What You Can Learn From the Rolling Stones about Win-Win Negotiations Mick Jagger got it right when he wrote "You can’t always get what you want." You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need. Win-win negotiations are where both parties to the negotiation walk away satisfied. They have each gotten something they can live with. They can go back to their bosses, their boards of directors, their stockholders, their union membership, their government, their constituents, and all other stakeholders and report "we were successful." Win-win negotiations leave each side with a good taste in their mouths and with good opinions of the process and the result. Each side will want to deal with the other party in the future. Though this article focuses on selling, negotiations can run all the way up to meetings to end or prevent a war. Other terms for win-win negotiations are "consultative negotiations" (because the sides are, or should be, consulting with each other) and "mutual accommodation" (because each side’s needs are accommodated). For negotiations to work and not create more problems, each side has to get something. Otherwise, the "losing" side feels cheated and will likely be out for revenge. Winning too much is not necessarily winning when the winner makes an enemy. When the Western Allies forced the defeated Germans to accept the Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I (which began 100 years ago this July), they not only did not get the lasting peace they so desperately needed, they got a Germany out for revenge. With the German effort at revenge, World War II, the 1945 surrender and the 1951 peace settlement formally ended the war and gave at least the western part of Germany protection from the Soviet Union and put it on the road to becoming a strong industrial democracy. The Germans got something. Negotiations are best defined as two parties getting together to reach their goals. In the overall sales process, they are when the potential seller and the potential buyer get together to come up with terms for the sale. To a great extent, the sale has already been made by the time negotiations begin. The buyer has already checked out the seller.  The buyer knows, or feels strongly, that the seller will provide a satisfactory product and service for the product. What remains for the buyer is to get a satisfactory price, satisfactory payment terms, and a satisfactory schedule for delivery of the product or service. The seller already has determined that the buyer is a good market for the product or service. The seller wants to ensure, bluntly, that they are not losing money on the deal — through bad pricing, bad payment terms, or bad delivery schedules. Both sides want something. The first thing they want is mutual confidence. If this is not the first deal between the buyer and the seller, the confidence likely already exists. If not, the negotiations are probably not even taking place. The best way to build confidence, to try and start off on win-win footing, is to show a reasonable approach to the process from the start. You both want something and want the deal to work. You are there to determine how to make it work. If you detect that your counterpart is what we call an "adversarial" negotiator — out for victory at all costs — than you should consider calling off the negotiations, at least for a while. (More in a future column on how to handle this type of negotiator.) Negotiators should not leave money on the table, but you won’t want to take current money at the expense of future money. As a win-win negotiator, you want to do all you can to avoiding having your counterpart walk away feeling cheated. This is especially important if you might want to do future business with the other person and want to preserve a reputation for fairness — another good way to stand out from the competition. You do this by understanding what the other guy wants and what he or she brings to the table. You walk a mile in the other man’s, or woman’s, shoes. —————————- April Feature: Insurance Industry Specific Sales Training - Click here to learn more. The post What You Can Learn From the Rolling Stones about Win-Win Negotiations appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Optimizing Your Time for Less Painful Prospecting Activities Prospecting is one of those activities that you either love or hate. For most people in sales, it’s unavoidable. Those who hate it generally suffer from "prospecting procrastination," which is when a person will seek out any kind of busy work in an effort to put off and avoid the dreaded task. Perhaps it is loathed because it rarely (if ever) yields immediate gratification. Others can’t handle the hang-ups and rejection. Whatever the reason, sales reps must realize the importance of prospecting to building and sustaining a pipeline that will pay off down the road — depending on your sales cycle length. Whether you’re gung-ho or reluctant, when you dedicate time to prospecting, you want to choose prospecting activities that will give you the greatest payoff. The best way to start is to view the world from your prospect’s perspective. Put yourself in their shoes to see just how likely you would be to respond to your own inquiry. Making Quota: What’s Your Number? There are few if any sales reps that don’t have some target to achieve. If you’re going to make your quota, then you need to critically and objectively examine your pipeline from start to finish to determine how many prospecting calls eventually lead to sales. Consider these broad steps: w number of calls generates x number of leads which leads to y number of opportunities and z number of sales Of course, some have the benefit of marketing teams to help generate leads and opportunities. Whether you’re dialing yourself or receiving leads, you need to know how much pipeline you need to generate yourself in order to hit your number. Get Your Timing Right The next factor to consider is timing. You could have the best pitch for the best product at a perfect price. If your timing is off, your prospect might not only turn a deaf ear, but you could turn them off completely. When is your prospect most likely to respond to you? Getting the timing of your calls right by better aligning your prospecting activities with your target’s likelihood to take your calls will help improve your efficiency and productivity. The nuances of timing can be examined by the hour of the day, the day of the month, or