Over the last 20 years, I’ve had the privilege of teaching and coaching negotiating strategies and skills to some of the finest salespeople, relationship managers, sales managers and senior executives in the technology space.
These negotiations are complicated and there are a lot of things that can go wrong. Some are unpreventable, but the biggest preventable mistake I’ve seen made is … under preparation.
Why do otherwise skilled business developers under prepare for a client or prospect negotiation? Sometimes it’s due to overwhelm, feeling they don’t have the time; that they’re too busy. Sometimes it’s overconfidence, not believing it’s necessary to do a lot of prep because they’ve been doing this for a long time. And, being human, a few are a little lazy. But, whatever the reason, why is it a huge mistake to under prepare?
Because of the quantity of variables impacting a negotiation, any one of which can derail it. Clients and I have identified 38. 38! Here are three, and why you have to be prepared to deal with them:
Competing objectives – Both sides have stakeholders whose individual objectives don’t line up with each other. On your side, your management wants you to protect company profits and at the same time protect the relationship. Your client expects you to be their advocate. And, their side has people who are incented to minimize cost while others are tasked with maximizing functionality or ease of use or productivity. It’s like trying to thread a needle while wearing oven mitts in a windstorm.
Baggage – Things happen in long-term relationships. Have they moved on from last month’s, last year’s or last decade’s service issues? Everyone? Have those who wanted your competitor’s solution years ago gotten over that decision? If not addressed, baggage can weigh down any chance at collaboration.
Savvy negotiators – A skilled client or a consultant they’ve hired to act as their proxy can take you to the cleaners if you’re not ready for them. They know how to use power, emotion, competition, standards, reframes and other tactics to keep you off-balance. It’s always safest to assume someone on the other side is “incented” to strike a great deal for the client and have countermeasures for those maneuvers.
Bottom line: It’s worth it to find the time to diligently prepare for each negotiation. How do we best do that? I’ll talk about that in my next article.
Picture courtesy of Tumisu on Pixabay.