Archive for the ‘Sales Stories’ Category

When Buyer’s Use Negotiation Tactics

January 10, 2012 by Scott Olsen

How many times have your heard a customer sing the sad song of an “erratic economy” or “unstable financial times” as a way to get deep discounts. This tactic, or negotiation trick, is known as “violins.” While some companies are experiencing very trying times, this isn’t true of all corporations. Borrowing from Charles Dickens, I’d say it’s been the best of times for some corporations and the worst of times for others. Even the companies who are experiencing the “best of times” are using “violins” to get amazing prices. These “well off” companies have told me, “just because we’re not suffering financially does’t mean we shouldn’t be able to get in on the great deals.” The best sales professionals have learned to approach the negotiation process as a game.

So, how does the effective sales person deal with buyer tactics and avoid becoming a victim? The first step is recognizing a tactic. A negotiation tactic can come in many forms and by definition is a gambit or probe used by the buyer to expose and/or weaken the sales person’s position. The important thing to remember is that negotiation tactics are not demands, they are bluffs made up by a buyer to get “unreasonable” deals from the seller.

Once you’ve recognized the tactic, the best way to deal with the tactic is to neutralize it by countering the buyer’s tactic with a seller tactic. It may seem counterintuitive to some, but it is essential that the buyer understands that the sales person is on to the buyer’s games and that the sales person can play this win/lose game too, and perhaps even better. Once the buyer believes he or she can’t beat you at this type of  ”game” you may have a chance to raise the negotiation from the win/lose level to the balanced level. The balanced level deals with real demands and is typified by “quid pro quo.”

Some of the most common tactics I see are “competition,” “hoops” and the “fritz.” And let’s not forgot the all time classic, “your price is too high.” As the name implies, “competition” is when a buyer says something like, “I may have to look and see if your competition is willing to meet my needs.”

Hoops

You might be experiencing “hoops” if a customer asks you to do a series of worthless tasks without a clear end in sight.

Although “hoops” may be one of the most frustrating tactics to get caught up in, it can also be one of the easiest tactics to counter, by asking the customer, “if I fulfill your request, do we have a deal?”

Fritz

The “fritz” tactic can be the most intimidating to experience and usually comes across as loud and abrasive language in response to something you’ve said, usually immediately after you’ve shared your price.

In summary, the first step in dealing with buyer tactics is awareness. The second step is to neutralize the buyer’s tactic by countering or exposing their tactics. For example, if a customer uses “fritz” on you, you may counter with your own “fritz” or any other tactic. Any tactic can counter a tactic.

Balanced Agreements

Warning! When you engage in win/lose negotiation, typified by either or both sides using tactics, there is always a chance your negotiation could end is lose/lose. If you are adept at countering or exposing tactics, you may be able to raise the level of negotiation to balanced or possibly win/win.

Buyer’s negotiation tactics are not demands, they are games. Tactics are designed to fool or trick you into caving and lowering your price. A customer demand, by definition, is a deal maker or deal breaker. The wise sales person can tell the difference. When a customer makes a demand, you are in prime position to make own your demand of equal or greater value. Recently, one of my clients experienced a negotiation that went like this… The seller requested 50% payment up front and 50% upon delivery of services, with payment terms of net 10 days. The buyer stated that their policy is to pay in net 30 days. In response, the seller said he could go along with the “net 30″ if the buyer allowed the seller to submit the invoice at 100% immediately. The buyer agreed. In the end, the seller was delayed the initial 1/2 payment up front, but received the full payment earlier than originally expected.

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Categories: Creating Ideal Customers, Executive Selling, Sales Management, Sales Skills, Sales Stories, Selling in Difficult Times, Tactical Selling Skills, Uncategorized, negotiation skills, professional development

Effective Negotiation Skills

May 21, 2010 by Scott Olsen

How important is your ability to negotiate, your ability to get what you want and/or need from others? My friend’s daughter wanted to play volleyball in college after a successful high school career. She was accepted into Seattle Pacific University for her academics and the volley ball coach welcomed her onto the team, but didn’t offer her a scholarship. My friend suggested that his daughter specifically ask for a scholarship. After a little more prompting and motivation, my friend’s daughter did ask, and she did receive… a half scholarship! A huge value!

