How to Develop Your Negotiating Power

Here are the six ways that to develop the power that allows you to negotiate with a customer as an equal:

1. Develop at least three contacts inside the customer organization. Long before a sale enters the negotiation stage, you should have developed at least three contacts that can provide perspective to your solution-building process and information about the motivations and politics inside the customer’s firm.
2. Display an ability to see beyond the obvious. Your status as an “outsider” to the customer’s firm gives you the potential ability to see problems and opportunities more objectively. Remember: even the customer doesn’t know everything about the firm, much less the market.
3. Create the legitimacy that comes from consistency. Consistency means that, while you’re flexible in building a solution, you remain well aware of the strengths and the limitations of your offerings. Legitimacy also comes from adhering to your firm’s policies and procedures, and being willing to explain to the customer why they make sense for the customer.
4. Position each interaction in terms of building mutual success. Building rapport isn’t building a relationship. A productive relationship is based upon mutual respect and understanding, and a sense of working together to achieve mutual goals. Ideally, a customer should always know you’re committed to mutual success rather than merely making a sale.
5. Generate solutions that match the customer’s needs. Your value to the customer skyrockets when you help the customer to crystallize needs and visualize the right solution. While many customers have a list of detailed requirements that constitutes their best understanding of their needs, you can help the customer achieve a clearer understanding of what really needs to be done.
6. Differentiate yourself from the competition. You must be able to communicate clearly how his or her products or services are different from your competition. This helps the customer see you as a unique resource rather than a replaceable functionary.

Important: if you wait until the point of negotiation to develop power, it’s already too late. For example, if you attempt to develop additional contacts while you’re negotiating, your primary customer contact is likely to perceive your sudden interest as a threat.

The above is based largely upon a conversation with the negotiation guru Randall Murphy, president of the sales training firm Acclivus R3. In my next post, I’ll troubleshoot the three most common problems during sales negotiations.

By Geoffrey James