Great salespeople are made not born.
Feel free to call us: +1 416 456 1440
The 3 Types of Coaching Calls
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Training, Uncategorized 25 Jan 2024 0 comments Tags: , , , , ,

CoachingWhen you’re in the field with your reps, choose one of these methods to help them make higher quality sales calls.

One of the best single pieces of advice I can give to sales managers is to spend more time in the field with their salespeople. It’s shocking how many sales managers tell me that they want to play the role of coach with their people yet spend a pitiful amount of time in the field where coaching should happen. It would be analogous to a hockey coach discussing defensive play along the boards but not showing up at the games to watch his team put it into practice.

If you’re a sales manager, the only accurate way to gauge the skills of your salespeople is to observe them doing their thing. When you get out in the field to do some joint calls, it’s important that you agree ahead of time with your sales rep what type of coaching call it’s going to be. Here are your choices:

The Joint Call – In this call, you both participate. The goal is usually to get the sale or solve a problem which will require both of you. Agree before you go in who is going to do what as it’s unprofessional if you start tripping over each other when you get there!

The Training Call – In this call, you take the lead and the sales rep remains quiet for most of it. The purpose is for you to demonstrate a call and have the rep learn from observing. Don’t assert that you are going to do a perfect call. Rather, state, “I’m not saying that I’m better than you but you might pick up a few things by watching someone else do a call.” After the call, do a de-brief at your favourite coffee shop.

The Observing Call – As the name implies, this is where you as the sales manager, need to stay quiet during the call. This is easier said than done especially when you see your rep making mistakes! It’s almost impossible for us to keep our mouth shut when we see our salesperson struggling, but we need to. If you jump in, two things will happen: 1) You will undermine his authority and throw him off track and 2) You won’t get an accurate picture of what he’s doing when you’re not there! Take very detailed notes.

Important: Only do your de-brief after you’re finished doing several calls. Why? If you give him corrections after the first call, he will try to adjust on the second call. If you give him corrections after the second, he will try to adjust on the third and by the end of few calls, he’ll be a mess! Instead, pick out one or two things for him to work on and make your suggestions after the series of calls is over. People can only focus on learning a few things at one time. Keep your list in a safe place as you will refer back to it the next time you’re out with him.

Of course, there is a lot more to doing effective coaching calls than just the above. You can learn proven and powerful strategies by booking Northbound’s “Coaching People in the Field” workshop. Click on the link for a full description.  It’s available in classroom format for groups or can be taught one-on-one with sales leaders.

To learn more or to request pricing, contact Michael at [email protected] or 416.456.1440.
Use Voicemail to Your Advantage in Prospecting
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Uncategorized 26 Oct 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , , , , ,
VoicemailWhen prospecting, don’t miss an opportunity to use voicemail to deliver your value message.

Are you frustrated constantly by trying to connect to buyers when prospecting and getting their voicemail? I hear this complaint from many of our clients.

Times have changed. In the early 90’s before voicemail was ubiquitous, studies showed that one business person attempting to contact another business person would get through 22% of the time. Sounds low doesn’t it? But it gets worse. Spurred on by the pandemic, the work-from-home trend makes getting people at their desk next to impossible and today’s stats are more like 10% or even less. That means that 9 out of 10 times, you’re going to get voicemail when doing cold prospecting.

What I find crazy is how many salespeople don’t leave a voicemail when they’re calling a buyer.  By not leaving a message, they are missing a great opportunity!

Instead of looking at this marvel of communication engineering as being your enemy, it can be your friend – at least in the short term. Before you say I’ve lost my selling marbles, let me explain. How many of you can convey a compelling description of your product’s benefits and features in 30 words or less?  Some of you may be able but wouldn’t it be nice if you had a full minute? Of course it would.  A good prospecting voicemail can do just that for you.

There’s a big difference between getting a prospect on the phone right off the bat and being able to leave a voicemail message first.   I far prefer to leave a carefully crafted, practiced, voicemail message as my first voice contact with a prospective customer. You can’t get cut off, you can build some “personality” and trust and with many systems, you also have the added benefit of erasing it and doing it again if you screw up. Be careful to leave the message as best you possibly can and finish before trying to erase it though in case you can’t!

Just like in advertising, multiple impressions are often required before a message registers with someone.  Each time your buyer hears what’s possibly “in it for him” to have a conversation with you, it helps strengthen your case.

