Are you trading or negotiating?

Hey everyone! Coming back at you once again with a helpful strategy and mindset that has really helped me with my selling (again all credit to WBD)

It's trading! (Not "negotiation")

For me the key points are:

1) Its not just about price! When we are working with prospects, many times our first inclination is to toss out a discount and see if it sticks.. I've done this many times and I can tell you firsthand that it does work sometimes, but ultimately you are leaving money on the table. Discounting too many deals can be the difference between hitting Presidents Club or just missing your #.

We need to explore all over the LEVERS that matter to prospects.

2) Understand levers: price matters... so does payment terms, contract length, level of support, etc...

When you explore the different levers that matter to your customer, you may find that just lowering the cost isnt helpful, if you had just perhaps made the payment terms more favorable like Net90 instead of NET30, as an example, you could of gotten the deal without that discount. This has helped me tremendously!

3) When you are "trading" with a prospect lay everything out in your proposal UNEMOTIONALLY, and when they have an ask MIRROR their response.

Prospect: "Can I pay month to month?"

You: "“Let me make sure I understand you. You said that instead of a one-year contract, you want to go month-to-month.”

Then ask "What else?" -> have them lay out their asks in its entirety so you can then prioritize what you can do for them vs what you cant.

If they ask for a discount and you say Yes, now they will ask for better payment terms, you say yes so they ask for another thing and then another thing and so on and so forth and you are in a weaker position to negotiate.

After you are done trading ask for commitment - "are you prepared to make a decision today?" and then set an expiration date on the offer outlined.

Again, simple concept but the idea of trading and laying everything for them and having them lay out all their asks has helped me closed deals fast, earn more trust with my prospects, and ultimately stop discounting so much.

I hope this helps and I'd love to hear how others are approaching this.