Advanced sales negotiation skills

A two-day workshop

The ‘golden rule’ of negotiation is simple – don’t!

But life’s rarely that simple and very often we do have to negotiate, particularly if we want to win the business and especially if we want to win it on our terms.

Such negotiations are crucial. We need to prepare for them. We need a strategy, and the skills to execute it.

Does your team have a structured approach? Is it flawlessly executed, every time? Or is there room for improvement?

This programme will help them master the six fundamentals of closing better business:

  • Position your product/service advantageously
  • Set high targets
  • Manage information skilfully
  • Know the full range and strength of your power
  • Satisfy customer needs over wants
  • Concede according to plan

Manage all these elements well and you will win more business, more profitably.

Objectives

Learning objectives

This course will help participants:

  • Negotiate from a position of partnership, not competition
  • Deal more effectively and profitably with price objections
  • Identify and practise successful sales negotiating skills
  • Identify strengths and weaknesses as a sales negotiator
  • Understand different types of buyer behaviour
  • Learn to recognise negotiating tactics and stances
  • Apply a new and proven structure to their business negotiations
  • Identify and adapt for different behavioural styles
  • Be alert to unconscious (non-verbal) communication
  • Prepare and present a proposal at a final business negotiation stage
  • Project confidence and exercise assertiveness in all sales negotiations

Audience

Who should attend?

This powerful and practical programme allows already experienced and successful sales managers a chance to further develop and refine their skills and knowledge when negotiating, whilst giving less experienced sales people the necessary foundation skills and practical short-cuts. It is especially suitable for:

  • Account directors, managers and executives
  • Business development directors, managers and executives
  • Sales directors, managers and executives

Format

Format

A two-day workshop, this programme is highly participative and interactive, with participants working on real-life case studies and examples. Each part of the programme features:

  • High quality training presentation
  • Group exercises and activities, including role-plays
  • Competence-based tests and assessments
  • High degree of participation and interaction

Participants leave the workshop with many new ideas and perspectives, as well as better equipped to achieve greater business and personal success. The programme also includes a summary workbook and course notes. Participants will be required to prepare and present a formal action plan upon completion of the course.

Special features

Special features

The majority of the training we deliver is either tailored or completely bespoke. This workshop can therefore be delivered entirely as advertised, or it can be tailored to your particular requirements, or we can simply take it as a starting point for a conversation with you before we draft a completely bespoke programme for you – the choice is yours.

Meet the trainer

Expert trainer

Graham is an experienced and expert negotiator, with a background in managing high-value major accounts, which also involved the co-ordination of suppliers and third-parties. Graham also has experience in negotiating performance agreements, publishing contracts, joint venture partnerships and employment interviews. This particular course has been run for many different organisations including private and public sector organisations of all sizes.

His work has taken him all over the world and involved him in working closely with hundreds of different organisations from all business sectors, including Vodafone, AT&T, Orange, Pfizer, GSK, Boots, Unilever, American Express, Thomas Cook, the British Film Institute, SaudiAramco, OpenText, Ambius, BT, AIG, Nationwide, Abbey, Apple computers, Thomson Financial, Cosmos Travel, Intel, Gateway computers, Sony, Connells Estate Agents, Motorola, Cisco, MFI, Barclays Bank, LIFFE, Abbey National, Prison Service, Nortel, Home Office, Law Society, BBC, Daimler-Chrysler, Citroen, ASOS, Weetabix, Pegasus Software, Mole Valley Farmers, Nikon, Shell and many, many others.

In addition, Graham has written over twenty books published in several different countries, including Companies don’t succeed – people do!, 90 Brain Teasers for Trainers, Customer Service Games for Training, Sales Training Games, Telephone Tactics and Working Smarter.

Known internationally as both a trainer and a popular motivational speaker, he believes that effective learning has to be interactive and challenging. All his learning events are built around practical exercises, role play and case studies. His training style focuses not on just explaining new ideas or developing new skills, but also on motivating people to use them and to develop themselves as individuals. This approach gets results, as the following comments from course participants show:

‘Brilliant course, really interesting and very focused to my job role and day to day work.’

‘Took away some very good ideas that I can use every day… good examples too.’

‘Very confident in the subject, and amusing too. Made the course very interesting. A very clear sales model to use going forward.’

‘Full of useful hints and tips which I will apply to my job.’

