Enhance your sales process analysis in vendor negotiations

How to create outlook signature

[Music] hi my name is couch Wanda and welcome to some house daily reports today we have the pleasure of speaking with Brian death my co-founder and CEO of thinking and also the author of a wonderful book called strategic negotiation welcome Brian hi Garrett right what was the first book that you ever read on negotiation probably getting to yes and have you ever heard of Jerrod Denberg no I have not because he was the first one to write about the pie analogy and he said that the purpose of a good negotiation is not to hang over who wins the largest slice of pie but how to make more pies for everyone right and I see the pie analogies in your focus well yeah how did you come up with that concept oh well I think my partner teaches negotiation at Harvard and he's he's been in this field for twenty years and I think by and large what's going on in negotiation a lot of the main concepts have been around for years the thing that's changed and in the last few years is putting those things together in a way that works for sales people on the street there's there's probably more negotiation business books written than maybe any other business book and more negotiation consultants and consulting companies so the big shift is really let's do it in a way that works for salespeople that makes a difference in an environment that's brutal right now for salespeople why strategy what one of my biggest frustrations and the reason I started the company 10 years ago is that as a VP of National Account sales for Marriott hotels I was buying negotiation training for my salespeople and I was frustrated that it wasn't solving business problems for us and and I think negotiation is a very strategic issue at the highest level the business deals that a salesperson does throughout the year sort of roll up and become that brand the way you negotiate your business deals around the world or is either a deposit in tore withdrawal from your brand equity and and I happen to believe that strongly about negotiation when I felt like most of the providers in the field and most of my peers as VP's looked at negotiation as this emotional sort of reactive tactical you never know what's going to happen kind of thing and we looked at it and said no if you study it and we have we've watched about 20,000 deals in 46 countries over the last 10 years and say you can know with in a great amount of precision what's going to happen in the negotiation the fact that a salesperson gets rocked back on their heels because a buyer says I can get the same thing cheaper from your competitor you have to match the price that will knock a pro salesperson back on their heels and it shouldn't it shouldn't because we can anticipate virtually everything that's going to happen how much if this is an art and how much of it is a science and a skill I believe it's it's a learned science not not a born art if you think and the best example of this is sales you remember back 20 years ago I do as well when sales was walk into your customers office look at de pictures on his wall usually unfortunately and compliment his family that was sales training and sales training in the 80s made this shift to business process to say salespeople are becoming analytics and a job of a good salesperson is to go into an organization uncover the needs of that customer apply your products and services to drive customer ROI that's what a good sales process is so what are you saying is that the role of the salesperson has changed from that of a provider of information to that of business analyst and in a trusted adviser that helps the customer improve productivity will solve a problem and make more money absolutely and that should continue on into negotiation instead of now you know saying okay negotiation now is this reactive emotion based art that in fact it's every bit of a science and every bit as analytical so now you're negotiating solutions to business problems that's all we should be doing in the past the game was played either offensively or defensively and what you're saying is played analytically precisely you need a couple key data points to be able to stand firm and negotiate business deals get the business relationship in total on the table so what are you saying is that negotiation is really part of a company's business strategy would align with the customers business strategy yeah absolutely well that is a very good overview we are going to drill down on the elements of strategy with Brian Keith Mars Mars so tune in tomorrow you