140: Real World Business Negotiating

<p>We have many images of negotiation thanks to the media.  It could be movie scenes of tough negotiators or reports on political negotiations with lunatic led rogue states.  Most of these representations however have very little relevance in the real world of business.  A lot of the work done on negotiations focuses on “tactics”.  This is completely understandable for any transactional based negotiations.  Those are usually one off deals, where there is no great likelihood of any on-going relationship continuing between buyer and seller. This is false flag. </p> <p> </p> <p>The aim of sales is not a sale.  The aim is repeat orders.  If you want to be permanently in 100% prospecting mode, then transactional selling is fine.  That gets tiring and is tough, as you have to spend all of your time hunting because you can’t farm.  Now there will be some cases with buyers, where that is how it rolls and there is not much you can do about it.  The majority of salespeople though are trying to strike up a lifetime relationship with the buyer, so that the orders keep coming rain, hail or shine.</p> <p> </p> <p>The style of negotiations for this business play are completely different to the one-off, transactional occasion.  In this world “tactics” are only partially relevant.  Going one up on the buyer, getting the better of them, isn’t sustainable in a continuing relationship.  They remember what you did to them and they definitely don’t like it. They either dump you completely as the supplier or they even it up down the road.  They don’t forget and they don’t forgive.</p> <p> </p> <p>Technique has a role, in the sense that there are certain best practices in negotiating, which we should observe.  The philosophical starting point though is key.  What are we trying to do here, what is our purpose?  Are we trying to build an on-going business relationship where we become the favoured supplier or are we after a one–off smash and grab deal?  If you highly evaluate the lifetime value of the customer and this is your main conside