the month of the year. As an example, imagine your prospect is a CFO. Most CFOs have intense time pressures to close the books at the end of each month, quarter, and fiscal year. They also have tax season to contend with (which is pretty predictable), as well as audits. During these times, they probably won’t be very responsive to you — they’re just too busy. However, they do have planning and budgeting seasons when they are more likely to be thinking about the investments they need to make and plan for the following year. You want to be planting the seeds leading up to those periods so that you have sufficient time to make your pitch, hopefully sell your product or service, and have it purchased and in place — ready to use when their cycle calls for it. The bottom line is to realize that this is about them, not you, so choose your time wisely, and balance your message to fit their business cycle. Modes of Prospecting Once you have your timing down, you next must think about how your prospects prefer to communicate. There is no shortage of ways to reach someone these days, which makes it more challenging than ever since each person is different. Here are common ways to consider connecting with your prospects: E-mail/Desktop — A more formal approach that lends itself to long and detailed messages; many people want a paper trail and thus everything in writing. E-mail/Mobile — If your prospects are always on the go, they likely skim their e-mails on their phone, which isn’t a great medium for lengthy messages. Your e-mail might be scanned quickly, in which case, the prospect could overlook a key point. It is also likely to generate quick, terse responses. Phone — If you’re a charmer, then this is the best way to get your charm across. Once on the line, you have less than 90 seconds to make your mark, so be prepared. Administrative Assistant — Some prospects require that you pass through these staunch gatekeepers, which can again be a target of your charm. (But remember, this isn’t Mad Men!) Will you sound like someone their boss wants to do business with or just another cold caller to ignore? Voice Mail — Some prospects never answer their phone, so practice the art of leaving a poignant, not rambling, voice mail, and promise to follow up by email if possible. Make it as easy as possible for them. LinkedIn — If you’re active in LinkedIn groups and discussions, connecting with a prospect that way or through common connections can be fruitful; it’s always best to have an introduction whenever possible. Social Media — This can be tricky, but it isn’t unheard of. Like LinkedIn above, having someone else help broker the connection is better than reaching out cold, which is likely to be ignored (or viewed as creepy). Live Events — Pressing the flesh is still a great way to stay connected and look for prospects. There are plenty of networking opportunities, happy hours, conferences, alumni gatherings, and other events at which to meet people to find out first-hand what’s on their minds. You could try some or all of these tactics. What’s most important is that you once again walk in your prospect’s shoes (like the CFO we talked about earlier). How do they prefer to communicate? Is there a combination approach that you should try, such as an e-mail followed by a phone call (or vice versa)? The big takeaway is that you need to align your time and prospecting activities with your prospect’s behavior. This often takes trial and error to refine and optimize. I encourage you to initiate a process, test and track your results, and then revise your process based on what you’ve learned. Prospecting Skills and Personalization With prospecting, time and brevity rule. You need to communicate a crisp, clearly spoken value proposition in less than 90 seconds. Similarly, any prospecting e-mail that you write needs to be easily understood and answered with a simple "yes" or "no." Many sales reps fail to personalize the value proposition for each prospect, but it’s a critical step that can either get the conversation you seek or send you scurrying back to your prospect list. This is especially true for e-mail. We’re all so inundated with e-mail that I call it "Death by content marketing." I can see right through a bulk message - I have no interest in it whatsoever. The same can be said of cold callers who are clearly in over their heads and haven’t spent even three minutes researching me or my company. It doesn’t take much to engage them for a moment just to point out how hopelessly unprepared they are. Your value proposition must demonstrate clear and compelling value for me to meet with you. As with most things in life that are worthwhile, building these skills requires you to test, practice, and revise in order to perfect them. Prospecting is vital to the sales process. There are lazy spray-and-pray approaches that can make you look busy, but the best outcomes are most often the result of careful preparation and execution on the part of the sales rep — even ones who start the prospecting process reluctantly. The post Optimizing Your Time for Less Painful Prospecting Activities appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Consultative Negotiations: Why Not Just Split Things Down the Middle? Compromise is a much-heard term these days, particularly with what is going on in the world these days. Politics is said to be the art of the possible. We get the two sides with positions seemingly set in stone. They should compromise; they should split the difference. This forgets that effective policy is frequently not splitting the difference but is rather taking ideas from both sides and mixing them into a better whole. Compromise is creating a third position, not split things down the middle. Both sides seem unhappy at first but will eventually realize that all have benefited. Sometimes, compromise is just not possible. You have to stand pat. You have to realize that you might be facing a situation where half a loaf is not better than no loaf at all. In the business world, as in the political world, sometimes, things can be split down the middle or at least compromised. Often, this means splitting the whole package, not just the cost. Any business purchase includes price, but it also includes delivery time, payment terms, and scope of offering. These may be easier areas in which to make concessions. During the negotiations process, your counterpart’s position on various issues (demands is the best way to put