Best of Miller Heiman Sales Performance Tips Negotiate

Best of Miller Heiman Sales Performance Tips
Negotiating Strategies That Work
CONTENTS
Introduction........................................................................ 2 How to be a More Successful Negotiator.......................... 2 Boost Sales Results with Continuous Negotiations........... 3 Critical Negotiating Strategies Help You Close Deals....... 3 Uncover Interests and Negotiate Success........................ 5 Generate Options.............................................................. 6 About Miller Heiman.......................................................... 6
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Introduction
At Miller Heiman, we understand that complex sales situations must be navigated by salespeople who know how to successfully handle every challenge from overcoming objections in difficult negotiation scenarios to achieving win-win solutions that fit both parties interests and needs. This paper includes four articles that address the negotiating challenges faced by sales professionals: How to be a More Successful Negotiator. While there are a number of approaches used by salespeople, successful negotiators share some essential fundamentals. Boost Sales Results with Continuous Negotiations. Traditional thinking views negotiations as a single event, which occurs at the end of a sales cycle. First you sell, and then you negotiate. In reality, there are many small negotiations that occur throughout the sales cycle. Critical Negotiating Strategies Help You Close Deals. The number one reason that you want to be an effective negotiator is to close more deals. Here are five strategies to get this done. Uncover Interests and Negotiate Success. Its our true interests within negotiations that drive our demands and positions. In sales, this is especially true. Your job is to find out what these interests are.
How to be a More Successful Negotiator

While there are a number of approaches used by salespeople, successful negotiators share some essential fundamentals. Do your homework. Understand the subject and the people. Successful negotiators know the pertinent facts and relevant data. They also have a good sense of the customers with whom they are negotiating. Successful negotiators have a learning mindset -- they are continually curious and open to new insight. Never forget the needs. Good negotiators focus on their own and their clients interests, as well as diligently maintaining relevant standards and benchmarks. They are especially attuned to the common ground issues among the parties and to the needs that could potentially derail the negotiation. These negotiators also remember the organizational and individual needs of their customer. Know when to walk. Effective negotiators are prepared to walk away from a negotiation if necessary. They realize they do not have to be held hostage by the other side. In order to be prepared, they spend time understanding and developing the point at which theyd walk away. Brainstorm solutions continually. Such negotiators
constantly come up with ideas that satisfy all parties by providing high value to them. This perspective is very much about creative problem solving rather than an us vs. them mindset. Leverage a collaborative approach. Rather than trying to force an agreement on the customer, successful negotiators work jointly with their accounts to look at the constructs of wise agreements. Too many agreements fall apart due to ambiguity or confusion. Excellent negotiations ensure that the agreement reflects what was actually agreed upon, and helps rather than hinders implementation. As salespeople, its important to recognize that the agreement is not the goal. The goal is to produce results from the agreement that are so critical to building long-lasting customer relationships. Another goal is to be perceived as a value creator, not just a value communicator.
Traditional thinking views negotiations as a single event, which occurs at the end of a sales cycle. First you sell, and then you negotiate. In reality, there are many small negotiations that occur throughout the sales cycle. If you can anticipate and prepare for these continuous negotiations, youll put yourself at a strategic advantage. Think of continuous negotiations as ways to explore and understand each others interests. This problem-solving approach works well to overcome hesitation in the sale, to redirect misguided customer perceptions, and to create new solutions. These frequent negotiations can also help you persuade and influence the decisions of your buyers, resulting in important wins throughout the sale that strengthen your position and credibility. The next time you talk with your customers, think about how you can uncover important information to help you understand their real interests and priorities. By leveraging effective negotiation
Boost Sales Results with Continuous Negotiations

In a complex selling environment, you must negotiate for better business relationships, improved communication, much-needed appointments, and access to high-level decisions makers. While you may only negotiate contracts a few times a year, you are negotiating every day as part of your sales process.
activities throughout the sales process, youll end up with a more positive customer relationship that enables you both to enjoy a bigger piece of the pie.
Critical Negotiating Strategies Help You Close Deals

