Smart buyers will always ask for a better price. Unfortunately, too many sales people and business owners automatically think that reducing their price is most effective way to respond to this request.

However, negotiating is not always about price. Although price is a factor in virtually every sale it is not usually primary or motivating factor. Everything you say and do from first contact with a prospect affects value of your product or service in their mind. That’s why I believe it is important to look at negotiating process differently in order to achieve better results.

First of all, invest time gathering information about your prospective customer, his needs, situation, and buying motives. The more information you have more prepared you will be to negotiate later in sales process. Regardless of what you sell, and to whom, information will help you negotiate more effectively. Many of my clients tell me that their customers care only about price, but upon further exploration, other issues usually arise. Uncovering key issues your customer is facing is critical to your negotiating success.

The second most important step is to establish value of your product or service to your customer. Positioning is an important factor and will affect price your customer is willing to pay. What pain does your product or service eliminate? How does it solve a problem they are experiencing? How do your products and service differ from your competitors? Most of my clients sell premium products at a premium price. In exchange, their customers receive better than average service, faster response times, or higher quality products. What is your leverage and how can you use it to increase value of what you sell?

You have executed above steps but price is still an issue for your customer. What do you do now? Instead of conceding to their request and giving them a discount, focus on creating a trade. This means you should ask for something in exchange for making a concession. What can you trade or ask for? Almost anything!

What’s difference between bullying and coaching? This was one of questions that ran through our mind when we were talking about Dave.

Coaching, for us, is making people do what they don’t necessarily want to do in order to achieve, to be successful.

But for Dave, success does not come naturally. We are all lazy and basically don’t want to work anyway. He believes we especially don’t want to work hard. We don’t like pain, psychological or physical, and therefore, he believes, unless he’s there giving people a good kick up backside nothing happens. He accepts sales targets from CEO and team have to deliver on them. To him personal bests are there to be broken. Its about breaking sales records. Hitting sales targets. Getting bonuses. If your personal best is below target then improve. Try harder. He only sees potential in sales force and gets really, really irritable and frustrated when they don’t respond. He really cares about business and individuals. He just hates watching talent being wasted.

Dave also believes success in sales is a direct reflection of amount of work that has been put in before event. There is no point is setting out to achieve leading edge targets if you don’t put work in on each individual before hand. Dave sees his job as motivating others to excel. People like Mike. Mike has plenty of talent. He oozes talent but he seems to stop short of full implementation. He talks a good story, has a lot of promise but appears to rest on what he has done. Capable but……stuck in groove. Like a number of us, Mike has worked out what worked for him in past and keeps replicating it. Yes, he always hits his sales target. But only just and Dave feels he has so much to offer. So much more talent. His talent is being wasted in Dave’s eyes.