it) may be asking for things greater than he or she really needs, either as a negotiating ploy or because he or she does not really know what they want. If you immediately consider seeking a quick agreement by splitting things down the middle, you may end up quite unhappy with the result, perhaps bitter enough to make it hard to work together again with this customer. This is also assuming you have not offered set positions yourself, which are negotiating ploys rather than what you are prepared to accept. This is adversarial negotiation, not the more effective consultative negotiation. For most people, this is playing the other person’s game, letting him or her choose the battlefield. So, find out what the other person really needs. Use your preliminary "due diligence" research and questions during negotiations to cut through your counterpart’s apparent position to find the core of real need. Unless you can uncover needs, you risk having your negotiation deteriorate into haggling. The key to a successful win-win negotiation is to find out what the other party really needs: that is, what is motivating his or her demand. If you negotiate demands, you will often find yourself "splitting the difference" while not splitting the real difference. Suppose you work for a bank. Suppose that you and your customer disagree on rate. If your real needs are risk reduction and spread, and your customer’s real need is managing cash flow to meet a pay schedule, you probably can reach an agreement much more easily by looking at alternatives to satisfy those needs rather than by arguing percentage points. For example, you may consider trade-off items such as liquid collateral, marketable securities, guarantees, or add-on business — all of which can help you achieve your yield and give the other party what he or she needs. Unless you identify needs, you may find that splitting the difference will be a knee-jerk reaction. You may also find that you left money on the table because you didn’t take all of the elements of the deal into consideration. Avoid becoming glued to positions and blind to opportunities. Ask ,"Why?" and think, "What if?" before and during the negotiation. In the short story "Gift of the Magi," by O. Henry, the wife cuts her hair to sell to buy her husband a watch fob, and her husband sells his watch to buy her a comb. Their failure to communicate led to unnecessary sacrifice on both sides. If this happens to you, you won’t even have the consolation of a story of real love and sacrifice. —————————————————————— To learn more about Richardson’s comprehensive and award winning negotiation training solutions, please click here. You can also download a brochure by clicking here .    The post Consultative Negotiations: Why Not Just Split Things Down the Middle? appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

"Just Say No!" Do Your Job, Not Someone Else’s You have a job to do. Most people are (or complain about being) overworked to some degree and are not looking for more to do. Yet, we often let ourselves get dragged into situations that distract from our primary responsibilities and fill up our calendars needlessly. What might seem like a harmless request ("Hey, Joe, do you have a minute?") can quickly turn out to be a horrible drain on your time, energy, and productivity. The situation is often a conundrum: If you say no, you’re being a selfish jerk who’s not a team player. But, if you say yes, then you can become an abused door mat. The trick is to avoid those situations in the first place. In sales, a prime area where you’re at great risk of getting sucked in occurs with customer service issues. There are typically customer service reps whose job it is to answer questions and concerns. But once you get involved, it can be difficult to extricate yourself without a mess. Your kind offer to help could snowball into clients sidestepping customer service reps and calling you directly as their personal go-to person. The longer that persists, the more difficult it can be to say, "That’s not my job." It’s pretty much like walking in quicksand. Sales managers in particular must be diligent to manage the team and not take on special cases. There is often an urge to be a "super rep" as opposed to a manager or coach, which doesn’t work well. Sales managers should resist the temptation to take over and should position sales reps to lead. If you attend a sales meeting with clients or prospects, be very clear about why you’re there and that your sales reps will take the lead going forward. Otherwise, once they see you, they’ll expect you to remain involved and see the project through to completion. Being one of those über helpful people who can’t say no can limit your career. Your core job can suffer if you succumb to too many distractions. Good intentions don’t count — people will notice when your job doesn’t get done. Some people thrive on chaos and having lots on the go. Like empty nesters, they don’t know what to do with themselves when the distractions are gone. How about focusing on your core job? No one will feel bad for a workplace martyr who takes on too much or likes to get involved. Are there exceptions? Yes, such as requests to help with internal development projects, which might legitimately require your expertise to contribute to something strategic for the team or organization. But in these cases, you should have the approval of your boss and know when a conflict for your time comes up and which project takes priority. Five Questions to Consider before You Say Yes to Non-core Work You need to use good judgment when deciding (or reluctantly agreeing) to venture outside your core responsibilities. Here are five questions to consider when faced with helping someone else or saying "no." 1. Are you better off coaching? Yes, it’s often easier to do something yourself rather than take the time to teach or coach someone else. But in doing so, you’re enabling them and holding them back while allowing yourself to be distracted. Such simple requests can lead to a Groundhog Day scenario that can be difficult to escape from. Look for opportunities to coach and develop others rather than doing things yourself. 2. Will your primary accountabilities suffer? Before you say yes to someone else, consider whether or not your own assignments, commitments, and goals can still get done on time and with the same attention to detail. You’ll not likely get forgiveness if you fail to achieve your targets, so be wary of nonessential tasks and requests that can hurt your performance, productivity, reputation, and rewards. 