Frogs, prospects…New ways to look…

Frogs, prospects…and negotiating

When selling ends and negotiating begins, we have to be especially attuned to what we’re seeing. There are a lot of scenarios and styles that negotiating can take. But the two we see most often are pretty much summed up as “all or none” and “nibbling” for those little compromises.

That first one’s easy to recognize and equally simple to address. He wants is all and probably so do you. So, you either convince him to move in you direction or you do the moving. In all probability you end up somewhere in the middle – but hopefully more to your side!

But then there’s buyer who wants only a small compromise … the “nibbler”. We need to be especially poised to recognize that negotiating style. That’s because quite often that first ask will be so easy, we’re apt to give in without any fight.

But then comes the next one. And it’s likely to be a bit (but not much) more painful that the first. And if you yield yet again there’ll, be a third.

And as long as we give in to those repeated small asks they keep piling up until they’ve cumulatively become a really big give. One so big that had he started there, you’d likely have walked away. But if we aren’t attuned to recognizing what’s happening we end up like the frog in a pot of slowly heating water. He doesn’t notice the rising temperature until it’s too late.

Next up: Winning the negotiation with grace.

 

New ways to look…New ways to profit

Thinking outside the box can take a lot of different forms. It can be as complex and risky as acquiring a competitor whose territory and customer list might compliment your current business. Or it can be as simple as adding a new product or service to your present offering. But sometimes it’s a matter of seeing something old in a new way.

Take the familiar element of labor savings. Since time immemorial soapers have reminded prospects that chemicals only represent a very small part of the total cost of sanitation. That’s why we so often present our products in a way that reduced labor costs. But that was the old way.

Today with most businesses struggling simply to hire even a minimum staff, labor is potentially a much bigger story than ever. A new way of looking at it might result in presenting a plan that reduces the current head count (that they’re struggling to keep filled anyway) by proposing a streamlined washroom operation that get’s the job done with one fewer worker.

And as bonus that plan might just require a bit higher consumption of your products. But if a 10% chemical cost increase is part of a plan that eliminates a staffing position that they’re finding impossible to keep fill anyway, it might just seem a bargain they can’t resist.