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Selling vs. Negotiating
Reading Time: 50 seconds
Tim Dayonot from the Haas School of Business gave an excellent talk last week on negotiation. We had a chance to speak briefly before his presentation and we quickly agreed that selling is done before negotiation begins and that the two processes are essentially separate. Of course, proper selling done up-front reduces the need for extensive gut-wrenching negotiation later. I've experienced this first hand with my construction clients that sell designs or pre-construction contracts before embarking on the actual construction. They come to me when they are having problems in the final negotiation stages to start construction with the client but the problems occurred in their earlier selling efforts. This same issue occurs over and over in a variety of industries. The sales team may indeed obtain a new client but it seems impossible to keep the client around for very long or manage their unrealistic expectations leading to unprofitable revenue. What really struck me about Dayonot's talk was his emphasis on the attitudes and personality of the negotiator. In fact, much of his talk discussed the importance of styles in negotiation, not so much the tactics employed. Now that is where selling and negotiating have many similarities. Unwillingness to ask tough questions, discomfort with discussing money issues at the proper time, fear of walking away for lack of better sales opportunities and a tendency to draw incorrect assumptions contribute to both sales and negotiating challenges. If you want to improve your sales and negotiating techniques, look first at the attitudes or beliefs that may be undermining your efforts to close new business.
Good Selling!
Chip Doyle
Sandler Training, Inc.
chip@train2improvesales.com
Julie Gordon White, Broker BlueKey Business Brokerage 510.812.2233 cell
www.bluekeybma.com www.pinkbizbroker.blogspot.com