3. How will this affect your impact on the business? In addition to the previous question, there’s a larger aspect to ponder: Where is your time best spent? There may come a time when someone needs your help on something that contributes to the greater good of the team or company than you currently provide. And, the help you provide could be a stepping stone toward a promotion or broader responsibilities. If you think there’s a case to be made for saying yes, then talk about it with your manager to make it official. 4. Do you have an exit strategy? The famous quote from Al Pacino in The Godfather: Part III comes to mind: "Just when I thought that I was out, they pull me back in!" Before saying yes, be very clear about how much you are willing to do or for how long. "I’ll listen in on the call or attend the meeting so I can give you my honest assessment of the situation, but don’t expect to staff me on the project or attend future meetings." 5. Will you get credit, recognition, or a reward for this extracurricular work? Suppose you do have time, can help, and are successful in balancing your own work and that which you’ve been asked to pitch in on. A one-time favor is one thing, but when it becomes a habit, you’ll regret not being rewarded or recognized for your efforts. If it’s something you truly want to do, then work out a change with your manager wherein you take on the additional responsibilities and are paid for them. If you don’t, you’ll likely feel abused and undervalued, which hurts your attitude and performance. —————————- April Feature: Sales Training for the Insurance Industry - Click here to learn more. The post "Just Say No!" Do Your Job, Not Someone Else’s appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Communicating and Selling Value: Why a Strong Offense is the Best Defense Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have begun a Cloud Price War. How will you respond? I recently wrote about the need for a "heads up" approach to managing and leading. Fortunately for me (but unfortunately for many), recent headlines about a shakeup in the technology space provide a great example of why it’s so important to look up and look around. Game-changing Situations There are some Cinderella stories about smaller startups being bought by Facebook or Google for a bazillion dollars, making a few people instant millionaires. For example, Facebook recently acquired WhatsApp, a company with estimated 2013 revenue of only $20 million and 55 employees, for an astonishing $19 billion! Party time! The other scenario that’s far more threatening is when one of these behemoth companies decides to disrupt the market by altering the scope of their services or price. What happens to the other companies (most of them smaller) operating comfortably in the same space? That’s what’s happening in the cloud computing and storage space: Google Announces Massive Price Drops For Its Cloud Computing Services And Storage, Introduces Sustained-Use Discounts (TechCrunch.com, March 25, 2014) Microsoft Joins Amazon and Google in Cloud Price War (Recode.net, March 31, 2014) Cloud computing has blossomed in recent years and will likely continue to do so. But can the many companies that have been providing this service survive this sudden game-changing price move by the heavyweights? The tale is familiar for some. Remember West Coast Video and Blockbuster? They had cushy businesses until VHS tapes gave way to DVDs, which merely forced those companies to change their products. But Netflix changed the business model and looked like a champ for a while until they almost got caught napping with competing streaming services. (I’d say they picked their heads up just in time to notice the threat and react.) The story isn’t finished here and continues to force companies in the space to stay one step ahead of the others to avoid falling behind and becoming old and obsolete. Contracts Won’t Save You Sooner or later, cloud computing clients will begin to question why they should stay with their current provider instead of taking advantage of cheaper offerings by Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. And why shouldn’t they ask? Even happy customers need to reevaluate their service providers to keep them honest and attentive. It never hurts to shop the competition’s offering to either feel better about your current situation or make a change. If your business runs on contractual agreements with your clients, you may be initially immune to big swings in your sector. But once those contracts begin to expire, you’ll be hard pressed to justify charging more (or the same if your peers are charging less). The key is to get out in front of a big story like this before your clients come knocking and expecting not only an explanation, but a discounted rate. Being proactive will give you a fighting chance, but what should you say? Articulating Your Value: A Strong Offense is the Only Defense Few businesses can rely on price as a successful long-term go-to-market strategy. Yes, there’s always an expensive option sold at a premium that’s counterbalanced by a bargain basement-priced discounted offering. But anyone who believes that you get what you pay for will likely look higher up the food chain. Before you fall victim to a cloud war discount scenario for your business, you must realize that there’s more to value than the price of your product or service. Especially if you’re smaller than your larger competitors or leading brands, you need to articulate the value you provide, not just, "we’re cheaper!" How are you communicating and selling value? What value do you provide? Here are a few suggestions: 1. Measuring value delivered to the customer. You must be prepared to quantify the value you are delivering to your customer. This requires you to develop a simple but meaningful measurement approach and adopt the discipline to measure your impact on the customer’s business. This requires you to understand what’s important to the customer, how they define and measure success, and when necessary, educating them on how to measure success. But measuring value is not enough. You need to communicate that value to the customer on a regular basis to ensure that they appreciate and buy into the value you are adding. This discipline gives you the opportunity to determine if your solution is working as expected, and if it’s not, it then gives you insight into how to correct course. 