In the book, Women Don’t Ask, by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, they note that “By neglecting to negotiate her starting salary for her first job, a women may sacrifice over half a million dollars in lost earnings by the end of her career…” Imagine what effective negotiation skills might mean to you in your personal life, professional career and your ability to make a major impact for your company.

I’d love to hear about the biggest negotiated win you’ve achieved and how you did it! Please share in the space below.

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Categories: Differentiating You, Sales Management, Sales Stories, Tactical Selling Skills, career development, negotiation skills

The Oldest Negotiation Tactic in the Book

January 22, 2010 by Scott Olsen

My client met with a prospect who was interested in consulting services to help streamline product development cycles. During the visit, the President said, “we could really use your help, but we don’t have a budget for this, give us your best pricing and we’ll see what we can do.” Not having budget and not having resources to pay for services are two different things. Listen closely to your prospects and customers, but don’t let negotiation tactics get you down. When it’s time to present your proposal, make sure you share with your prospect you listened and understood his/her concerns about expenses. Point out specifically how you’ve taken his/her comments into consideration into your proposal to make sure you can meet the confirmed needs and budget requirements.

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Categories: Negotiation, Prospecting, Sales Skills, Sales Stories, Trust and Credibility

Negotiating for What You Want

July 1, 2009 by Scott Olsen

What you don’t negotiate can cost you.
You’ll never know what you can get unless you negotiate for it. The following story is a reminder to me that “negotiation” is a skill that has to be learned, developed, and thoughtfully put into action to work.

Do you ever wonder how much you are paying for your airline seat compared to what the person paid for the seat next to yours? How about what the person at your athletic club is paying to use the same equipment as you each month? And finally, how about the office space next to your office? Well, one of my career development clients just learned the hard way. She was paying $1300/month for a one person interior space with no windows. She was told that the one person office across the hall with the beautiful windows with the forest view was $1800/month. When she asked if their was any room to negotiate, the response was “no.”  A few months go by and she starts to talk with person who ended up leasing the window space across the hall and learned that he was paying $1300/month. After she got over her frustration that she was paying the same as him without the window…, she asked how he got that rate? He replied he asked the management firm to match another (less desirable) space across town or he would walk. He used the “competition” tactic like a pro and it worked!

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Categories: Negotiation, Sales Stories, Tactical Selling Skills

Selling in Difficult Times

April 17, 2009 by Scott Olsen

A good friend of mine shared a short story with me about a software sales person who told his boss,  “I can’t sell anything… half the country is unemployed!” The boss replied, “Then sell the other half.” I love that story!

Based on first hand experiences and the situations I help my clients deal with, these are very difficult economics times with countless examples of empowered CFO’s scrutinizing every current decision as well as reviewing any past decisions to explore ways to unwind or minimize their expenses. In the big picture, economies go up and down, trends come a go, but solutions to problems never go out of style.

Are you selling products or solving problems?

-Scott Olsen

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Categories: Sales Skills, Sales Stories

Don’t Give Up!

March 18, 2009 by gviggiano

You have a solid sales process that used to produce lots of money per sales rep, but now is producing next to nothing. What went wrong?
The answer is that the clients started answering your questions with vague answers.  When the person asked for clarification, the client would stall the sales rep with things like we have a few things to check, budget, time lines, etc. The truth: they just were too scared to be honest with us!
Salespeople are numb to the fact that people are not buying.  When you make your follow up calls, they tell you that it’s tied up in budget…but to check back again.  So you wait to follow up, with answers to their questions, but you get stalled again. It’s not until you dig further that you are made aware of the true problem: they aren’t buying and have no idea when that will change.  So as any good salesperson, you dive into your list and start the process again. But the changes are apparent at all companies…there just not telling you!

So we present our sales leaders with some difficult choices. What do we do? Do we just give up? Offer them free terms?

You just need to ask tougher questions. Instead of asking questions about budget, ask questions about their intent to buy. Do you intend to buy this? What will cause this situation to change? Why are they looking to make a change? Where else are they looking? If they have to decide today, will we win or lose? Why? Is anything going on in the company that we need to know about? If you get the answers to these questions, at least you’ll know the status of the deals and now your pipeline becomes real.

Just try it today and let me know if it works.

