Escalation in Sales or Buyer Negotiation. #Negotiathon

Most people in business cringe when they hear the word escalation in buyer or seller negotiations. My reaction is different. I love the challenge. You see, when your family or you get dinged by someone trying to force you into contracts for services or buy products that you didn’t order, you have to be prepared to defend your position and move it up the corporate ladder if you cannot get proper resolution.

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I remember the first time I ran into this in sales was when I was at The Toronto Star in my 20’s and a couple of my clients were just manic. They would do almost anything to shrink our profitability by demanding "make goods" or huge discounts on advertisements that they had approved but, made so difficult to execute that clashes with senior management from both sides would happen. The first couple of times you go through escalation it is gut wrenching, but soon afterward you realize it is part of the territory, so one must get used to this type of unsavory pressure.

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In the case of The Toronto Star, the account was The Building Centre. Their management team was making up to 70 changes per advertisement knowing that this volume and time compression with Canada’s largest daily newspaper would open us to unforced errors followed by ungentlemanly haggling. The truth is, our side got ticked off and a meeting was called to escalate with the customer in their offices. Three of us from The Toronto Star went to visit their Advertising Manager, General Manager and Owner. There was cordial conversation at first with the exception of two people my bosses boss, Jim McManus starting staring at their General Manager, Mr. Pollack. It got so uncomfortable that you could cut the air with a knife. The stare down was on. Finally Jim said to his staring partner “Mr. Pollack I don’t like you and I am pretty sure you don’t like me, but today we are going to settle this mess with a solid deal.” It took days of theatrics to settle things but, finally a deal was reached. It was total ugliness, but it was a great, big stakes learning opportunity for me. The net/net is that if you allow yourself to look weak you will be run over and have your sales carcass mounted in someone’s office wall.

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On a personal note just this past year, I had to take on Hydro and my Internet/Cable provider. In both cases, I had been heavily overcharged. In the case of Hydro I thought my bills looked too high for the amount of usage in my home but, could not prove it. This prompted me to survey my neighbors and other home owners in the area. Finally, I called Hydro and started a friendly query and they started digging through my account and thank god I ran into a really honest person who called it out for what it was. For about the next 8 months my Hydro was then prepaid and I slowly got my money back with only interest lost which in a low interest environment was not much at all. All said and done this escalation was a swift and fair negotiation.

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The Internet/Cable provider was a bit of a cage fight. My bills were enormous and what came to light was that they had switched on a phone land line without alerting me. My bills were outsized and I could not figure it out, as I had cancelled my land line moving into my new home because, I was renovating. I had to live elsewhere for about 4 months until the renovations were complete so I could move my belongings into my new home safely. One day, I was downstairs loading up my wood burning stove and noticed an old 1970’s dusty phone in the corner. It was ancient. I don’t know why, but I picked it up and there was a dial tone. I had by chance stumbled upon my problem. I felt like I had been taken. My first call was to the phone/internet support line in The Philippines. It seem like we were back and forth for a very long period of time as I presented my case. Finally, the Gent relented. I said “I wanted this escalated” and we ended our call.

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A couple of days later I get a call from another Gent in Toronto. Within about two minutes it became clear to me that he was a mid-management guy who had been trained to accept no blame and say “no” politely as often as he could to the point where there was an air of arrogance coming through the call. He was trying to wear me down. Bad idea! My strategy in this case was to stay calm and polite, but firm. I was not backing down. Then, I switched to talking about things like his company’s brand and treatment of people over a certain age. I then inserted the word “fairness”. You see fairness is a very emotional word especially coming from an older person. Then, I moved into refund mode. This bristled him. Next, I asked for resolution because I said “I am not giving up on this business case.” Finally, he opened the door a crack. After much back and forth I got a percentage credit on the spot with a bill reduction incentive on my cable pricing going forward. This would repay my money over a reasonable period of time. His requirement was that I do not change my channel package. He had to be given a "small win" so I agreed. I am certain the call was being recorded and have little doubt that he was signaled to wind it up knowing I was not breaking down into some kind of a rant that would have given him an excuse to end the call.

Lessons Learned. When you are wronged be relentless. Escalate. Place their feet against the fire! #giddyup!