2. Capabilities and differentiators. Take a dispassionate view of your business’ capabilities and differentiators. What makes your offering different than everyone else’s, and why is this important to the customer? Examine your product lifecycle from concept through delivery to identify capabilities to highlight. Examples include ingredients, manufacturing, processes, warranty, customer service, performance, security, organic, locally sourced and manufactured, imported, talent, size, and scope (broad or narrow). The list can become quite lengthy. It is important to know what makes the most difference to why buyers will select you and how they’ll benefit from your offering. 3. What do others say about you? There is considerable insight to be gained by talking to others about what makes your company. Even if your assumptions are accurate, most people will still appreciate that you’ve asked for their opinions. Long-term customers, satisfied customers. It’s amazing how few companies take time to talk to their clients. Find out what they like about your product or service. What keeps them coming back? What do they see as the key benefits? Your assumptions could be wrong, which makes it worth asking. New clients from recent wins. When you’ve closed a deal for which you had to compete, it can be quite enlightening to know the reason you were chosen. It might be obvious, but there may be some surprises for you to further explore and leverage. Interview employees who used to work for your competitors. These people have a unique perspective that could help you to differentiate you from your peers. Without breaching any confidentiality or non-compete agreements, there is likely much to learn about the value you provide. Glowing reviews and case studies. If someone is willing to provide good feedback about their experience working with you, don’t keep it a secret!  Use it. 4. Claims. What can you say about your capabilities that will help you stand apart and tell your story, and why are these important to the customer? "We were first." "We took their idea a step further and improved upon it." "This has been our core business for decades." "We have a more efficient process and can therefore deliver the same (or better) product sooner/cheaper with a faster up time." It should go without saying, but be sure that you can substantiate any claims you make. Nothing is worse than undercutting your own credibility by making false claims. These statements should help you tell your story — one that is factual, not fiction. 5. Educate your salesforce. The final step is to ensure that your sales reps know the story to tell and can represent your business in a manner that highlights the true value you provide. Hone the messages and sharpen the delivery, but also, train your sales reps to listen for feedback that could impact perceived values (either positively or negatively). —————————- April Feature: Sales Training for the Insurance Industry - Click here to learn more. The post Communicating and Selling Value: Why a Strong Offense is the Best Defense appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Richardson Partners with SAVO to Maximize Sales Training Investments Richardson is very excited to formally announce a partnership with SAVO, the market leader in sales enablement. Together, the two companies have developed SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. Integrating seamlessly with CRM solutions, the application helps to improve productivity and sales forecasts and ensure overall deal quality. Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition gives companies an edge by systematically reinforcing Richardson’s methodology and training solutions. By automating and aggregating sales pursuit activities, such as opportunity planning and account mapping, the application enables sellers and holds them accountable for verifiable outcomes at each stage of an opportunity. Through integration with CRM and robust analytics, Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition also provides sales leaders with better forecast accuracy and real-time visibility into seller behavior and deal quality. Specifically, the solution will: Guide best practice adherence and consistent sales execution — Coach sales reps and prescribe activities by deal stage to reinforce best practice sales methodologies and processes. Improve seller productivity and efficiency — Automate and aggregate sales pursuit activities, such as opportunity planning, account mapping, social intelligence and collaboration, on any device. Drive forecast accuracy and deal quality — Hold sellers accountable for satisfying verifiable outcomes at each deal stage tracked in the application and CRM system to give sales leaders visibility into deal progress and overall quality. "We are extremely excited about working with a leading sales enablement company like SAVO to optimize and sustain Richardson’s sales training solutions," said Dario Priolo, Chief Strategy Officer for Richardson. "Today, companies are spending millions on sales methodologies, processes and skills training yet the average sales rep forgets 87 percent of what they learned in training just three months ago without continuous reinforcement. Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition is designed to help our clients drive consistency in sales execution through reinforcement with technology and coaching — at the right time and in the right context for sales reps." "The combination of SAVO’s market-leading sales enablement solutions and Richardson’s award-winning sales process, methodology, and skills training offerings is a game changer," said Daniel West, Executive Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development for SAVO.  "Transforming and sustaining change in sales behavior to improve business results requires regular reinforcement of best practices and processes. With this partnership, we can deliver both to the market in a single solution." To learn more about Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition, please contact Jim Brodo at jim.brodo@richardson.com, or visit us by clicking here . About Richardson Richardson is a global sales training and sales force effectiveness company that helps leading organizations drive sales results. We do this in three ways: we analyze the structure and talent of your sales force, we train and develop your sales team, and we continue that development through coaching and reinforcement. We equip your sales leaders and sales force with the skills and strategies they need to win in today’s complex selling environment. What is unique about Richardson is how we create truly customized solutions that change behavior and provide measurable results. The post Richardson Partners with SAVO to Maximize Sales Training Investments appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