‘Extremely well presented and structured’

‘A very intensive course and a lot of concrete tools provided.’

‘Useful data, tools and insights; engaging and interesting as always.’

‘Very good… contained everything we do on a regular basis and problems we have come across… the exercises made it very interesting too.’

1 Planning for successful business negotiations

This session introduces the concept of business negotiation and looks at its importance in the context of the participants’ roles and activities. It briefly examines why we negotiate and the dynamics involved.

Session highlights:

  • What kind of a negotiator are you?
  • Negotiation skills self-assessment and best practice
  • How to establish roles and responsibilities for both parties
  • How to identify and set objectives for both buyer and seller
  • How to research and establish the other person’s position (business negotiation stance)

2 How to structure your negotiations

This module presents an eight-step framework or structure for use in negotiations and considers how best to prepare and plan your negotiations within the context of a supplier/customer relationship or business cycle. It also includes a brief review of legal responsibilities and what constitutes a ‘deal’.

Session highlights:

  • Learn and apply a formal structure to use when negotiating
  • How to establish short- and longer-term objectives and opportunities
  • How best to plan, prepare and co-ordinate a major business negotiation meeting, or on-going negotiations
  • Understanding of basic legal and organisational requirements

3 Verbal negotiation skills

This session examines the human and communication dynamics inherent in any negotiation situation. It emphasises the importance of professional skills in preparing for a negotiation by identifying needs, wants and requirements accurately and by qualifying the competitive and organisational influences present.

Session highlights:

  • How to fully ‘qualify’ the other party’s needs, requirements and constraints during the negotiation process by using advanced questioning and listening skills
  • How to pre-empt negotiation objections by promoting and gaining commitment to options, benefits, value and solutions
  • How best to propose and suggest ideas, using drawing-out skills

4 Non-verbal negotiation skills

This module highlights how different personal styles, corporate cultures and organisation positions can influence events, and demonstrates practical methods for dealing with and controlling these factors. It also examines key principles of body language and non-verbal communication in a practical way.

Session highlights:

  • Gaining rapport and influencing unconsciously
  • Understanding the importance of non-verbal communication; reading other people’s meaning and communicating effectively as a result
  • Ensure that non-verbal behaviour is fully utilised and observed to create maximum impact and monitor progress (eg, buying signals)
  • Recognising that business negotiations are precisely structured and agreements gained incrementally

5 Proposing and ‘packaging’

This session highlights how best to present and package your proposal. It looks at how to pre-empt the need for negotiating by creating minor-options and ‘bargaining’ points, as well as how to manage the expectations and perceptions of the customer or buyer.

Session highlights:

  • How to identify the key variables that can be negotiated
  • The power and use of ‘authority’ within your negotiations
  • How to structure and present your proposal, ideas or quotation to best effect
  • The importance of when and how to identify and influence buyer’s objections

6 Dealing with price

This module highlights how to best present and package price within your proposal or negotiation. In most cases, price has more to do with psychology than affordability and preparation and careful handling are essential.

Session highlights:

  • The three reasons that people will pay your asking price
  • How to set price in a competitive market
  • The key differences between selling and negotiating
  • Ten ways to present price more effectively and persuasively

7 Getting to ‘Yes’: tactics and strategies

There are many different tactics and strategies common to successful negotiators. This session looks at those that are most appropriate to the participants’ own personal styles and situations. The importance of ‘follow-through’ is also explained and how to deal with protracted or ‘stale-mate’ business negotiations.

Session highlights:

  • How to negotiate price and reduce discounting early in the process
  • How to recognise negotiating tactics and strategies in your customer or supplier
  • Key strategies, techniques and tactics to use in negotiation
  • The importance of follow-through and watching the details
  • How to deal with stalled business negotiations or competitor ‘lock-out’

8 Case studies and review

This session examines a number of different situations and participants discuss ways to approach each. This will allow learning to be consolidated and applied in a very practical way. There will also be a chance to have individual points raised in a question and answer session.

Session highlights:

  • Case studies
  • Question and answer
  • Planning worksheet
  • Negotiation ‘toolkit’ and check-list

9 Personal action plans

Session highlights:

  • Identify the most important personal learning points from the programme
  • Highlight specific actions and goals
  • Flag topics for future personal development and improvement

Any questions? Please just give us a call on 01582 463463 – we’re here to help!