Negotiation Skills

Finding the skills to negotiate

The ability to negotiate is a vital skill in sales organisations, but one that doesn’t often come naturally. For many of us, negotiation can seem like potential for conflict, and that, we often avoid. Yet negotiation should always be done as a win-win outcome for both sides.

Good negotiation is about building relationships, acknowledging the buyer's interest throughout the sales process, so you have their trust at negotiation time. Our SLP negotiation training focuses on building buyer trust and timely follow through, to reach agreements that satisfy all involved. 

Our negotiation training program gives your team practical skills to close sales quicker, and drive more profit. It puts your sales person in the driving seat during negotiation, giving their customers care and value, without the need to succumb to discounts as a closer.

How important are negotiation skills in sales?

Negotiation skills are essential for your team to help speed up the sales cycle, reduce time spent, therefore increase profit per sale. We would suggest any team member in direct contact with buyers should be part of this course.

What are the types of negotiation skills?

Every negotiation is different, as is every business. Which is why we work alongside you to refine our programme to focus on the key skills your team members need to become effective negotiators.

Top 10 negotiation skills

1. Active listening
2. Asking good questions
3. Communication skills (particularly verbal communication)
4. Decision making ability
5. Emotional control
6. Interpersonal skills
7. Preparing BATNA (Best alternative to a negotiated agreement, your alternatives)
8. Problem solving
9. Smart trade-off development
10. Ethics and collaboration

One of the key traits of a great negotiator is emotional intelligence. A good negotiator should know from the get-go what the value of the bottom line expected on each side is. The negotiation should be focused on value and benefit, and obstacles should be considered beforehand so you can set yourself up for success.

By focusing on these skills above we aim to equip your team with a solid foundation of emotional intelligence, and the ability to read their customers fully.

We also do a lot of work around the stages of negotiation and how to lead through each stage and challenge.

The five stages of negotiation

1. Preparation and planning 
2. Definition of ground rules 
3. Clarification and justification 
4. Bargaining and problem solving 
5. Closure and implementation
   

These skills will have your team focused and confident as they guide their clients through the sales cycle and into purchase.

Avoiding common mistakes when negotiating sales

Sometimes our negotiation mistakes are glaring, yet most of the time our biggest mistakes go unseen. We get a perfectly good deal but we’re unaware we could have gotten a better one if we hadn’t fallen into common errors and traps.

Five mistakes when negotiating sales

• Failing to thoroughly prepare to negotiate 
• Focusing on competing rather than collaborating
• Falling back on cognitive shortcuts
• Letting our emotions get the best of us
• Taking ethical shortcuts

Why do a SLP negotiation skills course?

There are so many layers to negotiation that many sales people are completely unaware of. Our negotiation skills training course will give your people the advantage – an emotional and structural grounding in bringing their sales to completion. 

The skills learned here will become intuitive to your team – you will see their ability to close a deal climb, and you’ll also see your client relationships turn into lifelong loyalty, because they trust your abilities to handle their interests.