How to Spot an Adversarial Negotiator Asymmetric warfare is what military and defense experts call it when an adversary seeks to attack where you are weakest. An enemy weaker than you will often use this method as part of the idea of choosing the battlefield. In military affairs, this is a smart idea. The military’s goal is to defeat resistance. The win-win, the mutual accommodations, of effective negotiations only then can come. Effective negotiations are win-win, where everybody gains and, equally importantly, appears to gain. But an effective negotiator will learn from the idea of choosing the battlefield and do his or her best to bring the negotiations back to win-win. Even if you can defeat an adversarial negotiator at their own game, this is not effective in the long run. These people don’t take defeat well; they do not respect an opponent. They will be out for revenge, out to "get you back" — which will not be to your benefit. So how do you deal with an adversarial negotiator? You start with another lesson from the military — know your enemy. You will have done your due diligence before you set foot in the negotiation room. But you do this for all buying influences. You have an ultimate goal in mind for the negotiations. You have a strategy mapped out coupled with a flexible state of mind to change when necessary. You have a general idea of conditions under which you will walk out and end discussions — for good or until later. But your research has convinced you that this is not likely. No "red flags" appear to make you think that the potential client might be a problem that you cannot handle. Unfortunately, the problem is that the only real way to spot an adversarial negotiator is dealing with them in negotiations. Again, the way to deal with them is not to try to beat them at their own game but to turn the tide to play your own game. You start with recognizing that you are dealing with an adversarial negotiator. He or she will not have a name tag listing their title as "adversarial negotiator." You can spot them, and you can deal with them, by recognizing certain behavioral characteristics. An adversarial negotiator deals through manipulation. They use a range of pressure tactics to defeat you and get what they want. Their tactics are easy to spot if you know what to look for or if you just sense that your counterpart, on the other side of the table, has crossed the line from hard bargaining to underhanded and more overt pressure tactics. Whether the pressure tactic is silence, which is designed to get you to drop your price without them uttering one word — just to fill an uncomfortable gap — or making a ridiculous offer to get you to lower your expectations and your objectives, the aim is to coerce you into caving in. Once you recognize adversarial pressure tactics as such, the tactics lose their power. There is nothing wrong with tactics in themselves. They are ways of carrying out strategy and reaching goals. Consultative negotiators also use tactics, but they use them as a part of a give and take trading process. You can distinguish adversarial from consultative negotiators by observing adversarial patterns and behaviors, including a disproportionate or total lack of give and take. An adversarial negotiator uses pressure tactics because they work. However, they only work if you let them. When you find yourself negotiating with someone you think is likely to be an adversarial, you should look for typical adversarial signals, such as the extreme demand, no authority, no concessions, and threats. You should already be prepared — knowing your objective and having a good idea of how you want to get to your objective. Be prepared to use silence as a tool for you, responding only when you are reading to response. Ask hard questions when this is appropriate. Let your adversarial counterpart save face by winning a few minor points, but unless the point is really minor, get something back. Do not take things personally. Stay calm, and show confidence. Be prepared to end the meeting, if necessary. Remember, though, that there is one time when you usually should end the meeting, perhaps for good. Be very reluctant to tolerate deceit. An optimistic view is that most negotiation misunderstandings are just communication errors. The old saying is, don’t attribute to malevolence what can be explained by stupidity. But sometimes, questionable actions may be an intent to deceive. Now is the time to weed out clients or prospects that might cross the line from hard negotiations to unethical, or even illegal, tactics. If you catch this during negotiations, this is the time to stop and consult with your sales manager or legal counsel. It may be time to just end discussions. ————————————————————————————————— Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below. The post How to Spot an Adversarial Negotiator appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Six Critical Skills for Successful Sales Conversations Fundamental communication and persuasion skills that flex as needed during a sales conversation There are numerous factors and variables that go into a sale or selling situation. Many of those are beyond the sales rep’s control or influence, but the one aspect that is absolutely in the rep’s control and can make or break the sale is the conversation. Richardson has identified Six Critical Skills to be used in dialogue with buyers needed for sales excellence. They are critical because you cannot be highly effective in sales without mastering all of them. These skills provide the flexibility to be client-focused. If you are weak in any one of the areas, it will reduce your overall effectiveness. Your objective in using these skills is to maintain a 50/50 client-to-salesperson dialogue. 