You Told Me

little bit of a different way. And we are able to negotiate great outcomes, great deals in our sales process when we understand the value we're providing and also the scope of the problem that we're trying to solve. So let's start there, Tim, what things do I need to be thinking thinking about so I have the information I need when I'm trying to get that final signature and everything's coming up right yep.

start with the end in mind. What if the end is the customer achieves the success they were looking for when they started talking to us from the beginning, And why that's important is we can expand the negotiation to create more value for the customer, more value from us if we look beyond the close of the commitment, whether that's a deal, whether that's a subscription, whether it's a consumption, whatever the model is, looking at the endgame, there adds

additional consideration. So one of the things I want to think about now is to shift the conversation potentially from what our solution might be, who the competitors are, what our differentiators are, price will come up at some point, and not forget about them what happens. So that's an important part of our conversation, and from a negotiation standpoint, that's expanding the potential solution, but also potentially our negotiating position.

If our organization has a strong track record of successful not just implementation, to helping customers achieve their outcomes, that's an advantage for us. And I want to make sure that if we have all resources local to support them, we've got a structure that provides dedicated account management or ongoing support, or our training or our customer success team, if those are part of our differentiators, I definitely want to include that. So that's one aspect of starting with

the end in mind. So the first one, let's think beyond the clothes, think to their success. I think the second thing we can focus on now and reverse engineer from the reality we want is to broaden our view and the customer's view of things. One of the things that I've said frequently Rachel is a little tongue in

cheek thing. You know, fifty three percent of negotiating is selling, and then right after that value usually say people that quote percentages probably don't have any clue whether that's accurate or not. But the idea is pretty much the same, which is, there is a lot of negotiation utility in early to mid stage selling. And one of the biggest ones is our old friend attaching to the biggest problem.

What is it that we are going to be trying to help the customer solve and make sure we're attaching it is probably because that brings a lot of benefits. Number One, it probably expands the size scope of the solution they will need. It very likely impacts more than the people we're talking to. So you know, I want to make sure I'm attaching the biggest problem. I also want to make sure I'm broadening my view not just of the people making the decision, but those that will

be impacted by it. Is there someone let's say we're selling a technology solution. Is there someone in the user community that will be impacted by this decision? Is there some type of integration consideration that would have an impact on it that might not be part of the decision process. Does it have an impact on our sales team, the

success team, the marketing team. And when I attach to the biggest problem, I not only broaden the customers understanding of what it takes to move from where they're at to where they want to be, but also it likely expands the influence structure. We call that usually the collective. Yes, who are the folks that could have an impact on the way the decision gets made? Several of whom we're

focused on in the middle of that. But if you think of concentric rings, as we get to the outer edges of those rings, there are some very influential people that might not even know but decision is about to be made. That could impact them. So what could I focus on? Now, how do I change my thinking? Now

I'm broadening that view of the problem. I'm broadening that view of the political landscape or the players that are involved, but also the players that could be impacted to make sure their interests are included in the scope of what we're proposing. And guess what, here's let's bring a couple dots together. They're the ones that are impacted long after the deal is signed and the customer starting to engage

in implement So those things kind of come together. And when I think about those, then the last thing that comes into play is getting at those underlying interests of those folks to influence their view of their requirements or the decision criteria. So, you know, those are three things I like to focus on early. Now, last thing, while we're doing all that, let's not forget there's a lot of tactics flying early on. People that buy for a living don't wait till the end to use their tactics.

They're throwing them at us all along, So recognizing what they are making us feel like we're vulnerable to a competitor or you know, our pricings outline or where we always try and sell to it. Whatever they say, take it into account. And what I've always found, Rachel, is if I am focused on their biggest problems and I'm leveraging the expertise that our organization brings to solving those problems and our track record, I've got a pretty good defense when I say this is the full scope and

someone says, well, we don't need that much. Well, in our experience, you do, and let me tell you why. And I'm talking about other functional areas that I expanded the conversation to. If they tell us your too high priced, if I've done a good job, influencer requirements or decision criteria said yes, because we give you everything you need, others have to compromise and give you a discount because they can't give you everything we can. So it just

starts building our negotiation position way early. All saying we say all the time, right, Rachel, begin the negotiation process before the other side believes we're negotiating. Well. A twist of that is make sure when you're in your sales process you have an eye towards where this is all going in the negotiation. And the good news is everything you do in selling to improve your competitiveness also improves your negotiating position towards the end.

