Strategic Foresight - Insights in Business and Technology

  Negotiations - Influence to Win The business-to-business (B2B) sales negotiation is a conversation between a seller and a buyer to reach an agreement beneficial to both. To achieve a zone of potential agreement (ZOPA), both engage in multiple rounds of discussion. The back-and-forth nature of these discussions is driven to gain the upper hand over the other side by finding their reservation point (breaking point), BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement), and any helpful information that will assist in bargaining. In sales, to influence and win negotiations, a lot of preparation is required. This includes collecting information about the other side's negotiation style, motivation, risks, BATNA, concession, reservation, and timing. Without preparation and gathering of this information, the chances of winning negotiations are minimal. Sometimes, even after gathering information and practice, negotiations can still be lost or suspended indefinitely because of changes in th

Negotiations - Influence to Win The business-to-business (B2B) sales negotiation is a conversation between a seller and a buyer to reach an agreement beneficial to both. To achieve a zone of potential agreement (ZOPA), both engage in multiple rounds of discussion. The back-and-forth nature of these discussions is driven to gain the upper hand over the other side by finding their reservation point (breaking point), BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement), and any helpful information that will assist in bargaining. In sales, to influence and win negotiations, a lot of preparation is required. This includes collecting information about the other side's negotiation style, motivation, risks, BATNA, concession, reservation, and timing. Without preparation and gathering of this information, the chances of winning negotiations are minimal. Sometimes, even after gathering information and practice, negotiations can still be lost or suspended indefinitely because of changes in the

  From 7 Rules of Power: Surprising — but True — Advice on How to Get Things Done and Advance Your Career. His seven rules are:  get out of your own way — that is,  speak with confidence and do not undersell yourself,  break the rules — do the unexpected,  show up in powerful fashion — with conscious body language and actual language,  create a powerful brand, network relentlessly,  use your power — do not be afraid to wield power once you have it,  and finally, remember that “success excuses (almost) everything” — the powerful attract and retain support.”    Why Buyers chose your Customer   When buyers were asked to select their top 5 reasons for choosing the winning vendor over other vendors they considered, the top response was that the winner demonstrated a stronger knowledge of the buyer’s company and its needs (68%). (In fact, lack of knowledge of a company and its needs has separately been cited by buyers as their top deal-killer.)  Focus on Outcomes   Growing faster than the

Persona Mapping with Elements - Buyer and Seller  In the world of business-to-business (B2B) sales, the buyer and seller relationship plays a significant role in winning or losing a transaction. Creating and nurturing these relationships across multiple stakeholders is a challenging, lengthy, and time-consuming process. One of the critical activities and constituents of a sales plan is to build the buyer's stakeholder persona that will assist in the relationship-building process. Mapping of these stakeholder personas reveals the type of levers that can be used to develop and nurture long-term relationships with the intent of winning and expanding the sales pipeline. Without the intelligence of the buyer's persona, the sales execution effort will be challenging and profoundly inefficient and ineffective.   Besides, it addresses the risk of losing a sales representative because by capturing and documenting the buyers' persona, you can ensure that gathered intelligence a

Excerpt from my upcoming book at  amazon.com  - "Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus - Elements of Nature Meet B2B Sales"  How a Sponsoring Executive of Action Centric (Fire) Persona and Calm and Stable Persona (Earth) will engage with others.  ----- Sponsoring Executive An executive sponsor is a person in the management or an executive team responsible for driving the outcome of a proposed solution to resolve a business problem. In business-to-business sales, an executive sponsor can be on either side, at the buyer's or the seller's end.  At the buyer's end, it is primarily someone who has a keen interest in resolving a business problem or is a decision-maker and strongly influences the outcome of a sales transaction.  At the seller's end, it is primarily someone keen on growing the business by investing capital and resources.    Following are the key responsibilities of an executive sponsor at the buyer's end: • Prepare and own the business case •

 My book Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus is on promotion for a short duration. 

Thank you for supporting and buying the book  - Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus. Yesterday completed the sale of the 100th book. Gratitude to everyone who bought and sent feedback.  I will update the sections in the next 2 months. Updated downloads are free of cost. Part 2 is a work in progress.

 B2B Sales Tips in tweets from my new book - Sellers from Mars and Buyers From Venus - Elements of Nature Meet B2B Sales -- Sellers need to anchor their conversation on Price, Risk, and Functionality only when selling to CIOs in Traditional IT (commodity). #Sales #salestips #IT #B2B  Sellers need to unpack the information asymmetry across different stakeholders at the buyer's end before articulating a value proposition. #Sales #salestips #B2B #marketing  Sellers need to share commercial insight and educate buyers about it. #Sales #B2B #salestips #B2B #marketing  B2B Persona Mapping enables sellers in navigating other people's mind. #B2B #Sales #salestips #marketing  Buyers trap #sellers through the RFP process as it leaves sellers with no BATNA and minimal leverage in negotiations. #sellers #salestips #B2B #marketing  To sell services in a post COVID and Digital world, building buyers' persona and applying the intelligence is key to success. #Sales #salestips #B2B #mar

