Since objections are a natural part of the B2B sales process, it is essential that sales professionals acquire good negotiation skills to close more deals on time that are favorable to both themselves and clients. Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase Associates (SterlingChase.com) says in order to achieve such a win-win position when negotiating it is essential to:
• Sell your own position in the context of what drive your client.
• Regard the negotiation of commercial terms as a key element of the sales process and not simply as an afterthought.
Eungblut teaches a five-stage methodology that he calls “Negotiating from the Left.” The first three stages represent the client’s world (on the left) while the final two stages represent the seller’s position (on the right).
1. Your opponent’s drivers for change
The first stage involves agreeing with the client about the pressures they face to deliver a solution. It helps if these are external pressures outside of the buying organization’s control. This is a crucial aspect of leading the sales process and is critical to improving negotiation skills. If you’re selling a compliance solution to enable your client to respond to a new piece of legislation, for instance, you need to convince and agree with them that the legislation will happen and that it must be responded to.
2. The the cost of failing to respond
You need to discuss the implications (i.e. costs) of failing to respond to the pressures for change to create urgency on the buyer’s behalf. You should agree what the implications of failure to comply with the legislation will be (in terms of cost) before setting out your offer and your own commercial position.
3. Desire and need for improvement
The third stage represents the desires and needs of the client for improvement (and the priorities of these desires and needs). This must be in the context of the external pressures they are experiencing. If a new piece of legislation is threatening to make your client in the negotiation non-compliant, you need to agree not only the implications of failure to respond, but also the desired benefits of the solution which you are proposing.
4. Added value
Taking the above example further, if you have unique added value and a solution that can make your customer compliant, you can estimate the value of your solution to the customer and the pressure on them to select, buy and implement the solution in time. Always know your value and always know the pressure on the client to act and the pain of not responding to that pressure in good time.
5. Your desired outcome or position
The final stage involves pioneering your own desired outcome or position. If you introduce your own position earlier or you open the discussion by setting out your own demands, it is highly possible that you will completely negate all the sales efforts that have gone beforehand and the whole negotiation process may simply become a head-butting exercise. The conversation is likely to quickly descend into a “what you want” versus “what they want” situation and might become a battle of egos. This will not lead to a win-win position.
To significantly increase your chances of negotiating a beneficial deal, you have to present your case from the perspective of the other person (i.e. the client’s world) and “Negotiate from the Left.”
