”Jeffrey, teach me about negotiations!”

Why?

“Well, because my prospects always want to negotiate the deal.”

No, they want to negotiate your price.

“Well, yes.”

REALITY: People who want to negotiate your price are in reality negotiating your profit. Any time the word “negotiate” appears in a sales situation, it means your price AND your profit are going down.

RETHINK IT: Where’s “value negotiation”? Where’s “customer profitability negotiation”? Where’s “customer productivity negotiation”? Where’s “customer improved morale negotiation”? Uh, they’re nowhere. That’s because negotiations in sales have “lower price and loss of profit to the seller” at their core.

Negotiation “tactics” are something every WEAK salesperson must learn.

“Negotiate” means you …

• have failed to reach the real decision maker.

• have failed to prove value.

• have failed to differentiate yourself from the competition.

• don’t have any relationship built.

• don’t have a past history of success or testimonials from other customers who paid the price and reaped the rewards of ownership.

And you’re usually negotiating with purchasing, procurement or some third-party buying group that DOES NOT CARE ABOUT QUALITY OR VALUE.

WHAT’S WORSE? There are negotiation courses offered. The airline magazines are full of them. They beckon to weak salespeople like the Sirens did to Ulysses’ men. Come, hear sweet sales music, and you too can lower your price in front of non-decision makers. Come and spend a few grand, and take the overpriced three-day manipulative negotiation course so you can enter your next negotiation and REALLY lose some money.

The courses try to teach you to go for weakness and pain. I look for strengths and pleasure. I’m not interested in trying to “save my client money”; I want to make him or her or them a profit – and make a profit for myself. You?

I want a long-term relationship – that necessitates BOTH sides winning, so that the customer wants to win again another day. This creates loyalty, not an adversarial position.

Salespeople go to these negotiation courses by the thousands thinking they’re going to learn some trick, shortcut or mental manipulation to win the sale. HELLO! What about the profit?

Wow, and all this for just a few grand of tuition, plus travel and three days out of the field. Brilliant! Sign me up!

What do you think the CEO of your prospect or customer wants? HINT: Value, productivity, morale and profit. And why aren’t you calling on the CEO in the first place? Why are you calling on some price-driven jackleg in purchasing?

Here are the “means” of negotiation:

• Negotiation means you have failed as a salesperson to prove value beyond price.

• Negotiation means you are calling on a non-decision maker.

• Negotiation means you failed to get to the real decision maker.

• Negotiation means loss of profit.

• Negotiation means you failed to create a buying atmosphere.

• Negotiation means you failed to differentiate yourself from competition.

• Negotiation means you failed to establish a relationship that is not based on price or bidding.

If you want to negotiate, do it BEFORE THE SELLING OR BIDDING PROCESS. Set criteria for the qualifications of bidders. Change the terms of the request for proposal so that you become a favored vendor. Or better, eliminate the competition. THAT’S NEGOTIATION.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2010 Jeffrey H. Gitomer