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 the

Winning and losing are part of any sales process. Every deal and opportunity enriches a sales professional's journey with insights and experience. Learning is a lifelong journey and we learn more from losing deals than winning. It’s important to reflect upon key reasons for refusal leveraging 2nd loop learning, even if we made a reasonable offer and catered for various factors in play. Frustration kicks in easily when negotiations in good faith backed up by a genuine offer fail, hence it requires a new approach to tackle and win. The key to winning is getting a handle on why stakeholders refuse a good or generous proposal.  Following are the key reasons why deals are refused:  No Closure was Proposed or Reached - The back and forth nature of negotiations often lead to numerous proposals to sweeten the deal. It is important to put a line in the sand and tell them what is the final proposal to close it, without drawing a closure line, you run on a risky slope and in the process s

 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

Excerpt from the upcoming book at  amazon.com     - "Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus - Elements of Nature Meet B2B Sales" -- Negotiations - Influence to Win    The business to business (B2B) sales negotiation is a conversation between a seller and a buyer to reach an agreement that is beneficial to both. To reach a zone of potential agreement (ZOPA), both engage in multiple rounds of discussion. The back and forth nature of these discussions are driven to gain an upper hand over the other side by finding their reservation point (breaking point), or their BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) or any useful information which will assist in bargaining. To win negotiations in sales a lot of preparation is required. This includes the collection of 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