Obviously you eventually want to connect in real time with the prospect and there are specific techniques to drastically increase your chances when the time is right but that will have to wait for a future post.

Using voicemail to your advantage is part of Northbound’s “Connecting to the Big Cheese” workshop.  To arrange a complimentary condensed version of the workshop for your team, contact Michael Caron @ [email protected] or 416.456.1440.

The Kids Are Back At School. Are You Ready to Learn Too?
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training 07 Sep 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , , , ,

We’ve all spent a big chunk of our life in formal learning environments, most commonly called schools! Over the course of a decade or two, we acquired a tremendous amount of knowledge — some of it useful, most of it not. Unfortunately, once we enter the working era of our life, our rate of knowledge acquisition falls off. This makes sense in that we are now expected to use this knowledge. But the really successful people in all walks of life never stop learning.

In training thousands of salespeople over the years, I’ve clearly seen that top performers are actually more open to learning new skills than average performers. How ironic!

There are 5 phases to learning. Take a look at the list and ask yourself, “What can I do to apply all 5 phases to a new selling skill?”

The Five Phases of Learning

Phase 1 — Commit to learn

  • The learner must be motivated to learn and to change his or her

behaviour. During the central training experience, learning activities and media illustrate

how new skills, knowledge, and attitudes help learners address job-related issues and

achieve job-related goals. This phase succeeds when learners open themselves to new

possibilities and resolve to master and apply essential interpersonal skills.

Phase 2 — Assess current performance.

  • A carefully crafted survey helps learners measure current

levels of knowledge and application of a key interpersonal skill. Recognizing their

own performance gaps further motivates learners and helps them focus effort in areas

for improvement. Post-training assessments measure recollection of training content

and skill use in the workplace.

Phase 3 — Acquire knowledge. 

  • Learners encounter the cognitive details of a distinct interpersonal

skill through presentation, reading, discussion, observation and analysis of realistic

examples, simulations, and other activities. Typical content includes environmental

cues that prompt skill use; a sequence of behavioural steps; relevant terms; examples of

use and absence of use; and tips, tactics, and pitfalls for each step.

Phase 4 — Develop competence through practice. 

  • The training of interpersonal skills requires

rehearsing with humans—the intended audience for the new skills—in order to achieve

competency. This real-time practice with another human being, whether face-to-face,

voice-to-voice or online, is essential to soft-skill mastery. In a safe setting, learners

rehearse the skill, receive constructive feedback, observe others using the skill and

offer constructive feedback. The goal of this is to develop baseline competence and

build confidence.

Phase 5 — Apply new learning. 

  • Integrating new skills into job interactions requires commitment.

A range of activities—discussions, testimonials, printable online planners, and others—

give learners the clarity and resolve to apply their knowledge and skills. Managers

of trainees can also reinforce and sustain skill application through coaching, recognition

of skill use and modelling the skills. 

“No Sense Prospecting In The Summer”
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Uncategorized 08 Jun 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , ,

summer_time-1455175And other lies that we tell ourselves

I hear them all the time from salespeople.  Excuses why they aren’t prospecting in the summer months.

“It’s a waste of time.”

“I can’t get in touch with anyone.”

“Everyone’s on vacation.”

“People just don’t make decisions in the summer.”

Let’s look at why you shouldn’t take a holiday from prospecting.

Reason #1 – You’re in for a bad fall.

By “bad fall,” I mean both the season and the metaphorical sense of term.  A Harvard Business School study found that over 25% of selling cycles were 7 months or longer.  It’s rare to see selling cycles of less than 3 months.  With elongated selling cycles, you can’t afford to let your funnel get empty by reducing your prospecting activities.  Otherwise, the opportunities for closing in Q4 will be few and far between.

Reason #2 – When contact ratios drop, activities need to go up.

It is true that contact ratios, the number of outreach activities (such as calls & emails) compared to connections, goes down in the summer, especially in Canada and the northern U.S. where many people take summer holidays.  Recent stats show that connection rates since COVID have dropped considerably.  The rise of sales automation and the work-from-home revolution are the two main drivers of this fact.