Being an effective negotiator means overcoming two of your biggest challenges: finding the right balance
of what to give and get in order to achieve a win-win, and making sure you reveal critical information from your customer. Key Steps to Effective Negotiating 1) Identify the subjective interests in the sale. Be very specific. Start by writing down your customers key motivators, interests and drivers. These are personal wins. You may not know all of them, but go ahead and write down what you think. You can confirm it later with your customer. Next to that, write down your own interests in the sale. What motivates you? 2) Define objective criteria. What are the measurable results that your customer wants to get out of the sale? What are the results that you want? How compatible are these to each other? 3) Options and alternatives. Really consider what options are already on the table, and what the alternatives would be if the agreement didnt happen. Youll want to analyze these because if alternatives look enticing enough to the customer, they wont be motivated to move ahead with you. Your job is to make the agreement so enticing that the alternatives arent an option for the customer.
4) Find out more from your customer. Youll want to use the lists you created above as a guide to developing the questions youll ask your customer. These questions should aim to confirm or deny your hypotheses about where your customer is coming from. Many times, the objective criteria are more obvious, so you may want to focus on better understanding your customers subjective interests. What personal gains or losses will they experience as a result of this agreement? As you discover more information, you can write this down next to the information you already know to have a more complete picture of both your customers situation as well as your own. 5) Decide what information to give ahead of time. Review the information from steps 1-3. What information would be helpful to reveal to your customer? Which information should you not disclose? Most often, the subjective interests are the most compelling to share and the least threatening. This can also really help your customer understand your position so that you can achieve a solution that will benefit you just as much as your customer. Understanding the hidden motivators of your customer will enable you to really connect with what your customer truly wants to achieve. This information also enables you to develop additional options and solutions that will benefit the customer
both personally, and for his or her business.
2. Generate creative options based on these interests.
Uncover Interests and Negotiate Success

To illustrate the importance of negotiations, a colleague recently shared an experience from his childhood. His mother had just served chocolate cake following family dinner. In the kitchen, there was one slice left on the counter. Our colleague and his young sister headed straight to the kitchen to claim the last slice. One grabbed the plate. The other took hold of the opposite side and started tugging. Back and forth, back and forth all of a sudden, the cake fell flat on the floor! With neither able to enjoy the last slice, they grudgingly began cleaning the mess they had created. Wiping the floor clean, one looked up and said to the other, I cant believe you wasted the frosting. Frosting! I hate the frosting. All I wanted was the cake! The moral of this story? Its our true interests within negotiations that drive our demands and positions. In sales, this is especially true. Your job is to find out what these interests are. In order to achieve a winning result in your negotiations, focus on these two key areas: 1. Identify the interests of each party behind their positions.
In the illustration above, both children had underlying interests in their argument. One was simply interested in eating the frosting. The other: the cake. If they had brought those interests forward beforehand, they wouldnt have lost the cake on the floor. Instead, they both could have gotten exactly what they really wanted! Identifying the Interests Many times salespeople mistakenly focus their negotiations strategy on the positions instead of the interests of their customers. Positions are rigid demands fixed on a single option. They prohibit creativity when trying to come to an agreement because they are narrowly focused. For example, a position is I refuse to pay that price. Interests are the motivators and drivers that underlie positions in a negotiation. They can include hopes, fears, desires, or concerns of an individual. Interests can be aligned with the organizational wins as well. The next time youre negotiating, make sure you go beyond listening to your customers positions. Ask why questions to uncover the hidden drivers that your customers may not always volunteer. Why do
they want a lower price? Why are they threatening to go with another vendor?
About Miller Heiman

Miller Heiman has been a thought leader and innovator in the sales arena for almost thirty years, helping clients worldwide win high-value complex deals, grow key accounts and build winning sales organizations. The company is headquartered in Reno, Nevada and has offices around the world. More information
Generate Options
Generate creative options that focus on the underlying interests. These options will be more valuable to your customer because theyre aligned with your customers true motivations. By focusing your negotiation strategies on the interests of your customer (and your own organization), you will not only negotiate successful agreements that will not leave money on the table, but you will develop a solution where both parties walk away with a winning result.
can be obtained by visiting the companys website at: www.millerheiman.com.
Note: These recommendations are based on Miller Heimans Negotiate SuccessSM workshop. This workshop provides sales professionals a straightforward process for effective negotiations in any customer situation. You may visit www.millerheiman. com/publications and subscribe to receive Sales Performance Tips each month via email. You may also call 877-678-0391 to speak with an expert.

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Best of Miller Heiman Sales Performance Tips

Negotiating Strategies That Work

Miller Heiman, Inc. All Rights Reserved