1) Presence. Projecting interest, conviction, energy, professional appearance, and confidence. What image do you portray as you stand before your potential clients? Too boyish (and therefore unseasoned) to understand the complexities of business? Too old (and therefore too seasoned) to connect with the way things work today? Do you come off as smug and overconfident or too humble and possibly desperate? To be effective, you need the right combination of each of these traits that will cause your prospect to want to work with you. 2) Relating. Connecting with the client includes three levels of relating: rapport, acknowledgment, and empathy. One you’ve established the right presence with your audience, you then need to show that you can relate to your client and their needs and interests. Rapport: You don’t need to become best friends, but you also have little chance of a successful relationship if you rub each other the wrong way. Building rapport takes feeding off of their verbal and nonverbal cues to know how best to communicate with your prospects on an interpersonal level. Finding things in common to bond over helps, but it isn’t absolutely critical as long as comfort and trust are enabled. Acknowledgment: It’s not about you — it’s about your client and their needs or wants. It’s also about their personal stake in a successful outcome of what you’re selling them to make their company better. Share with them your sincere understanding of why you’re there and of the client’s situation. You could also share what you hope to achieve, but this is in very broad terms at this point — don’t launch off into a presentation, but rather, set expectations for the discussion. Empathy: Further to acknowledgment, you need to demonstrate that you not only understand the issue but that you realize the impact it has on their business and the importance of rectifying it. A key factor in conveying empathy is to effectively restrain and hide any critical opinions or judgments beyond stating the obvious. 3) Questioning. Probing to understand the prospect’s needs or wants. This can be tricky and might take longer than you’d like, so be patient. You know where you want to lead your prospect, but how you get there can vary depending upon the prospect’s degree of understanding and acceptance of the issue and solution. The best outcome is for the buyer to feel as though they had an equal part in leading the way or that it was their idea all along. Imagine getting directions to a destination. As the seller of the solution, you can see the clearest, shortest path from point A to point B. However, if you rush to get there without the consent or understanding of the buyer, you could lose them (literally). Realize that in questioning, you might be better off taking a more circuitous route that satisfies their concerns and expectations before arriving at the destination. Of course, you also need to collect any relevant information that explains how they got where they are and where they want to go, key stakeholders, timing, etc. 4) Listening. Listening in an effective way vs. efficient listening is one of the most critical skills to master in sales. You have your own agenda for the conversation, but don’t forget that so does your prospect. You can’t half listen if you’re going to really engage your audience and respond to what they’re saying or asking instead of simply preparing to barrel forward with what you want to say. This brings to mind one of my favorite movie quotes: "… You can listen to Jimi [Hendrix], but you can’t hear him. There’s a difference man. Just because you’re listening to him doesn’t mean you’re hearing him." — from the movie White Men Can’t Jump (1992). If you’re not actively listening, then several things could happen (none of which are good). You could miss an important piece of information that, while you can inquire about later, makes you look distracted and inattentive for not hearing it the first time around. You could miss an opportunity to cross- or upsell your prospect. Or, you could be seen as what you are: someone with their own agenda regardless of what is of interest to the client. 5) Positioning. Being persuasive vs. only exchanging information. While it’s important to maintain focus on what the buyer wants and says during the conversation, don’t lose sight of why you’re there, too. You want to be actively engaged, but don’t be too passive either. The buyer may already be sold on you and your services, which should make your job easier. But when you’re up against competitors, are facing an uncertain buyer, or if the buyer has objections, you’ll need to be able to respond accordingly and persuasively. There is an art to doing this effectively without coming off as arrogant or defensive. 6) Checking. Remember that this is a conversation, not a presentation. As such, you must get into the habit of asking for feedback on what you have said. This is important because it lets you know how the client is reacting and lets you adjust your presentation. It also keeps the client involved. Checking is a key aspect of Questioning, which was covered above. You want to confirm that everyone’s tracking on the same page before you find yourselves in drastically different places. Of course, you don’t want to stop after every sentence, which gets tedious and annoying very quickly. Rather, think in terms of bits and chunks of information to discuss and validate before moving on to the next point. These Six Critical Skills will allow you to create a dialogue; understand client needs, priorities, and perspective; and close profitable business. To reiterate what was said at the beginning of this post, being weak in any of the skills will reduce your overall effectiveness. Your objective in using these skills is to maintain a 50/50 client-to-salesperson dialogue. You can also use the Six Critical Skills as shorthand to prepare for and critique your calls and give yourself and your teammates feedback. ————————————— Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below.   The post Six Critical Skills for Successful Sales Conversations appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

