Secrets of Power Negotiating for Sales People: Inside Secrets from a Master Negotiator

242 Pages·1999·103.12 MB·English

by  Roger Dawson

Inside Secrets from a
Master Negotiator
ROGER
SON
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Author of Secrets of Power Negotiating j
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SECRETS OF POWER
NEGOTIA TING
FOR
SALESPEOPLE
Inside Secrets From a
Master Negotiator
By
Roger Dawson
CAREER PRESS
Franklin Lakes, NJ
Copyright © 1999by Roger Dawson
All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International
Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in
whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or me-
chanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented,
without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.
SECRETS OF POWER NEGOTIATING FOR SALESPEOPLE
Cover design by RobJohnson Designs
Printed in the U.S.A. by Book-mart Press
Secrets of Power Negotiating®, Power Negotiating®, Power Sales
Negotiating®, and Power Negotiator® are registered trademarks of
The Power Negotiating Institute and Roger Dawson Productions.
To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and
Canada: 201-848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for
further information on books from Career Press.
The Career Press, Inc., 3TiceRoad, PO Box687,
Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dawson, Roger.
Secrets ofpower negotiating for salespeople: inside secrets from
a master negotiator /by Roger Dawson.
p. em.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-56414-428-3 (hardcover)
l. Selling. 2.Negotiation in business. 1.Title.
HF5438.25.D392 1999
658.85--dc21 99-29739
CIP
Dedicated to:
The salespeople ofAmerica.
The person at the drive-in window
who asks me ifIwant fries with that.
The waiter who suggests a better wine.
The retail clerk who cares enough to sell me up
to the top ofthe line.
The unknown salesperson on the last plane home
on a Friday night, knowing that he or she will be
back at the airport again on Sunday afternoon.
The Wall Street wizard who sells the bonds that
build the cities ofthis great country.
Toeveryone ofyou.
Youmake this country great.
You are the finest salespeople in the world.
Ifyou have any comments, suggestions, stories to share,
complaints to register, or questions to ask, please e-mail the author at:
[email protected]
Contents
Preface 7
NothingHappens Until SomebodySellsSomething-at aprofit
Section One: The Importance of Negotiating
Chapter 1: Sellingin the NewMillennium 13
Chapter 2: Win-WinSales Negotiating 17
Chapter 3: Negotiating Is Played bya Set ofRules 19
Section Two: Beginning Sales Negotiating Gambits
Chapter 4: AskforMoreThan YouExpecttoGet 23
Chapter 5: Bracketing 31
Chapter 6: Never SayY tothe First Offer 34
E;!S
Chapter 7: Flinching 40
Chapter 8: Playing Reluctant Seller 44
Chapter 9: Concentrate onthe Issues 48
Chapter 10: TheViseGambit 52
Section Three: Middle SalesNegotiating Gambits
Chapter 11: Higher Authority 59
Chapter 12: AvoidConfrontational Negotiating 69
Chapter 13: The DecliningValueofServices 72
Chapter 14: Never OffertoSplit the Difference 75
Chapter 15: TheHot Potato 79
Chapter 16: Trading Off 84
Section Four: Ending Sales Negotiating Gambits
Chapter 17: GoodGuy/Bad Guy 91
Chapter 18: Nibbling 97
Chapter 19: Patterns ofConcessions 103
Chapter 20: Withdrawing an Offer 107
Chapter 21: PositioningforEasy Acceptance 110
Chapter 22: Writing the Contract 112
Section Five: Why Money Isn't As Important
As You Think
Chapter 23: Buyers Want toPay More,NotLess 119
Chapter 24: Things That AreMoreImportant Than Money 123
Chapter 25: Finding Out HowMucha Buyer WillPay 127
Section Six: Secrets of Power Sales Closing
Chapter 26: The 4Stages ofSelling 131
Chapter 27: 24Power Closes 133
Chapter 28: Questionable Closes 153
Section Seven: How to Control the Negotiation
Chapter 29: Negotiating Drives 157
Chapter 30: Questionable Gambits and Howto Counter Them 164
Chapter 31: Negotiating with Non-Americans 174
Chapter 32: Negotiating Pressure Points 181
Chapter 33: Handling Problem Negotiations 195
Chapter 34: Handling the AngryPerson 204
Section Eight: Understanding the Other Negotiator
Chapter 35: DevelopingPersonal Power 211
Chapter 36: Understanding the Personality ofthe Buyer 225
Chapter 37: Win-WinSales Negotiating 236
Postscript 241
Aboutthe Author 243
AlsobyRogerDawson 245
Speechesand Seminars 246
Index 251
Preface
Nothing Happens Until
Somebody Sells Something
- at a profit!
The world changed dramatically in the late 1980s.The Iron Cur-
tain was beginning to open. Tantalizing secrets about the communist
empire were beginning to leak out. I was fascinated. Lifein the Soviet
Union had been a mysterious secret for most ofmy lifetime. Now,for
the first time, a fewforeigners were being allowed to evaluate the So-
viet system first hand.
Travel to exotic foreign places fascinates me. It has ever since I
had the opportunity to travel around the world as a photographer for
an English shipping company when I was only 20 years old. I'm par-
ticularly eager to travel to places that will be in the news in coming
