Preparing for Sales Negotiation Conversations

before the other side believes we're negotiating. And frequently that sounds like customer facing activities, and there's a lot of them, but it also implies preparation because what's the old idea, right, preparation equals readiness, and there's a lot that could be thrown at us in negotiations, customer facing negotiations that we got to be ready for. So starting early also means preparing. But it's a very very powerful concept. But just think

of this if prep isn't your thing. About readiness, the thing I want to mention Rachel for people to understand is readiness for what part of the negotiation process, right, props, Because prep is a little different. Here, am I in the early stage of the negotiation process, mid stage, late stage, So I think we'll probably get into talking a little bit about some of the core concepts for early, mid to late But just to frame our conversation a little bit,

it's preparation. Preparational lined with where I happen to be at the process.

Things like that, Things that are set or done to try and create a frame of reference for the negotiation. So when you think about anchors, they occur all the time, there's no question about it, and we have to be ready for those. But early stage anchors, Rachel, all the data suggests that early stage anchors have a profound impact on how the whole conversation negotiation you're going to go and what gets included that creates value for both sides.

Early stage anchors, I want you to think about them when when you talk about readiness, have a plan. It's not just a defensive plan. We tell people all the time, know what anchors are so you could recognize them so that you don't unintentionally become a victim. Someone says, oh, your competitor is really offering an aggressive price. That's an example of an anchor. We're all used to hearing that one, right, But imagine if that comes out at the beginning and

it's said a little bit more professionally. Hey, listen, your competitor has some challenges, true, but those challenges aren't insurmountable. And just so you know, a lot of what's made us easier for us to handle those challenges, or their pricing is unbelievable, or their service, what they're willing to do, or what they include, or their technologies got some advantages years. Those are the kind of things that get said seemingly

casually early in the conversation. But imagine, let's just go with the one I just talked about, they got some technology advantages that you don't have. If I get anchored on that early, imagine the impact that can have on the rest of the conversation. So anchors, they have a profound impact on the negotiation. Early stage anchors have a kind of an oversized impact on how the whole conversation goes.

So one part of it is recognize them when they happen, so you don't unintentionally get pulled into that that as the reality. It's just an anchor. But let's keep in mind something else, Rachel. If they can anchor, we can anchor. They might anchor to create vulnerability for us early. We can anchor early on to expand the conversation to bring

more things in. Yes, technology is important, and you should have the most advanced technology, But so are integrations right, So is reporting right, so is user acceptance right, leveraging data right. So you can have a lot of advanced technology, which is great, but if your people can't use it, it doesn't work within your tech stack. It's a problem. So I might want to have my own early stage

anchoring strategy. Now, as I said, anchoring can occur along, but that's a big one think about early stage anchoring. They may do it purposely, they may do it unintentionally because it's just the way they roll. We should have a plan on anticipating what they are, what are we going to be hearing from them, know how to manage it in the moment, but also have our own plan for anchors we're going to try and establish early to broaden the conversation and to make sure we don't overrotate

on one thing and miss something else. Because at the end of the day, Rachel, we all know our job is to help make sure a customer doesn't buy an unintentional mistake, and sometimes our anchoring helps them remember things or know things that will keep them from buying mistake. So anchoring is a very very important part of preparation, not only in anticipation what you might run into, but our own anchoring strategy.

at the end as much as we do. We dislike it when they bring somebody new in it, there's another consideration, or they throw something at us late. You know, it's like, ah, well,

they don't like it when we do it either. So one of the things about why I think figuring out our give gets strategy is more of a mid stage is when we start that part of the process for me to start thinking internally the internal negotiation, what some of the give gets I'm starting to map out socialized internally in my own organization, make sure I've got a level of alignment on the things that we do want and the things we might be willing to trade to

be able to get there. So there's an internal side of give gits. And then once I've got some clarity on that, at least initially, guess what I can start

anchoring into the conversation. The things that we're interested in, like a deal by the end of this quarter would be important to our organization, Like including our premium service package might be something that's valuable to work them, having someone like you in an industry that we're targeting, being willing to do a case study, or be able to talk about your success at a user event, whatever those things might be. Hey, as long as we're talking about

it right now, looks like we're on a path. I know you're not committee yet, but maybe it makes sense for us to exchange some legal documents and me to be in contact with your legal team to start working through master agreements and things like that, because we are moving kind of fast here, so we might need to do things in pillow. All I'm doing is anchoring into the conversation midstage some of the things that will make

this a great deal for us as well. Don't want to give surprises to people at the end with my give gifts, like I offer something, I ask for something in return, and they say, where'd that come from? You know what? Why am I just finding out about this right now? I want to start that early externally with the customer, internally with my team to make sure everybody's

on board. I know it doesn't happen every listener that's going to be listening in us, Rachel, but sometimes the left hand in the right hand in our own organization don't always align on what the gift gets ought to be be great if we started with an approved list of things to think about. Some of our clients have those, but you don't need an approve list to start that process early internally, start anchoring in the conversation with the customer so that when you get to those points middle

towards the latter stages of the negotiation. You've got a foundation of give gets, you can't start working with which, By the way, Rachel, sometime the give gets is the process like negotiate how we're going to negotiate. Yeah, I want to make sure everybody's ready for this year end deal. I might need to negotiate access and timing on the decision process for example. So a lot to be said there, but early stage anchoring, yes, or a curse throughout? Good

to have our early stage anchoring strategy. Give gets, start mapping them out and anchoring them into the conversation with customer mid stage.

