Benefits to negotiation when your financially stable.

The best sales advice I've ever received was, "get out of debt, then hope for the best, plan for the worst".


When in debt, I needed deals to close to make my monthly payments (car, rent, utilities, etc.) so when they didn't come in, I had to take on credit card debt which makes the hole much worse to dig out of; we've all been here. We get desperate and the customer can smell it/management gets ticked. It's a bad situation.


When I got out of debt, and had about 6 months of savings, I've been able to tell multiple customers, "I don't need this deal done, but you do." Very little negotiation, maybe missed goal every couple of months, but who cares when you don't need the money. If management needs the deal done, they need to work with you to get it done vs. you begging them to get it done.


I'm not talking about "enough money to retire" type money. I'm talking about, I can take a "live on the edge"/ "don't need to take that from you customer" type money. We all got into sales one way or another, but one of the biggest motivators to us is money.


I'm not going to tell you how to get out of debt, or even that all debt is bad, blah blah blah. Just mitigate any risk and you can get a little risky!


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1
Coffeesforclosers
Notable Contributor
0
Director Sales and Market Development
Being able to afford my life and some extras is a great feeling. Congrats on the same. Never said that to a prospect though, cause I want more. My product isn't life changing either and plenty of competition so that line would kill me where I stand.ย 
YoungMoney
Good Citizen
0
Director of Sales
@Coffeesforclosersย - It does help to be in a more niche market. When I was a BDR, I sourced $7.5M in pipeline (5 deals) going into the final day of the fiscal year. I woke up the next day and all 5 deals had been sold by the 3 AEs, for a combined $920K. I got comped on that all closing nicely, but significantly less than $7.5M would have. I was more confused than mad.ย 

As an AE at a smaller org, I found that comp structures favored ARR, so if I had to miss a quarter to bring in significantly more ARR a week later, I was willing to have that conversation with mgmt.ย 

Obviously you gotta do what you gotta do, but being debt free doesn't make me feel emotionally as desperate to get the deal done.ย 
Coffeesforclosers
Notable Contributor
1
Director Sales and Market Development
Totally, makes sense. Arr is life for sure. Good stuff man, keep closing!ย 
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
0
โ˜•๏ธ
Lewis Hamilton doesn't drop to the midfield pack and coast when he's already secured the F1 Championship with three races left. No, he keeps trying to win because that's what he does, he wins races.

If you're not motivated to keep winning, even with the bag secured, then why are you still in the game?
YoungMoney
Good Citizen
1
Director of Sales
@poweredbycaffeineย - Great question. I'm not unmotivated. I'm just saying I don't have to drop my shorts and bend over at the end of a quarter or year to get a deal done. I feel like a lot of organizations give up too much in ARR or ACV when the customer pinches them into a corner like that. I used to be the rookie rep that just said, "Okay let me see what I can do!", run to mgmt, get chewed out and given different negotiations to relay. I want to be better than an errand boy.

I also can test new negotiation tactics that are better for me/the company. That's what I really mean by "mitigating risk so you can get risky".ย 
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
0
โ˜•๏ธ
Fair enough! So long as you're not idling for the sake of pride then I can see where your tactics can drive value rather than show lack of interest. Good on ya.
3

What would you do? Good culture, product-market fit/tech, growth potential - questionable manager, no equity, low pay

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What kind of benefits do you negotiate with a company if you plan to stay long term?

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More Money? or More Equity?

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Money v Equity
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