Across all industries, the B2B average contact ratio is now only 7%.  In the summer months, it’ll be lower as most people try to squeeze in a week or two of vacation within the short 8 week window. Does this mean that we should back off on our prospecting.  Not at all.  In fact, you’d be smart to do just the opposite.  You need to increase your outbound activities to compensate for the lower contact ratios.  Yes, meetings are harder to set in the summer but that provides more time to prospect!  Remember that even if you don’t get through to someone live, your compelling voicemail and email will be waiting for them when they get back.  A voicemail or email is not as good as a live conversation of course, but it’s a lot better than no voicemail or email.

Reason #3 – Your competition doesn’t work as hard in the summer

Take advantage of your competition taking their foot off the gas during the summer.  With your prospects receiving fewer sales calls, they are more likely to engage with you.

The bottom line is that while summer is a great time for all us to enjoy nice weather and take some well deserved vacation time, it’s important that in the weeks that you are working, you keep those money-making prospecting activities going.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Being Hammered by Discount Requests? Follow These 5 Steps.
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Uncategorized 25 May 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , ,

800px-claw-hammer

Protect your margins while increasing your closing rate

Naturally, we always want to sell value and reduce the times that customers ask you for a price discount, but regardless of your attempts, you will not be able to avoid them. You always have the ability to say no and lose the sale but if you are willing to reduce your margin and still make the sale, you are going to need to enter the dance of price negotiations.
There are certain steps to follow. Before you even start the process, you should assure the prospect that your price is fair. If and when they continue pushing for a discount, follow these steps:
Step One: Ask why they are asking for a discount. This may sound like a strange thing to ask but can be helpful when the prospect is forced to explain. Often they have weak reasons and some will ease off when they can’t come up with anything better than, “I’d like to pay a lower price”. Sometimes, negotiations may even stop right there when the prospect returns with, “Well, I had to ask.”
Step Two: The next step is to offer something in kind rather than discounting your price. Trade of your product or service always costs less than a cash discount. You could say something like, “I’d really like to have your business and if you’d like to get additional value, I can offer you (blank).” What you offer will be specific to your company and industry but try to make it something that has low cost to you and high perceived value to the prospect.
Some ideas may be: additional service, better payment terms, free shipping, future volume discounts etc. Your goal is to maintain your price integrity while giving up something that costs you little.
Step Three: If you must discount further, never give up something without getting something in return. This is a basic rule of negotiation. If you simply discount, you have opened the door for the prospect to keep asking for discounts now and into the future. Using the same concept as barter, you can give a discount in return for something that is high value to you yet low cost to the client. It could be references, quicker payment terms, volume guarantees, exclusive vendor arrangements, introductions to other internal departments, etc.
Step Four: If you truly believe you must give a discount in order to secure the business, do it slowly and with a good amount of resistance. If you quickly concede, the prospect might say to themselves, “That was easy. I’m going to keep going” Do not get caught on the treadmill of discounting whereby the prospect asks for a discount and you give it only to have the prospect ask for more. It’s a deadly downward spiral and can be prevented by the next step.
Step Five: Try not to give a discount without an agreement that if you agree to X discount, the prospect will buy. You could say something like, “I don’t know if I can give a discount of what you’re asking for George but if I can, does that mean that you’re willing to go ahead. The last thing you want to do is to offer a discount that’s only going to be used as leverage to squeeze another vendor’s price who ends up getting the sale.
The best way to handle discount requests is to reduce them! And the best way to reduce them is to work on building perceived value—right from the first contact while prospecting through to doing a proper “Goal Aligned Sales Interview.” If the prospect truly sees that you and your company provide value and advantages over your competitors, they will be less willing to risk NOT doing business with you by pushing for unreasonable discounts.
Remember, dropping your price is the quickest and easiest tactic for a salesperson to help close. It takes little skill but comes at a high cost in terms of margins and commissions. Talented sales professionals—ones who can truly build value—discount far less often than less skilled salespeople. Our recommendation is to focus heavily on improving your selling skills so that you will need to deal with discounting less frequently and protect your margins and commissions now and down the road.

Northbound’s “Handling Objections” workshop walks you and your team through a six step process that will allow you to deal with discount requests and other objections like a pro.  For details contact Michael Caron at [email protected] or 416.456.1440.

Does “Like-Ability” Lead to More Sales?
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training 11 May 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , ,

attraction-marketingIf your customer likes you, will it lead to more sales?

 

The link between “Like-Ability” — being liked by your customer — and increases in sales, is a hotly debated topic at live workshops that I lead.  Some of the comments that I typically hear are:

 

“Selling is all about relationships.  My customer has to like me to buy from me!”

