37: Brass tacks bargaining

Sometimes you have to bargain with purchasing to get what you want at the end of the quarter with your deals. But what is the best way to do that? Chris FOSS provides a very effective way in , never split the difference.

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welcome to the bite size sales podcast where we believe that sales is the most important team and a B2B company that the sales team deserves great sales skills training but usually doesn't get it. And that taking bite-size steps each day to get better at your craft is the best way to improve results. I am your host, Andrew Monahan , and I'm using my experiences and B2B sales to bring you simple actionable ideas every day to help you get better.

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I remember quite a few years ago working with a rep who told me a story how he took out our head of sales to go meet with a prospect on a deal that they were working on for that quarter. And he told me that, you know , they went in and the, they had lunch and they met with the prospect and had meetings and all the rest of it. And in the car and the way back to the airport, the head of sales said, look, you know, I don't really think you're going to get a deal done this quarter. It's going to come in next month. And the rent was like, that sounds awesome. Right. Cause he wasn't quite sure and you know, this was an important step in the process. So he asked the head of sales and what do you think we'll get it for? And he said, the interesting thing was that he, he got out his notebook and he kind of went through and taught tat lot . He went through some math. He said, okay , you will start out here. They'll probably come back and ask for this. And then we'll come back with a counter around here and he's working on all the percentages and what was going to be given and all the respite. And like two or three minutes he came back and said that , uh, you know, I think we'll get a deal done next month for about 750 K and the punchline, you've probably already guessed is he got a deal the next month for roundabout send 150 K. and what happened was this head of sales who was super experienced and smart just kind of had a game plan to work with, kind of knew how it was played at and from his experience just kind of went through it and said, okay, based on , on how I would do this, here's where we're going to end up. And similarly, Chris Voss in never split the difference, recognizes that in sales it does sometimes come down to bargaining with purchasing to get what we want. So let me read directly from his book. I spent a lot of time talking about the psychological judo that I've made my stock in charade , the calibrated questions, the mirrors, the tools for knocking my counterpart off his game and getting him to bid against himself. But negotiation still comes down to determining who gets which slice of the pie and from time to time you're going to be forced into some real Baird knuckle bargaining with a hard ass Hagler. I faced bare knuckled bargaining all the time in the hostage world. I haggled with a lot of guys who stuck to their game plan and were used to getting their way pay or we'll kill, they'd say, and they meant it. You had to have your skills drum tight and negotiate them down. You need tools. Back at FBI negotiation training, I learned the haggling system that I use to this day and I swear by it, I call the system the Ackerman model because it came from this guy Mike Ackerman, an ex CIA guy who founded a kidnap for ransom consulting company based out of Miami. Uh , many kidnappings. We constantly would be be paired with Ackerman guys, never Mike himself who helped design the haggle. After I retired from the FBI, I finally met Mike on a trip to Miami when I told him I also use the system for business negotiations. He laughed and said that he'd run the system by Howard RIFA, a legendary Harvard negotiation guy and Howard had said it would work in any situation, so I felt pretty justified by that. The Ackerman model is an offer counter offer method. At least on the surface. There's a very effective system for beating the usual lackluster bargaining dynamic which has the predictable result of meeting in the middle. The systematized and easy to remember process has only six steps. One set your target price, your goal to set your first offer at 65% of your target price. Three calculate three raises of decreasing increments to 85 95 and 100% use lots of empathy and different ways of saying no to get the other side to counter before you increase your offer. Five when calculating the final amount, you use precise non run numbers like say 37,893 rather than 38,000 it gives a number credibility and weight. Six on your final number, throw in a non-monetary item that they probably don't want to show that you're at your limit. So let me say quickly for those of you that are a little bit confused about the math there, what Chris is doing in this example is taking the example of someone actually buying something. So this is your counterpart. If you're buying something for your company in a sales world , obviously we're selling. So we need to reverse the numbers a little bit and come up with their own where we're coming down rather than trying to obviously push it up. So it's a very simple structure though, and it's one that we can use, and I'm recording this right now at the beginning of December, 2019 if you're watching this pretty close to that date, maybe this is something you could use for your end of quarter end of year deals. If you're watching it sometime in the future, you can still use this for month or the quarter that you're in. And in fact, to make it easy for you, I've created a quick little cheat sheet with examples of deals in this structure which you can download. Just simply go to unstoppable dot. Do forward slash game plan. That's unstoppable. Dot. D O forward slash game plan. All one word at the end there. So my action for you is go get it now.

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The episode is sponsored by unstoppable dot du . Most sales teams are not trained effectively in the skills and mindset they deserve and these are the most important people in the company. It's no wonder that only about 50% of reps make quarter every year. Unstoppable is a service that helps sellers and leaders get great at the skills and mindset they need without taking time out of the field. It exists because if the sales team has the right skills and mindset, they thrive. They are confident and the

for much better, find out more and even get a free sales book@bitesizesales.com

no, the wrap up as Anthony peerage, VP international sales at threat quotion may or may not have one said training without implementation is just entertainment and preparer entertainment when Monaghan does it. So make sure you take action on what you learn and keep getting better every day. This world does not need more sales BS, so don't create anymore . Be great at the fundamentals. Be honest, be real. Be yourself. Just do not be us . And finally, I'm setting off as the great Joe Sexton would by saying, gone to sell

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