Fire Seller  Fire signifies charisma & brilliance it removes the darkness by brightening our surroundings. Similarly, #sellers with charisma & brilliance attract others & enlighten them with their brilliance & action. They are persuasive & convince others easily with their thoughts and vision. These #Sellers love to have an audience, like how Fire brings people together during the evenings in winter. They attract buyers with their charisma and energy. They prefer to use an audience to position their offering #Sales #salestips #B2B #product #marketing  Water Seller Water has depth, like an ocean or a silent river. When water starts flowing from the mountain top, it has purity, crystal clear visibility, and is drinkable. The sound of flowing water mesmerises everyone, which implies that these #sellers are honest and pure at heart. Besides, watery #sellers think at a very deep and philosophical level, pay attention to detail, and have a sweet voice that captures other

My upcoming book - Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus - Elements of Nature Meet B2B Sales  outlines a unique way of identifying Buyer and Sellers Persona, and how to apply them in various scenarios across Buyers Map.   Excerpt from the book -- Persona Mapping with Elements - Buyer and Seller  - In the world of business to business (B2B) sales, the buyer and seller relationship plays a significant role in winning or losing a transaction. Creating and nurturing these relationships across multiple stakeholders is a challenging, lengthy, and time-consuming process.  One of the critical activities and constituents of a sales plan is to build the buyer's stakeholder persona that will assist in the relationship-building process. Mapping of these stakeholder personas reveals the type of levers that can be used to develop and nurture long term relationships with the intent of winning and expanding the sales pipeline. Without the intelligence of the buyer's persona, the sales execut

Sharing some of the promotional tweets for my upcoming book - Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus Emotional people are not best suited for #sales. They are better suited for HR roles. More on this in my upcoming book on #B2B #Sales  A buyer who speaks sweetly listens calmly with patience, constantly observe the opposite side, pays attention to detail & use empathy to impress upon & don't like to take control, they are primarily price takers in negotiations. #B2B #Sales  A buyer being reserved, emotionless, future centric and striving for perfection but has fear of failure will walk away from the deal if the solution offered is not perfect and of the utmost quality. #Sales #B2B  People who respond or communicate at their own pace or are slow and carry a deep voice, are best suited for farming activities in #Sales. More on this in my upcoming book on #B2B #Salesforce People who write an email in bullet points and use action-centric wording brings money to the business

 Key Tips on Negotiation from the book,  Never Split the Difference , by Chris Voss. A good negotiator prepares, going in, to be ready for possible surprises; a great negotiator aims to use her skills to reveal the surprises she is certain to find.  Don’t commit to assumptions; instead, view them as hypotheses and use the negotiation to test them rigorously.  People who view negotiation as a battle of arguments become overwhelmed by the voices in their head. Negotiation is not an act of battle; it’s a process of discovery. The goal is to uncover as much information as possible.  To quiet the voices in your head, make your sole and all-encompassing focus the other person and what they have to say.  Slow. It. Down. Going too fast is one of the mistakes all negotiators are prone to making. If we’re too much in a hurry, people can feel as if they’re not being heard. You risk undermining the rapport and trust you’ve built.  Put a smile on your face. When people are in a positive frame of

The ten principles behind great customer experiences defined by Matt Watkinson in his book  1. Great customer experiences strongly reflect the customer’s identity   2. Great customer experiences satisfy our higher objectives   3. Great customer experiences leave nothing to chance   4. Great customer experiences set and then meet expectations   5. Great customer experiences are effortless   6. Great customer experiences are stress free   7. Great customer experiences indulge the senses   8. Great customer experiences are socially engaging   9. Great customer experiences put the customer in control   10. Great customer experiences consider the emotions

Excerpt from the upcoming book at  amazon.com  - Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus -- Persona Mapping with Elements - Buyer and Seller  In the world of business-to-business (B2B) sales, the buyer and seller relationship plays a significant role in winning or losing a transaction. Creating and nurturing these relationships across multiple stakeholders is a challenging, lengthy and time-consuming process.  To assist in the relationship-building process, one of the key activities and constituents of a sales plan is to build the buyer's stakeholder persona. Mapping of these stakeholder personas reveals the type of levers that can be used to build and nurture long-term relationships, with the intent of winning and expanding the sales pipeline. Without the intelligence of the buyer's persona, the sales execution effort will be challenging and profoundly inefficient and ineffective.  Besides, it reduces the risk of losing a sales representative, because by capturing and document

Excerpt from the upcoming book at  amazon.com    - Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus -- Marrying Elements of Nature with B2B Sales - Why We Need This The business to business (B2B) sales is a challenging, complex, and a long-drawn out process spanning across a period of anywhere between six to twenty-four months. The sales cycle varies across the products and services in different industries and geographies for multiple reasons. To succeed in business to business (B2B) sales, sellers have to gather intelligence, and anticipate prospective buyers’ preferences, thought processes, and modus operandi. Accordingly, the conversation is then initiated for positioning a product or a service.  Various methodologies like, personality tests developed by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, Game theory, Behavioural Psychology, etc are used in sales and business to learn about the stakeholder’s behaviour and motivation at the buyers and sellers end. These methodologies provide insig

In the ongoing pursuit of exploring how our world is becoming Digitally Transformed and how this is going to impact every industry, I have outlined the following agenda for a view point and a book that is still in the exploration stage. The following agenda outlines the scope for me to explore, write and share my rumblings. I'm keen to get some thoughts and feedback. So please don't hesitate to reach out to me. Update : Updated work on this topic is here