 

“I’m in a competitive business.  The fact that a customer likes me more than the competitor’s rep is what sets us apart.”

 

Applying Economics 101 to the issue, the question becomes, “What is the correlation between the amount the customer likes the sales rep and their inclination to buy from that rep?”

 

I try to base the strategies at Northbound Sales on research and not just anecdotal evidence but the research on this topic is pretty light.  Some experts claim that being liked by your customer is akin to gaining admission to a club.  That is, if the customer likes you, you’ll gain the privilege of being considered but if they don’t like you, you won’t even be considered.  This makes sense to me.

 

Neil Rackham, the father of the consultative selling approach, found in his research that led to the SPIN Selling revolution that the relationship between being liked and increased sales was weak.  Although there was a very slight correlation in general, it was limited to rural areas.  Just as most people would guess, it is true that customers in smaller communities will choose to buy more often from a salesperson they like.  In dense urban areas, his immense research found that although customers might “like” one company’s rep more, they were more likely to buy from the rep who provided the most compelling solution to their problems.

 

Bottom line is that if you can’t find your customer’s problems and link them to your unique solutions, they can like you more than any salesperson they’ve ever met, but it won’t close the sale for you.  What I find in working with people in the field is that they spend too much time on pleasantries and small talk at the expense of solving the customer’s problems.

 

I’m reminded of my ride-alongs with Jim, a rep for a national supplier to furniture manufacturers.  When I do ride-alongs, I track how much time is spent on the different steps of the sales call.  In Jim’s case, when he learned that his customer built cabinetry for 2 large national chicken specialty restaurants, the conversation shifted to an open discussion on which restaurant had the best chicken!  Out of a 43 minute sales call, how much time was spent on sharing how the new product might help the customer?  6 minutes.  How much time was spent debating chicken? 22 minutes!  When we got back into Jim’s car, I couldn’t help but question him.  “Jim, where were you going with all the talk about chicken?” to which he replied, “Mike, my customers buy from our company because they like me.  If they want to talk chicken, I talk chicken.”  I’d be very interested to ask the customer if they agree!

 

My biggest advice for you is this:  Yes, try to ensure the customer likes you but don’t think for a New York minute that this is a substitute for deep skills in finding your customer’s problems and helping them fix them.  Work on your “Goal Aligned Selling™” selling skills rather than talking about chicken.

 

To learn more about our “Goal Aligned Selling™” program or to arrange a complimentary workshop for your sales team, contact me at [email protected].

 

Happy Selling,

 

Michael

 

4 Steps to Objection Handling
Posted by: In: Sales Managers, Sales Training, Uncategorized 27 Apr 2023 0 comments Tags: , , ,

red-diceThe knee-jerk reaction when you’re hit with an objection is to quickly and deftly handle it. Many of us take pride in our ability to explain why an objection isn’t valid. Unfortunately, regardless of how logical your explanation is, you will get nowhere without stepping back and doing the following steps first.

Agree with the prospect as to the validity of the objection. Assure him that it is a good objection or question. This is called “disarming”. Don’t – I repeat – don’t disagree with him which is the natural reaction for most people. Humans by nature are very stubborn and don’t like to be told they’re wrong. If you jump at him and immediately tell him he’s wrong, it very likely is going to turn into a battle of who’s right & who’s wrong. Ego, emotion & self-esteem will enter into the equation. On the other hand, if you agree that his point is a good one, he will be much more likely to remain calm and open minded enough to listen to your explanation.

Confirm & isolate the objection. This is called “sharp angling”. Make sure that it is the only objection, and make sure that the prospect knows that it is his only objection. If there are other objections, get them out of the way so that you can deal with each one separately.
Obtain a commitment from the prospect. I.e. “If it were not for (the objection) you would want to go ahead?” “You’re comfortable with the rest of the recommendations?” Without the commitment, you may just be gaining another objection. Then you’ll become involved in a game called, “Can I make up more objections than you can overcome”. Salespeople almost always lose this game. Why? They don’t shut up!

Drill down on the objection. In other words, ask gentle probes such as, “what causes you to feel that our price is not competitive?” or “could you help me understand by expanding on your concern about x?” Truly empathize. Put yourself in their shoes to attempt to understand why they think such-and-such is the case. Often, it will be that the prospect simply doesn’t understand the issue fully and your job will be to help them understand in a helpful, non-confrontational manner.

