13 May The Five Step Process to Successful Negotiation
The Five Step Process to Successful Negotiation
Simon Wallace | 13th May 2014
Sales negotiation is a process that is often misunderstood, misinterpreted, and more often than not practiced poorly. Fortunately this can be remedied with training.
Sales negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people, during which neither party has absolute power. Each party tries to gain an advantage for themselves hoping to secure the best possible deal.
The result of a successful sales negotiation is a profitable order and an agreement on a course of action.
The sales negotiation process that The Whole Thing uses has the following 5 steps:
- Planning
- Discussion
- Proposal
- Bargaining
- Closure
Experience teaches us that sales people are not generally good at ‘Planning’ and therefore not good at conducting ‘Discussion’ to determine exactly what their prospect wants and ‘Bargaining’ when put under pressure to reduce price to take the order.
The result of missing sales negotiation competency is at best lost profit, and at worst, lost business.
Planning means preparing your questions, knowing your (pricing) boundaries, understanding who the key stakeholders are in the negotiation process, and establishing a list of conditions that can be placed along with any concession offered.
Now you have the power of this knowledge, enjoy better sales negotiation!
About the Author
Simon Wallace is founder of The Whole Thing Group and passionate about performance improvement. Creative entrepreneur and trusted advisor to some great companies that are achieving great things.
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