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.
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.