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Categories: Executive Selling, Major Account Selling, Questioning Skills, Sales Skills, Sales Stories, Tactical Selling Skills

Prospecting is Not For Dummies

December 16, 2008 by Scott Olsen

One of my favorite stories about prospecting happened when AT&T was broken up into the baby bells and their “sales people” experienced their first taste of competition. A vice president of sales was speaking to a large group of sales people. He was going on and on about how they would need to adjust their approach now that they had real competition. They would have to be proactive and go out their and prospect for new business… they couldn’t just wait for the customer’s to call them.  He went on for a few minutes until one of the sales people raised his hand and asked, “What’s prospecting!”

When salespeople struggle to achieve their numbers, the first questions I ask are “How are you prospecting?” and “How are you closing?” Through my experience in talking with, observing others as well as studying my own conscience, prospecting can be a very thrilling, anxiety ridden, stressful and empowering experience. It reminds me of exercising, because it doesn’t always sound like fun, but I’m always better for it afterwards.

What does your prospecting experiences remind you of…?

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Categories: Prospecting, Sales Skills, Sales Stories, Selling in Difficult Times, sell, selling

The End of the Never-ending Sales Cycle

August 13, 2008 by Scott Olsen

Need-Urgency-Money

Often, sales people are adept at confirming need and money within a sales opportunity, but struggle with urgency… Recently, two different corporate clients shared very similar experiences about their prospective customer situations. Both clients were engaged with prospects who were demonstrating a great deal of interest in their products and services and had the resources to make a purchase. While the interest seemed high and the feedback was positive, the prospects weren’t making a final decision. The sales cycle just kept going on and on and on…

Critical Events

When I asked about the critical events in the sales cycle, both clients responded with the usual answers I hear initially from participants in my sales training classes. They suggested the critical events in their sales were things like… the date of their next meeting scheduled with the customer, the date their proposals were due, the date the customer said they would make a decision, and the end of their quarter to achieve their bonuses. The best sales professional I work with are very aware of the “real” critical events in their sales opportunities that make a difference. The critical events I’m suggesting are the ones that are critically important to your customers. These are the critical events that your customer’s really care about. These events are usually independent of anything you are doing. Some examples might be:  the launch of your prospect’s new product, a trade show where the prospect is exhibiting or presenting, your prospect’s board meeting, your prospect’s end or beginning of their fiscal year, an important anniversary date for your prospect, or the launch of your prospect’s new advertising campaign.

Examples

The best sale professionals uncover critical events in their customer’s world that they can tie their sale too or they create a critical event that their customer believes in that they can tie their sale too. For example, one client who builds and maintains websites started asking their prospects when their anniversary date of their business occurs and suggested that date as a date to launch and advertise the redesign of their website. Another example from a company that provides web analytics was to identify any major advertising campaigns where it would be even more important to ensure the accurate tracking of people to their customer’s sites. By tying the sale of their products and services to the customers’ critical events, they increased their success rate shortened the average sales cycle.

What critical events are important in your sales?

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Categories: Sales Skills, Sales Stories, Uncategorized, professional development, sell, selling

Establishing Trust and Credibility

July 22, 2008 by Scott Olsen

No Trust No Sale.

As animals, we sense things before our minds have a chance to think things through. We can sense if someone is being authentic, vulnerable and real verses hiding behind a mask or being guarded. 

What instantly imbues trust and credibility?

This is a question that is at the very core of my work as an executive coach and trainer. I had the opportunity to witness first hand the rise of a Regional Account Manager to the position of VP of Sales of a very large and successful software company. We hadn’t talked for over 7 years. In the interim, he left the company amid many changes, including several executive team transitions. With a new CEO on board, he was recruited to come back, not as a Regional Account Manager, but as their VP of Sales with an offer he couldn’t refuse. What was it about him? One of the things was the ability to establish instant rapport with others, especially his ability to do this over the phone with his customers with only the use of his voice. He left me a simple voice message about needing to miss a meeting I inviting him to. I was so impressed by it, I saved it to play it back to participants in my sales training courses (Tactical Selling Skills). In addition to being relevant and personalizing the message, what made his message authentic was the tone of his voice, inflection and pace. His thoughtfulness came through, as he used humor, laughter and vulnerability to explain why he hadn’t called earlier because he was at his daughters art class while his wife was traveling.

What establishes trust and credibility with you?

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Categories: Differentiating You, Engaging Your Customers, Sales Skills, Sales Stories, Trust and Credibility, selling

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