How many times have you heard: * "You've got to drop your price by 10% or we will have no choice but to go with your competition."
* "You will have to make an exception to your policy if you want our business."
* "I know that you have good quality and service, but so do your competitors. What we need to focus on here is your pricing."
* "I agree that those special services you keep bringing up would be nice, but we simply don't have
funds to purchase them. Could you include them at no additional cost?"
Every time you hear statements like these, you're in middle of a difficult sales negotiation. How you handle that negotiation will determine whether or not you close sale and how profitable that sale will be. In order to give you a real edge every time, I have listed below some key points taken from my sales negotiation training program.
Don't Believe Everything You See and Hear
Part of a good salesperson's skill is to learn to read people and situations very quickly. However, when it gets down to negotiating, you have to take everything you see and hear with a grain of salt. Buyers are good negotiators, and thus they are good actors. You may be only person who has what she needs, but everything she does and says, from body language to words she uses, will be designed to lead you to believe that unless she gets an extra 10% off, she's going with competition. Be skeptical. Be suspicious. Test, probe, and see what happens.
Don't Offer Your Bottom Line Early in Negotiation
How many times have you been asked to "give me your best price"? Have you ever given your best price only to discover that buyer still wanted more? You have to play game. It's expected. If you could drop your price by 10%, start out with 0%, or 2%, or 4%. Leave yourself room to negotiate some more. Who knows - you may get it for a 2% reduction. You might have to go all way to 10%, but often you won't. A little stubbornness pays big dividends.
Get Something in Return for Your Added Value
What if you discover that buyer wants to be able to track his expenditures for your products or services in a way that is far more detailed and complex than is standard for your industry? What if your account tracking system is set up in a way that you can provide that information at essentially no cost to you? Often salesperson's overwhelming temptation is to jump in and say, "Oh, we can do that. That's no problem." Before you do, however, think about your options. You could throw it in as part of package and try to build good will. Or you could take a deep breath and try something like, "That's a difficult problem that will require some effort on our part, but it's doable." In second case, without committing, you've told buyer it is possible. You may not be able to get him to pay extra for it but you may be able to use it as a bargaining chip in resisting price concessions. Which way you choose to go will depend on who your customer is and on situation. However, you do have options.
