Effective communication skills and knowing how to overcome objections during sales negotiations are vitally important for sales professionals. Learning and practicing negotiation techniques, receiving feedback, and investing in professional development opportunities are also invaluable ways to further hone your abilities.
As part of any sales negotiation, it’s essential to prioritize long-term relationships and place value ahead of price when discussing solutions. Showing how beneficial they are can help disarm objections to purchasing and secure sales.
1. Understand the Objections
Experienced sales professionals understand the importance of managing objections when selling. If someone objects, saying they don’t have time or money for purchasing, you must investigate why and then provide solutions that can help overcome their obstacle.
Many standard sales training programs on how to handle sales objections provide overly generic or vague advice such as, “Try listening”. While this advice might sound good in theory, it doesn’t equip sales reps with the tools to effectively do this task.
Forbes Coaches Council host Jeff Bajorek has provided some gold-standard best practices for handling objections and negotiations that are supported by solid academic research. By keeping your ego in check, acknowledging objections respectfully and returning to the core problem that needs solving, tense negotiations can become productive discussions with lasting effects – perfect for improving long-term results! Make the journey and discover refined knowledge, strategic awareness and confidence on this path towards improving selling and negotiation abilities.
2. Demonstrate Value
No matter the situation – be it haggling over garden gnomes at a garage sale or negotiating a sales contract – discussing money can be uncomfortable. Top sellers understand this fact and use price as an opportunity to demonstrate value.
Trust and long-term customer relationships depend upon authenticity. Demonstrating genuine interest in each buyer’s concerns, needs, and preferences through active listening and open-ended questions allows you to provide solutions that exceed their expectations.
Consider setting your BATNA (Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement) before entering negotiations; this gives you a sense of what your “walk away from” point is and can help prevent you from losing money or alienating customers. While it might not be popular among some people, setting this ground rule before an engagement can help protect both parties involved from losing too much.
3. Negotiate Mutually Beneficial Terms
Once you’ve addressed all of the prospect’s inquiries and objections, it’s time to negotiate the terms of a deal – this includes price, delivery dates, warranty policies, payment terms etc. To successfully negotiate these details you need to be both flexible and creative – thinking like a game of chess by evaluating trade-offs on comparative value (i.e. bishop is worth more than knight).
To negotiate the optimal terms, it’s essential to perform extensive research on your prospects, their companies and products/services offered. Doing this research will enable you to establish your value proposition and BATNA threshold while giving a firm foundation for creating win-win negotiations.
4. Ask for the Sale
Forming long-term customer relationships through honest and authentic dialogue is of utmost importance. By actively listening to understand a buyer’s challenges, goals, and preferences you will be better equipped to tailor your sales pitch and negotiate an outcome which benefits both parties involved.
Negotiating deals does not depend solely on price; how a product or service fills a need can often be more influential. Use persuasive language such as “because” to emphasize benefits and “save/free” for emphasizing value.
Mastering the Art of Sales Negotiation: Techniques and Tips is a guide designed to give business executives psychological, tactical, and strategic negotiation insights that will enable them to break through deadlocks and achieve win-win outcomes that benefit both their clientele as well as themselves. This book should become essential reading for anyone involved with sales – from frontline reps all the way through executive directors – who seeks an edge during negotiations.