Sales negotiations are very costly for an organization. Too often sales people give away concessions, lower prices to win opportunities, and give in too early and often when it comes to gaining new business. During training, I often hear, “It seems like a majority of our prospective clients expect us to negotiate with them.”
And the answer is simple. The challenges your sales force experiences today were created by previous poor salespeople.
Are your prospective clients waiting until the end of the month or quarter to buy?
Market share and monthly numbers caused weak salespeople to chase people at the end of the month so they could discount and win the business.
Do your prospective clients assume negotiations will happen at the end no matter what?
Weak sales people are also at fault here for caving-in to win the opportunity to avoid wasting all of the company resources that went into ‘winning’ the business.
If your organization wants to sharpen your sales force’s negotiation skills, you are working on the wrong end of the problem.
- Could the main reason your salespeople are continually stuck in the negotiation trap be their inability to find true, compelling reasons from the prospective client?
- Could it be that they are rushing to get to the end and true value as not been established?
- Could they be stuck in the old school “needs analysis” way of selling, and they blend in like everyone else?
- Could it be they just don’t know how to get answers as to why a prospect would be open to change, why they would be open to changing now, and why they would change/hire your organization?
Next time your organization is discussing how your sales team needs to learn how to negotiate effectively, take a step back and determine if this is the real challenge. 75% of the time it isn’t. Instead focus on gaining clarity to the questions above, and you’ll move from negotiating to true selling, and both parties will win in the end.
