Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus - Negotiations by a Attractive and Action Centric Seller and Buyer
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 political landscape, financial upheaval, change in priority, a pandemic outbreak, or other unseen factors.
The gathering of information and preparation for negotiations is time-consuming and is often challenging. Elements of nature and their attributes are applied to overcome this difficult task of preparing the groundwork for influencing and winning negotiations.
Let us explore how a seller or a buyer leverages elemental attributes learned in previous sections to position and influence their respective stakeholders with the intent to win.
Fire Natives Negotiation
Negotiation Behaviour
o fire represents the heart, so these natives interact with honesty and openness; the sharpness of fire is reflected in their sharpshooting style conversation
o they have no hidden agenda and lose their cool if the opposite side is not transparent
o they lack depth in conversation
o they use charm to impress upon others
o they are competitive and like to take control of the conversation
Argument
o fire being sharp, they are data-driven and emotionless
Motivation
o to get the limelight from winning a deal or to be seen as visionary
Concession
o they are open and transparent in making concessions through the bargaining mix
Reservation
o they are open and willing to share their own reservations during the conversation with the other side
Positioning
o futuristic and innovative, new beginnings or new business
Risk Appetite
o is higher
o gaps can be found in their risk mitigation approach, and the opposite side can identify these gaps to negotiate
Secrecy
o being impulsive and talkative, it's tough for them to hide information
Information Gathering
o they are not research-driven, so they struggle with information gathering
Preparation
o they are impulsive and always appear to be in a hurry; thus, they miss attention to detail and often lack comprehensiveness in their preparation
o they rely on their charm and brilliance
Objection Handling
o they are open to grievances
o they don't address the root cause of the objection because they lack depth and are impulsive
o they get emotional and angry on too many objections
o their objection mitigation is anchored at themes like innovation and opening new revenue stream
Time
o being agile and impatient, they prefer to wrap up negotiations swiftly
o they don't use time as a means of bargaining
Comms Style
o they are swift and use strong words
o they prefer lots of visuals and data
o they respond immediately and expect the same from the opposite party
o they are prone to making mistakes
BATNA
o because they open up in conversations quickly; therefore, they end up sharing information with the opposite side
o it's difficult for them to leverage this option (to use an alternative)
o they often prefer not to apply BATNA
Price
Reservation and Target Price - their openness and purity make it hard to hide this information from the opposite side; therefore, they end up signalling their range or preference and letting the opposite side gain higher bargaining spread
Offers - don't believe in the multiple or back-and-forth nature of making an offer; they prefer to make one or two offers only
Environment To Influence
o fire requires air (oxygen) to ignite and spread; therefore, an external environment or a well-ventilated indoor environment is preferred for influencing a fiery native
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