For Experts that Sell, A Surprising Key to an Effective Sales Meeting Experts, circa 2014, sell.  Are you a portfolio manager, consultant, lawyer, investment banker, engineer, architect, or estate planner?  As an expert, you are highly educated and credentialed and have deep industry and subject matter knowledge.  Though not in a typical sales role, you may be asked at times to participate on a sales call or pitch.  The request may be driven by clients who increasingly want to meet and gain comfort with the person who will be creating their portfolio, solution, deal structure, strategy, or design.  Or, the request may be driven by your firm, which has decided that your participation is essential to win the work.  Regardless of how you feel about selling, the comments below are designed to help you contribute to a winning sales effort when asked. Among the highly accomplished experts I coach, one common misconception is that the purpose of a sales meeting is to prove your expertise.  There is no question buyers want to confirm what they learned about you from referral partners and their own research.  As an authority, it is easy to fall into the trap of doing most of the talking, focusing on yourself rather than the client, missing the opportunity to gain feedback, and — despite your intent or the reality — coming across as arrogant. So, how do you avoid this?  To transform the discussion into an effective sales meeting, I have found that making one small adjustment in your mindset can lead to a significant impact on the meeting’s outcome.  That adjustment is humility. That does not mean that clients expect you to be humble about your accomplishments or to dumb things down.  Humility, in the context of an effective sales meeting, is about recognizing not just what you know as a subject matter expert but also what you might not know about the client.  There is growing appreciation for humility as a leadership quality.  Look no further than Pope Francis — someone we could confidently call an expert —- and how quickly he has gained influence not just within the Catholic Church but as a world leader. Consider how humility might change the way you prepare for and conduct an effective sales meeting: So, for that next sales meeting, consider sidestepping the common mistake experts make when selling, focusing only on your qualifications, your approach, and your ideas.  If you want to stand apart from the other experts waiting in the hallway, surprise the client with some humility to create an effective sales meeting.  How will you incorporate humility into your preparation and comments in order to walk away with the win? ————————————— Introducing Sales Process Pro Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below.   The post For Experts that Sell, A Surprising Key to an Effective Sales Meeting appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

The Why and How of Preparation for Sales Negotiations There are probably situations where an initial sales contact seems to occur without preparation; a "meeting engagement," as the military says. But even here, such as with a causal conversation waiting for an elevator, sales people may already have some idea of the needs of the firm whose representative they meet. They certainly should have some idea of what their company offers.  What happens here is simple - you get the person’s business card, ask what they might be seeking, offer some insight, promise to get back to them soon, make note of the conversation, and get back to them . . . soon.This is taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity, showing the flexibility one needs in business. Other people may seem like natural negotiators, able to make deals, with no advance preparation. But you will be surprised at how much advanced preparation this requires. According to McKinsey, a 1% increase price discount leads to a 9% decrease in operating margin. That’s a big hit to the bottom line! For the rest of us humans the best way to avoid a bad deal is to prepare before you formally seek the deal.  Use the lower pressure lead time before negotiations to create a foundation on which you can build with power and influence, time, information, and skill to reach the best deal possible. Ideally, you and a cooperative potential client can set the stage for negotiations that are just pro forma, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s for a deal already set.  In the real world preparation for sales negotiations is the time to: Build a foundation of trust that can sustain progress during the heat of negotiations. Define the issues and potential barriers to reaching a deal. Identify and understand what the customer needs and what you need. Determine what is at stake in the negotiations. Gather facts and data to control the negotiation, reduce pressure, and open what otherwise would have been a "closed book" of valuable information during the negotiation. Go on the web to research the client. Establish a pattern of trading and fair dealing on the part of both negotiating partners. Marshall support within the potential client company; develop relationships with influencers and decision makers in the company. Marshal support within your own company.  If possible, get stakeholders within your company to sign off on your negotiating range and details. Determine the customer’s real degree of interest in doing the deal. Strive for equilibrium in strategy and tactics (not being too easy or too hard). Establish the relationship and two-way communication patterns between you and the client that will be carried into the negotiation phase. Set realistic expectations. Develop your negotiation objectives Develop your proposal - the written proposal and the verbal summary to present during formal negotiations. Prepare information and materials needed to open negotiations. Determine opening cost and scheduling figures. Build flexibility into your proposal (if the negotiation cannot bend, it will break!). Develop alternatives (think "what if… "); consider options you might bring into the negotiation. Analyze your customer’s strengths and weaknesses.  Find out their buying process and who is involved. During lead time it is often advantageous to meet with customers and influencers (both inside and outside the company) such as lawyers, accountants, and so on, so that you are sure all interests are being considered. A good customer will appreciate this as a way for you to better meet their needs. One final word- Remember always that while you are checking the potential customer and preparing for negotiations, the customer is checking you and preparing to meet and negotiate with you. For a related blog column on sales calls and specifics on how to research companies, please  see: Sales Call Preparation: The Ultimate Checklist to Cover your Bases ————————————— Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below.   The post The Why and How of Preparation for Sales Negotiations appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.