To build lasting, profitable client relationships, salespeople must be able to negotiate agreements that benefit everyone: the customer, the salesperson, and the organization.Professional Sales NegotiationsTM provides your salespeople with the concepts and skills needed to steer face-to-face negotiations to a successful close. In three modules—Defining, Preparing, and Leading—the program teaches your salespeople how to:

• Determine which situations require selling skills versus transactional or consultative negotiation skills and when to use these skills.
• Analyze the customer and sales points of view to gain the perspective needed to negotiate effectively.
• Develop a negotiating strategy that optimizes the outcome for all parties and results in a mutually beneficial agreement.
• Adopt a rational mindset for negotiating.
• Lead a consultative sales negotiation through to a successful conclusion.
• Redirect counterproductive behaviors to maintain a consultative approach.
• Generate variables and alternatives that satisfy the requirements of all parties and satisfy both negotiating and relationship goals.
• Utilize planning tools to prepare for negotiating success—in the moment.

Defining the Approach
In this unit, sales negotiators learn the differences between consultative and transactional negotiating and how to recognize which approach should be taken in specific client situations. Participants also explore the concept of win-win, which defines the true measure of success for a sales negotiation: a salesperson win, a sales organization win, and a customer win. 

Preparing for the Negotiation
One of the conclusions of the recent research was that salespeople are often at a disadvantage in negotiations (particularly if they are negotiating with a professional buyer). This disadvantage arises from the fact that customers often prepare in greater depth than salespeople before a negotiation. As a result, a significant portion of the Professional Sales Negotiations™ program is devoted to preparation. Specifically, this includes:

• Timing: Using a set of criteria to determine when to negotiate and when to keep selling when faced with customer issues over price, deliverables, and terms and conditions.
• Insight: Leveraging insight on both sides of the table: sales and the customer. Sales professionals learn to analyze the players who will be involved (styles and stakes) and the parameters that those players will work within (walk-aways, other options, must-haves, etc.)
• Strategy: Developing and evaluating a creative list of alternatives that can be used to alter your proposal in ways that are satisfactory to all parties involved. Specifically, includes learning the proper use of Trade-Offs, Concessions, Enhancements, and when to Split the Difference.
• Mindset: Conducting the mental preparation required to approach negotiations with confidence including frames of reference, building power through options, and preparing to handle counterproductive behaviors.

Leading the Negotiation
In the final section of the program, sales professionals learn how to conduct the negotiation itself including positioning and framing the negotiation, exchanging alternatives to resolve differences, handling impasses, and securing a final agreement. Throughout the program, participants focus on planning for their own client negotiations, brainstorming options with their peers, and practicing negotiation strategies.