years because it makes the news reports that you read somuch more
fascinating. So, in 1989 I arranged to be one of the first tourists al-
lowed into the Soviet Union. My son John and I spent two weeks in
Russia and the Ukraine before goingon to spend two weeks in Com-
munist China.
The Soviet Union was at a fascinating time in its history. Al-
though still under strict Communist control, the Politburo was dis-
cussing the possibility ofmovingto a more capitalistic society and the
peoplewere fascinated. Perestroika was in the air.
It was clear to John and me that the Russians had a great deal to
learn about capitalism. Those were the days when long lines would
form in front of any store that had anything to sell. It didn't matter
that the peoplein line didn't knowwhat was being sold.Goodswere so
scarce that they would buy anything-they were happy to find out
what they were buying when they gottothe head ofthe line.
7
Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople
John and I watched a man carry a boxto a street corner and bend
over to open it up. Before he could straighten up, a crowdsurrounded
him and started thrusting rubles in his face. He was selling cheap
watches. Like piranha attacking a prey, they furiously passed their
money to the people at the front ofthe crowd,who were now trapped.
The watches were passed back to the buyers who quickly unwrapped
them to see what they had brought. In less than three minutes, the
trader has disappeared, longbeforethe policecouldprotest.
Wewent to the famous GUM department store that overlooksRed
Square (named for its red bricks, not for communism, as I always
thought) and the Kremlin. We expected it to be a monument to the
success ofthe Soviet system. All we found was a series of stalls with
very little to sell.What was available was the cheapest quality.
I spoke to an American delegation from the foodwarehouse asso-
ciation. They went to Russia to help the Soviets set up a more sophis-
ticated fooddistribution system. Totheir surprise, they found out that
this country of 260 million people had virtually no food distribution
system. No warehouses, no conveyor belts with barcode readers that
load the trucks, no computers that automatically restock from cash
register readouts. Nothing. They either had the goods,or they didn't.
If they had them, they were movedonto a truck and into a store where
they disappeared into customers' hands within minutes.
As I watched the Soviet system in operation, it suddenly occurred
to me why it wasn't working. I knew at that moment why the United
States would ultimately triumph in the ColdWar and why the Soviet
Union would eventually fall: They didn't have any salespeople! In a
capitalistic society, salespeople are the key to everything. Nothing
happens until somebody sells something! In our system, salespeople
are the force that creates the demand that consumes the supply,
which is the fuelofour entire economy.
I thought about the way things work in America. Business here is
incredibly complex.The Soviets didn't understand that. They thought
that they could abandon communism and let a few eager entrepre-
neurs build aboomingeconomy.Howwrong they were!
Businesses don't run well because there is a genius in the head of-
fice.They run well because a million salespeople meet forcoffeeevery
morning to talk about how they can do it better. American business
works because in ten thousand meetings a day in a thousand hotels
8
Nothing Happens Until Sondxdy SellsSomething- at aprofit!
across the country, a company is having a sales meeting to inform,
train, and inspire their salespeople. American business works because
over 9000 national associations have annual meetings where competi-
tors meet and talk about how to make their industry better. It works
because every day millions ofbusinesspeople get together in hallways,
coffeeshops, offices,and meeting rooms to sell their product, to learn
howto sellit better, and to teach others howtosell it better.
Nothing happens until somebodysells something!
But selling is changing in America. It's getting tougher out there.
Competition is sharper than it has ever been. International competi-
tion is pushing us to doeven better. The competitive advantage ofbe-
ing the first to get a product to market is shortening from years to.
months to weeks in some industries. Buyers are better negotiators
than they used to be. Buyers are better informed than they have ever
been.
The buyers to whom you and your salespeople sell have enormous
pressure on them to squeeze your prices downeven more. Unless your
salespeople know how to negotiate well, you can lose profitability,
even if sales volume continues to climb. Price pressure has become so
great that the saying "Nothing happens until somebody sells some-
thing," nolonger tells the whole story.
Nowwe nowhave to amend that to, "Nothing happens until some-
bodysells something at aprofit!"
Teaching salespeople to sell at higher margins is what this bookis
all about.
RogerDawson
La Habra Heights, California
9
Section One
The Importance
of Negotiating