Six Important Negotiation Skills that will Help you Sell More

The last two months of the year are upon us, and many deals need to start going into procurement.

Here are some tips to help move your deal through the procurement cycle, and help you close out the year strong.

1) Be over prepared and make sure you are ready

Do your homework before you go into any negotiation. Show the customer why they need what you are selling. If you can solve a client's problem and show them a good return on investment, they are more likely to do business with you. Why do they have to solve this problem right now? What's the hurry? Do they have the money (based on the ROI) to buy your solution?

2) Create trust

No one says you have to be best friends with a client, but you do need to earn their trust. Building trust doesn't happen overnight. It can take weeks, months, or even years. When people are trying to reach an agreement, mutual trust is an important factor.

3) Be able to analyze and solve problems

Einstein famously said, "If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions." So, once you know what a client's problems and pains are, take the time to really understand the symptoms and causes. When talking about the client's current situation, you can refer back to things they may have said. Use what you know about yourself and the industry. Then, spend some time together coming up with and talking about possible solutions.

4) Avoid becoming frustrated

It will be a big problem if you tend to get angry or act based on how you feel. Negotiators are taught to keep their feelings out of the situation. Adults talk about facts. If you think the conversation is getting off track, bring it back to the point.

5) Teach, don't threaten

As William Ury wrote in his book “Getting Past No”, teach your client instead of threatening them. If you see people being stubborn and "digging in," try to teach them what will happen if they don't move forward. Go back to the reasons why you want to make a deal. Rethink problems and work together to come up with creative solutions.

6) Turn Up Your Listening Skills

This kind of skill is incredibly useful in all parts of life, not just in sales or negotiations. To improve your sales skills, you need to take the time to see your client as an investment, not just as a way to make money. This way of thinking about the client will make sure that you take the time to really hear what they need. Clients will appreciate that you listened to their problems and needs and want to work with them to solve them.

Procurement people are great negotiators. Their requirements and strategies differ from your internal champion's.

You'll need a new strategy to negotiate with Procurement to land enterprise contracts.

Your customer knows the value of negotiations and has taught their Procurement staff how to negotiate with software vendors.

Software salespeople who work with Procurement should also be trained to overcome roadblocks and obstructions.

Oneviewnow.com?trains enterprise procurement experts on software vendor contract negotiations.

We want to teach sales organizations how to negotiate and bargain with procurement using the same strategies that worked for enterprise procurement.

Email Ilyas Baig at?[email protected]?or Mohammed Faridy at?[email protected]?to find out more and receive the following:

1) A free 13-page book titled "How to turn procurement into a deal-closing partner"

2) A recent case study on a global financial institution negotiating $2 million in more revenue without impacting gross margins.

3) How you and your sales team could create a one-day intensive procurement negotiating training.

We urge you to connect with us on LinkedIn and read our previous pieces about how procurement beats salespeople.

We look forward to helping sales professionals turn procurement into a deal-closing partner.

#sales?#training?#procurementnegotiatiations