Negotiation is like Marketing in the sense that people think they are experts at it when instead, they are just scratching the surface of a profoundly advanced skill.
But this isn't the problem, for "false sense of proficiency" is relatively mundane. The barrier to closing deals lies in the voluminous employment of negotiation as a skill in day-to-day activities. It is enormously correlated to a human's life — from personal arguments to professional discussions. And when a skill is in such high demand, and people are satisfied residing within the cloak of overconfidence, that's a big (BIG) problem.
Here's the thing, (if) you want to grow, you must work towards honing everything from your communication to your body language to the persuasiveness that your mind nurtures because, when you do that, you drive away from the path of frustration and incompetence and embrace utmost growth opportunities.
To that end, let's use this article to learn about the massively rewarding skill of negotiation and how you can seamlessly overcome negotiation challenges by associating with a competent or, in concrete terms, the best negotiation trainer in India.
Here's Why Effective Negotiation Is A Huge Challenge
People don't plan and remain oblivious to their assertions or perhaps make too little efforts to realise that it is a skill they need to establish expertise in.
Around 57% of negotiators fail to succeed during a discussion because they are not sure about their own affirmations. What's even astonishing is that 50% don't even recall what the opposite party has proposed.
To add to the misery, over 50% B2B prospects surveyed across the world believe that seasonal negotiators and sales managers responsible for driving the sales pipeline don’t come prepared for the first meeting.
And let's be honest here, whether it is real-estate or any industry, for that matter. If you aren't good at spearheading your way into a discussion and preventing an impasse, you will find it hard to survive in an utterly dynamic and competitive market. It's all or nothing.
It’s been an established fact that businesses tend to lose about 14% of the customers every year, something that further fuels the need to realise a reasonably apt path for progressing.
Consider this; you're a real estate agent in India — a developing state with a colossal population and ever-growing housing activities. With "ever-growing," I'm reflecting upon a real-estate industry that is expected to cross the US$ 650 billion mark by 2025.
Now, if you're good at negotiating, you might as well be relishing an ROI in millions. But if you aren't good at it, there's absolutely no chance for you to satisfy your expectations out of this field — sad and harsh but true.
Again, it's either millions or nothing, and that's the difference negotiation can put forth.
Simply put, the biggest problem with negotiation is that people:
1. Don't Plan
2. Don't Have a Selling Idea
3. Don't Understand Counterparts
4. Don't Learn
And believe me, you don't have to be all these. As one of the best negotiation trainers in India over the past few years, I've come to realise that all the challenges associated with negotiation source from an individual's attitude to not seek solutions to what appears as straightforward (except it's not).
“The most dangerous negotiation is the one you don't know you're in."—Christopher Voss
How to Overcome the Negotiation Challenges? (You just CANNOT SKIP this)
Favourably, and as opposed to the common beliefs, negotiation isn't a skill solely related to the innate ability to influence. So, if you're hoping to inquire if negotiation skills can be learned, I'd answer with a big YES.
Since you can work on your negotiation skills, it's highly plausible to ward off any problems that may arise. Follow these steps to make that a possibility:
1. Stress More on the Process Than Substance
Even if you're a seasoned negotiator, you must always be equipped with the knowledge of going from A to B. But what's even more important is the fact that you weigh this process more than the valuation under consideration.
For instance, let's say you identify the ideal investor for your startup and come to terms at INR 2 Crore. You're now confident that the next meeting will help finalise the deal. However, as it turns out, the investor commences re-negotiating — and this time at a much lower valuation.
Now, you weren't ready for this, and there's a high possibility that you walk out or perhaps negotiate to an acceptable amount. That's alright!
But the situation could have been better if you concentrated more on the process. Hence, I'd always suggest that you emphasise the path to a negotiation more than the material, at least in the primary stages. After all, you never know what's in the store for you.
2. Probe the Shadowed Intricacies
Again, the focus must be on the process since you're not dealing with an event but a sequence of deeply interconnected events. However, effective sales negotiation isn't a piece of cake, and you might be confronted with situations, which further the possibility of a potential deadlock.
In these scenarios, it is essential that you remain careful in voicing your perspectives be in terms of finances, quality, value-creation, or the impact on end-users. Remember, you're not dealing with an INR 1000 customer. You're investing in a deal worth some lakhs or possibly even crores.
There might be expectations at the granular level, which can jeopardize your efforts in case you don't address them the way they desire to be addressed.
Let's say you're heading outbound sales for your company and want to learn about the expected goals of the business prospect. But they are reluctant to speak about it and instead choose to stay safe — "I have a tight budget for this at present." In this scenario, you can resort to millions of responses.
Nevertheless, in an ideal world, probing would work the best. So, for the above statement, an ideal response would be — "Not an issue! Let's assume that you had the budget; what would you have expected out of us and our product"?
3. Make the Expectations Crystal Clear
Numerous negotiations fail because parties don't invest in learning about each other and what qualifies as "normal" pertaining to their functionality.
For example, let's say yours is a manufacturing unit in Delhi NCR, and you've had an agreement with a Fortune 100 company with the transportation of a definite number of deliverables in the given time. However, occasionally due to extreme power outages, your deliveries can be delayed.
For that reason, it's essential that you inform the partner company about the same or perhaps invite them over to the unit to let them have an insight into what your site looks like.
Well, this won't avoid disagreements because everything runs on expectations; however, those expectations won't go beyond what you wouldn't be able to handle.
"He who has learned to disagree without being disagreeable has discovered the most valuable secret of a diplomat." — Robert Estabrook
4. Discard Narrow-Mindedness
This goes for two facets — considering all the parties in the deal and bursting the bubble of "I know everything." Let's first focus on the former.
Let's say that yours is a company looking forward to buying an asset; however, you're waiting for the valuation to lower a little so that you could make a good deal out of it. However, the waiting game isn't serving so well yet because an altogether different company X, is ready to buy the assets at a much higher price.
In that case, you'd have benefitted by going first. Although it's hard to map out such straightforward scenarios in real-life due to lack of data, it's important that you make an effort to grasp information about every party that is involved in the deal.
Map out their interests, WHYs, HOWs and WHATs. This would not only lend you an insight into the most feasible path but also place you in a better position to save the deal if, in case, anything proceeds differently.
5. Look to Save Money
One of the key rules of effective negotiation is that you, as a negotiator, would do everything possible to spend less and earn more. Profits are lifelines for businesses and must be realised at all costs.
The most viable intervention to bring notable profits to the table is spending less through the optimisation of the procurement channel.
And this is only possible when you're warding off the possibility of maverick spending, conducting an in-depth analysis of the partner's terms, reviewing purchasing requirements, ensuring profound management, etc. — all of which is a part of negotiating effectively and all that you can swiftly learn by connecting with the best negotiation trainer in India.
Learn from the Best Negotiation Trainer in India
Liked what you read? You'd love my Impossible Sales Training and Powerful Negotiator program even more. I've encapsulated my two decades of sales training experience in these short and crisp training programs.
Here’s what people are saying:
“The insights shared during the Powerful Negotiator program put things into perspective and were able to bring a multi-million-dollar deal to fruition.”—Cyrus Engineer, Managing Director, Shapoorji Pallonji International Properties
Not only do they address the market intricacies but also bring to light the best practices that could help you dominate the dynamic environment — talk about planning the sales, increasing the prospects, the art of convincing, the influence on buying decisions, the top closing techniques, dynamic selling, immediate reputation building, and much more.
The quote "One must learn to follow before they are let to lead" befits aptly in this scenario — all for the success that is knocking at your door.