Next time you’re hit with an objection, stay calm, follow these steps and you’ll move onto a sale more often.

Do You Procrastinate? Don’t Put Off Reading This Article!
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training, Uncategorized 15 Mar 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , , ,

procrastinateBy Michael Caron, President, Northbound Sales

Congratulations for reading this! Procrastination has been appropriately called the “silent killer of careers” yet few people have ever had formal training on how to overcome this immensely costly habit. All of us procrastinate to some extent but while managing this problem is a constant challenge to me, I have learned some strategies over the years that have worked very well.

Urgency versus Importance: The first step in overcoming procrastination is to understand that by definition, urgent activities are done before non-urgent. On the surface, this seems to make sense until you take into account the additional factor of importance. In Northbound’s “Goal Aligned Time™” workshop, we train people on how to place every activity in their personal and business life on a quadrant with these two variables before they decide what to put on their plan. Important tasks are often not urgent and so get pushed off the agenda. Unfortunately these are also frequently “growth” activities such as prospecting and skills development on the career side and on the personal side, might be things such as exercise and building stronger relationships. Have the discipline to schedule these activities so they get done and start saying “No” to low value, urgent activities that are screaming for your attention.

The 15 Minute Strategy: Psychologist David Burns recommends simply making a promise with yourself that you will give some task you’ve been putting off just 15 minutes of effort. His point is that we often become overwhelmed by the sheer size of a task and talk ourselves out of it. We might tell ourselves, “It’s going to take soooo long” or “It’s too big to do now. I’ll leave it until I can really focus on it”. Instead, talk back and say, “OK, I’ll just give it 15 minutes and then I can stop”. How hard can 15 minutes of anything be? Once you get started, you will have broken that psychological barrier. Most often, you’ll find that it’s not nearly as hard as you thought it was going to be and you’ll either keep going or not fear it so much next time.

Think of the End Result: Instead of thinking of how difficult the process may be to accomplish something, think rather on the end result and all the great things that it will mean to you. Turn thoughts of “I hate cold calling. It’s not much fun” into, “If I make 2 hours of calls, I’ll probably book one meeting. I usually close one out of two meetings so I’m 50% towards a sale if I make some calls!” Once your brain clearly connects the doing of a task with major benefits, you’ll be unstoppable!

You and your team can learn dozens of other proven time management strategies with Northbound’s Goal Aligned Time™ workshop. Graduates report an average productivity increase of 12%! For more information or pricing, contact Michael Caron at [email protected], 416.456.1440

3 Ways to Get Prospects to Call You Back
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Uncategorized 09 Feb 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , ,

Voicemail

If you use these 3 strategies, more prospects will actually return your voicemail!

You’ve left a couple of voicemail messages in the last week or two and haven’t had a return call from your prospect.  What can you do?  Here are some tips that work:

ONE – Script and master your voicemail message

Your voicemail should follow this rough outline (this isn’t the verbiage you’d use of course):

  • Here’s who I am
  • Here’s what company I’m calling from
  • This is what we do
  • This is how we’ve helped other organizations similar to yours (noting measurable results)
  • Here’s an example
  • “I don’t know if we can do the same for you or not.”
  • “Can I ask you a couple of quick questions to see?”

Your message should be around 45 seconds and 60 seconds max.  While this might seem long, it’s important that you get your “elevator pitch” out in a clear, concise, compelling and complete manner (the 4 C’s) and this can’t be done in much less time.  Most prospects will listen to the first voicemail message in it’s entirety and this underscores why it needs to be absolutely great.  If you’re not happy with it, don’t panic.  Hit the # button and most voicemail systems will allow you to re-record it.

TWO – Take the pressure off

An important rule in sales is that — Yes’s make you money.  No’s make you money (because you can move onto more Yes’s) but Maybes cost you money because they eat up your time.  It’s far better to get a fast no than a slow one.  Sometimes prospects are reluctant to return prospecting voicemails because they feel that they are going to be subjected to a high pressure sales pitch.  The fact is that with many salespeople, their fear is warranted!  Let them know that this isn’t the case with you.  You could say something in your second or third voicemail such as, “We’ve been able to help other companies accomplish X solution to problem and Y solution to problem but I don’t know if there’s a fit between your organization and ours or not.  I was hoping to have a brief phone conversation to see and if not, that’s OK.”