in a second. We talked a lot about the problem you're solving, the pain, the implications, broading out that influence structure to see who cares about it and how you can align to those underlying interest but also in the discovery, i'd love you to and you hit a couple of these, but maybe we can just be a little bit more deliberate about the things that I'm listening for that's going to help me craft that final deal. And I know we've talked about anchors before in some other conversations and

you always say to acknowledge them. And it made me thank Tim of a contract we were negotiating just a little bit ago where in the first call, the length of the contract came up and I was like, that's going to be a problem right from the get go, because I knew it would be. And guess what, weeks later, it was still the same problem. It just sort of like blew by it and then it ended up at

the end being like the main point of negotiation. So I'd love to get your perspective on recognizing those other things to what you need to listen for to craft the final deal, because I think we know about influencers problems like that, there's those other things that can really help our deal if we're listening for them.

expanding with. Early stage, I think a lot of what we should focus on to be listening for is all about that idea was talking about attaching to the biggest problem. What's the big problem. Let's help them define what it is to broaden their understanding of not just what the problem is. But Rachel, I'm always looking for what's the impact that that has, and so early stage discovery, I'm spend a lot of time in those really sophisticated follow up questions, why is that? Who? Besides will you would

be impacted by that? When does that come into play? Tell me about what happens when you know. So, I'm spending a lot of time early stage. So what am I listening for? I'm listening for other functional groups that might be impacted upstream, downstream. I'm looking for any kind of quantification and also emotions. I'm going to ask questions early stage discovery to put them in the moment of the pain or the challenge. This is slowing down decision making. Okay,

walk me through that right now. What happens when your team gets a request for data and someone wants to report, and it takes you seven days to get back to them. Seven days, all right, and you're doing all you can because you got data all over the place. You got to do things manually. What's the call you get at day five? What's the call? What's the conversation you have to have on day one when they put in the request and you're setting expectations for sevent days. What's their

impression of your department? I like to, you know, really dig in there and expand their view of the problem. Now you use the word anchors, Rachel, early stage, mid stage, late stage. These are just the things that people say or do that impact the frame of reference for the sale or the negotiation. So early on, there's an offensive side, there's a defensive side. What do I mean by that offensive?

What are the things I'm going to do to try and anchor additional considerations into the frame or reference for their view the problem? Who else is impacted by it when that occurs? What are the measurements? What are the metrics that tell you how bad it is when it occurs? What's the impact on their aparts, your business, your seven days? What does that do to the decision making? What does that do to product launch? What does that do to

responsiveness the customer's on I'm expanding that. That's I'll call call that, you know, a way that I add anchors to the process. When I sat offensive, I didn't mean make them mad. I meant you're doing something there. But you got to be mindful for the anchors that are coming at you, someone like you, Rachel, that says your contract is way too long and it's going to be problematic. Now, in some cases those are real We got to pay attention to them, right, and other cases is just what

they do. Your competitors are, they're way ahead of you on this. Hmm. I got three competitors. This one's ahead on A, this one's ahead on B, this one's ahead on C. But none of them do ABC like we do. So I could fall victim to that anchor. Defensively, I got to recognize what those are. So yeah, early on it's focused on the business. I'm trying to expand their

view of the impact. I'm mindful of the anchors they're aiming at me that I either have to take into account or I gotta not let them become the kind of things that influence the discussion. Now in the middle, what am I trying to do there? I'm listening for anything that sounds like a requirement or decision criteria, and when I hear it, Rachel, this is a big one. I have to resist the urge. You know, they say, oh, we need pre built integrations right or we need you know,

pull visibility to shipping up and through the supply. Whatever they say. I got to resist there to say, ooh, let me show you what we have that does that. This is a moment right. What I need to say is that's it sounds like it's going to be one of your requirements or decision criteria. May I add that to the list. What I don't want to do, Rachel, is get pulled into a product or feature benefit discussion prematurely.