activity shaping. Multiple options The basic idea for those of you that don't recall on it, old Rachel, you'll put some links into the show or some other conversations we had on that, but multiple options is basically dispelling the myth that I'm moving towards one final proposal to a customer. What multiple options are intended to do is to present multiple pass forward to a customer framed against different business

outcomes they're reaching. It's not the option one, Option two, Option three, the premium package from US, the Premium Plus package, and then the ultimate package. That's what you get at a car wash. This is not a car wash. We're dealing with more complex situations. We like to frame multiple options around things that would be motivating to the economic buyer in there. This is the low cost, maximize efficiency approach.

This is the expand into new markets approach. It is the drive flexibility into our data management press, whatever it is. But we're framing, building, titling these options around something that would be motivating to the economic buyer to invest in. And then below each of those branded topics, we would create a bundle of package that we believe would help them achieve that based on our discovery, based on our anchoring, probably including some give gits. But it's not just one.

It might be two, it might be three. Now, the science behind using multiple options, Rachel, is I'm not trying to convince someone of everything in my one option. I'm trying to present different pass forwards so that can happen. Remember I said it was mid to late stage. I may present some directional options coming out of discovery and say, hey, I see two or three different ways we could go.

Which way makes the most sense to you. I may be in a scenario, Rachel, where the technical buyer is suggesting one thing, the finance people might be suggesting something else, and the end users might be suggesting something else, and I might not know early on which is kind of the most dominant thought there. I may share some or

you know, some mid stage directional options without pricing. Just say hey, we could go this way, this way, or this way, and listen to how they respond which one of those directions resonates most that I could go forward later stage, I might be presenting recommendations across two or three different outcomes they're trying to achieve and create a bundle of what goes on now. The logic of presenting multiple options, Rachel is I can say, hey, here's one right,

this will meet one of your needs. The people in the technical buyers, this is what they were looking for, the finance team, they were looking for this. Here's another approach we could take. The end users they were looking for this out come. Here's another approach we could take it, and here's what goes on behind it. What we know, Rachel, is every once in a while a customers say, oh,

I'll take this one. I'm the technical buyer, it's my money, we're the ones, and everybody's on board that we're going with this one. But you know what happens most often, Rachel, someone says this one over here for the technical buyer. That makes a lot of sense to me. But I do like these two things from the one you created for the finance people and their interests and I like these two things from the end user. One. What have we just done. We've opened up the door for trading.

Our give gets Rachel right, and now we're trading back and forth to reach an agreement. So multiple options, Why is this part of preparation? You do not create multiple options in the moment. It's not I come up with these at the variant. You're building them again, socializing them. I like, before I present multiple options, make sure everyone internally is on board with a couple different approaches. We

might need to take my champion. I like to enlist my champion and helping me frame those multiple options in the most motivating way. You know, A multiple options sometimes is aligned with one functional areas interest and I and another one but another functional areas interesting. I want my champion give me some guidance on this and then guess what. I also have to have my team being clear on

what we're trying to get. So multiple options a very powerful way to design trading into the end of the negotiation process as opposed to mandates for concessions, but building them out and building them out in a way that doesn't look manipular. We've all had bad options shared with us Rachel, you can have this thing that's exactly what you want. It's a little more expensive, a little more COMPLAIX,

but this is exactly what you want. Or I can sell you this other thing that by comparison won't even be close to what you're looking for, but I'm giving you a lower price option. You know it's those options appear to be manipulative, and I know as a buyer, I'm supposed to go with your high priced one. That's what you're trying to get me to do. Doesn't take a very sophisticated buyer to see through that. That's why framing the options around a viable business interests, giving them

the guidance on what goes inside. It's such a better approach than saying, here's a one size fits all that I've probably inflated in the anticipation you're going to want to take things out. What I'm doing, I'm shooting myself in the foot for the future, Rachel, right design mandates for concession into the way I present my recommendation. I'd rather freate a scenario where we're trading back and forth to reach agreement. That's what multiple options do. Yeah, gotta

prep them in advance. Internally, you gotta practice sharing them. You got to enable some support from champions or others, and then you've got to be able to deliver them and be able to adjust them along the way. Anchors give gits and multiple options. Guess what, By the time we get to multiple options, it's just a big old anchor. It involves a lot of back and forth, give gits, and it's a way to drive agreement towards the end. So we picked three things to talk about here. They're challenging.

Can't do them in the moment, got to prepare for them in advance, be ready. But they all three intertwined with one another to really help us both create and capture value in the negotiation for both sid.