A No-Fail Negotiation Strategy

Do you like to negotiate deals?  Whether you do or don't, here's a suggestion that one of the nation's premier negotiation trainers, the Black Swan Group, says is almost always successful regardless of industry or context.  To get to "yes", eliminate the negatives up front.  Make a list of every unreasonable, unfair, crazy, ridiculous accusation your gut instincts are picking up that the other party might say about you, advises Black Swan.  If you sense that you would like to say to the other side, "I don't want you to think this about us," that's something that should be on your list to address immediately.  Don't deny or hide what you believe the other side does not like about you or does not know about you.  Here are some examples for a decorative plumbing and hardware showroom sales professional who meets with a prospect for the first time.

• "I bet you believe that you can purchase better online?"

• "I can understand why you don't want to be sold."

• "I recognize that you don't want to share budget information because you rightfully fear that you'll pay too much?"

• "I'm sure you are concerned about problems that occurred on your friends' and familys' renovation projects might happen to you."

The reason why you address the negatives up front is because of the way the brain works.  Alex Korb's book, The Upward Spiral, explains that when negatives are identified up front, they diminish every time.  Black Swan claims that's why it is critical you don't deny the negative when using this strategy.  You use it to "induce a contemplation of it by your counterpart to trigger the effect." 

 

It's also easier to pitch negatives than to convince a prospect of value.  Black Swan claims that the equivalent reasons for not doing something weigh three to nine times more heavily on us than the same value reasons for doing something.  That helps explain why most of your customers will spend six to 12 months on average researching a project before setting foot in a showroom.  That's why some sales training experts believe you have to show nine times the value in order to make a sale.

 

When you eliminate the negatives, reasons why a prospect would want to rely on your showroom for their new bath or kitchen take over and it's easier to get to "yes".  Black Swan claims addressing the negatives up front works almost 100% of the time.   Try it and let us know if it works on our Facebook page or post a comment on our LinkedIn Group.