When I'm going to do mid stage, I'm trying to broaden the view of the requirements of the decision criteria, and anytime a new one comes in, I'm just going to add it to the list. So what am I trying to do mid stage? I am trying to create a written, confirmed, and prioritize list of requirements. That's what

I'm focused. I guess what when I do that, that's anchoring, But think about what that does from a negotiation position later on, when someone tells me, you know, you're too high price compared to your competitor, I'm in a much stronger position later on if I've been doing that early and making sure that that list of requirements or decision criteria reflects the interests of those people I've been broadening

the conversation with as well. So all this varies depending on the complexity of the opportunity and the political and competitive landscapes. But I'm not waiting to the end to figure out what kind of negotiation position. Man, I'm starting it from the very beginning, and I'm very purposeful. Early on, I'm anchoring on the business problem, and then i start moving towards the requirements to fix it, and I'm going

to try and influence those. Not a mind trick, right, I'm trying to influence because we know from our experience there's things you got to have to address that problem customer. But I also know from experience some of those things align with my differentiators, and the more I embed them in the decision criteria, the stronger my sales position, the stronger my competitive position, and the stronger my negotiation position.

So yes, where I said written, confirmed, and prioritize, the prioritize one comes into play too. Let's say the customer's got seven decision criteria. Rachel and I helped influence their view of three of them why it'll help them, But they also happen to represent three decision criteria require capabilities that I know I got a differentiator that satisfies. So guess what the higher on their prioritized list of requirements? The three are that match my differentiator, The stronger my

competitive position, the stronger my negotiating position. Because ultimately, now I'm going to talk about the end known as finalizing the contract the deal. Okay, we all know that part that that part's important. I didn't mean to downplay that, But imagine when we're getting ready to shape our recommendation, Rachel'll say, I round multiple options. We could use the three magic words. And I don't know why these are

so mysterious to selling organizations. They are because we don't think about our offer, our negotiating position at the end. But think of these three magic words. Customer, you you told me, you told me to move from where you at to want to be on this problem. You told me there are seven requirements. No matter who you go with, there are seven. And you told me this is the rank order of those. And by the way, we've confirmed

that across multiple folks inside your organization. And now let me tell you how we do each one of those and how we do it better. And when I'm trying to do at that point, Rachel, I'm trying to demonstrate I'm the best fit for what's going on. But it's not my pitch. It's not the deck someone gave me to send, and it's not the demo. I'm going back

to the customer. I was listening to you, right, and we spent our time up front, and you told me so that when the customer says, well, I don't think we need this one thing interesting because the people over here in product side they said that was critical. Oh yeah, I guess maybe it is. But you know this is too high price. Can't we get rid of some of

the services? Well? Interesting, but the end user community, they said they need an ongoing support and training and they needed some thought leadership from time to time out in the future. Yeah, yeah, I guess we need that too. See the different position I'm in. I'm not going back to hey customer, this is what we think it's Hey customer, you told me that is maybe the most powerful position from a negotiation standpoint. I'm just aligning with what you

asked for. And if they're going to ask for some things I can't meet in an ideal world, Rachel, I've covered all that stuff up front, you know. Now sometimes they throw a new one at us. Yeah, all this is good, tim but your price is still too high. Okay, Now we can have the conversation at this point be about my price, Rachel, or we can make it about their list of requirements. And I was shifted back to requirements.

Now this is where multiple options come in. Maybe I'm anticipating this, so maybe one of my options is full scope, long term roadmap, get everything done, and it's probably got a pricing or cost consideration that plays out over two or three years. There's some benefit to them in that. But that's what one option is. Maybe the other option is focused on first step of the roadmap, first step of the journey, and that's a little bit tighter condensed.

It still will put us on the roadmap to the future, but there's no commitment to the future. Maybe it's just about this first thing, and that's got a different price point. So when I get pressure on pricing or competitive position and someone says I want that one but it's too high priced, Well you told me those were the interest you have, right, yes, yes, yes, Well to get to a different price, what part of that do you want to let go of? What do you want to compromise?

