare for
Speaker 1: them in advance, be ready. But they all three intertwined
Speaker 1: with one another to really help us both create and
Speaker 1: capture value in the negotiation for both sid.
Speaker 3: That's it, And they're also good things to ask yourself
Speaker 3: as you are prepping for a conversation. Do we have
Speaker 3: our anchors or do we have our give guests? What
Speaker 3: are our anchors? How are we thinking through multiple options
Speaker 3: for them? It's good kind of gut check before your
Speaker 3: sales conversations. Three key areas of prep appreciate it, Tim.
Speaker 1: It's a team sport. Rachel, get a lot of people
Speaker 1: in the boat with you, but you should be the
Speaker 1: one guiding the whole thing. You get those three right pulls,
Speaker 1: everything else along with it.
Speaker 3: That's it, that's it, all right, Thanks again.
Speaker 1: Tim, A pleasure, Rachel. Let's go close some business.
Speaker 3: Let's close some business. Thank you. Thank you to all
Speaker 3: of you for listening to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast.
Speaker 4: At Force Management, we're focused on transforming sales organizations into
Speaker 4: elite teams. Our proven methodologies deliver programs that build company
Speaker 4: alignment and fuel repeatable revenue growth. Give your teams the
Speaker 4: ability to execute the growth strategy at the point of sale.
Speaker 4: Our strength is our experience. The proof is in our results.
Speaker 4: Let's get started. Visit us at forestmanagement dot com.
Speaker 2: You've been listening to the Audible Ready podcast. To not
Speaker 2: miss an episode, subscribe to the show in your favorite
Speaker 2: podcast player. Until next time.