The best strategy for building repeat business and referrals is to approach every sale with a win-win orientation. In other words, both you and the buyer should walk away from the negotiation feeling as if you succeeded. Let's explore strategies designed to let you join the ranks of sales professionals who create win-win outcomes for their prospects and clients:
- Develop a perspective of long-term mutual gain versus short-term personal gain. The essence of win-win outcomes is shared benefit. Stop thinking of making a killing on each sale. You and your new client benefit from a deal that makes you both happy.
- Set a trusting, cooperative tone at the outset. Win-win negotiations are built on a foundation of trust and mutual respect. You build this foundation by stating up-front your desire to achieve mutual benefit and a long-term relationship, and show evidence of your honesty and servant attitude.
- Do your homework. Shooting from the hip and pulling figures out of the air will hurt both you and the prospect. Enter the negotiation with as much information as is available, knowing what you want and why you want it, and what the prospect wants and why he/she wants it. If you don't know, ask.
- Discuss the issues using first person plural pronouns. First person plural pronouns (we, our, us) highlight mutual benefits and interdependence. First person singular (me, mine, my, I) or second person (you, your) pronouns suggest independence, personal gain and even confrontation.
- Focus on interests, not positions. Positions are what you want; interests are why you want them. When you move from the "what" to the "why," you move from a discussion of demands to a discussion of mutual needs. You move from focusing on requirements of the sale to focusing on the prospect's pain.
- Increase the number of issues you negotiate. You increase the chance for win-win outcomes by increasing the number of issues you can resolve. If you focus strictly on price, you set the stage for win-lose. But if you negotiate price along with delivery date, support services, volume purchases, or guaranteed right of first refusal, you increase the opportunities to trade off so that both of you will win something of value. Some prospects will give you ultimatums or other threats designed to force your hand. Rather than counter-attacking or accepting the resulting pressure, try saying, "I hear that you have to have that price or it's over, but I don't believe you heard that that price is impossible for me."
- Give to get. If you give on one issue (e.g., price), ask the prospect to give on another (e.g., order size). Show your willingness to give and take as long as the prospect shares this same willingness.
- Don't get caught up in the emotion of the negotiation. Maintain your composure, objectivity and analytical powers. If you become angry, you will lose.
- Engage in creative problem solving. The problem you and the prospect are trying to solve can be stated very simply: How can we arrive at a deal that (a) maximizes our individual benefits, (b) minimizes our individual losses and (c) is fair for both? Brainstorm all the possible alternatives that might achieve these three criteria. Choose an alternative you can both live with.
- Keep searching for ways to add value. Get creative in finding ways to increase the value of your offering while maintaining a reasonable profit for your sale. Avoid using the word "price" and use "investment" instead.
Win-win is the only deal you should ever make!
Al Simon is president of Simon, Inc., an authorized licensee of Sandler Training. He can be reached at www.Simon SaysSell.net.