Can you put something in that will make it worthwhile for us to change our price go from a two year roadmap to a five year roadmap. We might be willing to change somewhere pricing. No, no, no, no, no no. In fact, I'm not even sure that full scope is right. Well, that's why I showed you this other one, this is to get started version, And how does that work? You told me these were your meetia needs, and that's what this one does. In addition, it puts you on the

path to the roadmap. It just doesn't guarantee that you're going to take the next step. We understood that, and that's why we put it this way. So I guess long winded way of saying, Rachel, I want to from the beginning to the end, let them know I was listening to them, let them know I'm being consultative, and help them better understand their big problem, the impact back to their organization, not just outcomes, but also other parts

of the organization. I'm guiding their thinking in determining their requirements to move from where they're at to where they want to be. I have been anchoring things that put us in a better position that also help them get a better outcome. And then at the end, what it's time to make a recommendation. I still have all that in my mind, and I say, hey, based on what

you told me, I see two approaches. This one which is long term, this one is immediate first steps you told me, and you know that's the sort I'll always fall back on. I don't know if we're allowed to say that anymore. That's a little ikky, but I mean it's the point is, if there's a stance I'm going to take. I'm going to take it on what they told me. Now, I've been influencing that from the very beginning. In an ideal world, Rachel, I have found that that

puts us in the strongest position to win. It puts us in the strongest competitive position. It puts us in a very strong negotiation position. But more than anything else, this in a great position to help this customer address the media need and earn the right for that ongoing business because we've taught them a different way. And man, it's one thing to go through that sequence. I just walked through the first time, but Rachel, imagine the second,

the third, the fourth. The customers learned from that, and they might start off by saying, hey, Tim, you know Rachel says, hey, vendor, here's the thing. Here are five different interests I have. One of them is the length of the contract. We got to find a better way to do that. But here are a few other things that I need to have the conversation on all of a sudden step one is much broader than it's ever been before. So I have a mind towards I'm not

in this to close one deal. I want to form a relationship and the best way to do that is not only based on the solution we create, but the way we sell and engage with them at every step of the way, including after they make their commitment. Is there anything else.

the process of what they have told you right. So we have this like one source of the truth that reminds them of the required capabilities the problems are solving before scenario after scenario, So you can use it when you want to say, you told me right, and they're familiar with seeing it. And that's so you're not always just pulling this stuff out of whatever pre call plan or you.

the bigger reason, Rachel, the more complex the buyer's environment. Right, there's a lot of people involved, and odds are really really strong that they don't talk to each other that much, right, and so they live in their own silos. And I've always considered that an opportunity for a seller. What if you were the one that brought together the thread that stitched all those different interests together, and you, as the seller, are the only one that has the holistic view. Talk

about becoming the best friend of the procurement person. You've done their work for them. But it's not uncommon at the end for just a handful of people to be involved in that. And so when we do that summer, like you talked about, Hey, here's what we heard was going on early on, Here's what you said you wanted to achieve from an outcome standpoint. We discussed these requirements that you told me, you meaning your organization, and I got to be ready to defend well, who said that one?

Who said that one? Well, that was marketing, that was it, that was product, that was customer success. I've got to help them see there's more to this than just the technical issue you were thinking about, Right, And when I do that, That just like sets up the rest of the relationship in addition to this moment. So you're right, they don't always remember what they said early stage. They don't always acknowledge what others might want to have as

an outcome. But what a strong position. You didn't tell me what your colleague told me same and maybe better result.

us too. They don't give their internal credibility away lightly. And when we organize things that way, and we've predisposed all the different parts of the organization, and we've helped arm them with a confirmed, prioritize written list of the requirements that reflect cross functional insight, a lot of which they probably helped give us. Man, they're feeling confident that, you know, I'm going to go forward to talk about this problem on behalf of so and so because they've

done their work. I'm not going to present something that somebody down the line is gonna say that's total garbage. Man, it doesn't do anything about our problem. What they know from us is we've got their back and this is a good, solid recommendation, and we've probably vetted it with them all along. So these are gifts that just keep on giving. And the more complex the situation is, the better it is. And I'm going to count on the fact of a few things cross functionally. My customers organization

isn't totally aligned. I can help with that. What I'm going to also count on my competitors. Champions probably are not going to be prepared the way my champion is, and I'm going to enable my champion to look like they got the smartest, best plan in the world. They help create it. They are feel good about the insights we're creating, and they'll go push it forward. And ultimately all that adds up to we look like the best fit possible to the economic buyer.