Sometimes I get pushback on this language from people in my workshops who feel this type of language in a voicemail is weak.  They say, “We should be totally confident that we can help them.”  The paradox is that, by allowing that there might not be a fit, you’ll get callbacks more often and if you ask the right questions, will often find that there is a fit.  Another reason not to claim that you know you can help them is that, in most cases, it’s simply not true.  Until you have the opportunity to fully understand their current situation, their problems, preferences and goals, how can you know you can help?  An added bonus is that it builds rapport and trust because of your openness.

THREE – Use professional persistence

Recent research finds that it takes on average 7 contact attempts to connect to a prospect.  The same research shows that most salespeople give up after 2.  See the problem here?  Worse, most sellers leave far too much time between contact attempts.  They’re fearful that they will annoy the buyer to the point that it hurts their chance of connecting.  Sure, there’s a fine line between persistence and stalking!  Most sellers are nowhere near that line however.  Think of what you would do if you got 5 voicemails from someone spaced 1 or 2 weeks apart.  Now think of what you would do if you got the same 5 voicemails spaced a couple of days apart.  Would you be more likely to put a return call on your to-do list in the second case.  I bet you would!  At the end of your voicemail, say something like, “If you don’t get a chance to give me a call back in the next couple of days, I’ll try you again on DAY.”

With the recent anti-spam legislation in place, many salespeople who have relied on email to prospect will now have an added dependence on effective phone prospecting.  These three strategies will help you connect more often with prospects and maximize your efforts.  The percentage of prospects who call you back will still be low, but these tips will bump the number up for certain.

Six Steps to Negotiation Success
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training, Uncategorized 01 Feb 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , ,
Joined in businessIf you stay cool and follow these steps, your negotiations will produce agreements that last.

Contrary to what some think, negotiation isn’t something that only takes place at the end of the selling process. We are actually negotiating and laying the groundwork for further negotiation throughout the sale. When the customer has agreed that your solution fits with their needs but there is not agreement on variables such as delivery, terms and, of course price, good negotiating skills will bring the sale to successful completion. Here are six essentials:

One – Plan:

Never go into a negotiation without a plan. Do your homework. What do you know about the individual you are negotiating with? What is their personality style? How can you adjust your style to be more effective with them? What information do you want to disclose or keep confidential? What is the time frame for this negotiation? Go through some of the other points below and write this information down.

Two – Have a collaboration mindset:

Most negotiations involve parties with which you want to have a long term, mutually profitable relationship with. You will only be able to protect and nurture this relationship if an agreement is reached that is truly win win. Enter the negotiation with this in mind and test the commitment of the other party to a win win, collaborative solution. If both parties agree that an agreement will be easier to reach if creativity, openness and collaboration prevail, the negotiation will have a much greater chance of delivering a successful deal.

Three – Make a concession list:

Make a list of all the things that you could give up and all the things they could give up in the negotiation. Then put two columns beside each, one for cost and the for value. By doing this, you will be better able to give up concessions that cost you little (but have high value to the customer) while accepting concessions in return that have high value to you.

Four – Uncover goals: 

Make a list of goals from your point of view and the other party’s point of view. These should include objective and subjective goals along with business and personal. If you’re not sure of some of the goals of the other party, make an educated guess for now and attempt to confirm them during the negotiation.

Five – Don’t counter immediately:

When an offer is made, resist the urge to make a counter offer immediately. A person’s resistance to another person’s idea is the greatest immediately after they’ve given their own. Instead, explore it with the other party. Ask questions like, “Why do you think this might make sense for both of us? How exactly would that work in this area?” Probe for this solution meeting the win win criteria and show that you are truly considering it. If it doesn’t meet win win, state why it doesn’t work and then slowly come back by saying something like, “Something such as (terms) might work because . . .”

Six – Know your walk away point:

The goal of the negotiation is not just to produce an agreement. It’s to produce an agreement that works for both parties and protects the relationship. Know what the minimum terms are for you to accept an agreement. Understand that no agreement might be the best alternative. We call this your “BATNA” or the Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. By knowing your BATNA, you will prevent being driven into a deal that works for the customer but not for you.

You or your team can learn how to master these steps plus learn many more strategies to successful negotiation in Northbound’s “Goal Aligned™ Negotiations“.