SALES NEGOTIATION TRAINING: NEGOTIATING SKILLS FOR SALES PROFESSIONALS

Over 1,000,000 sales and marketing people, corporate officers, consultants, engineers, buyers, supply chain managers, and other professionals have attended KARRASS's Effective Negotiating® seminars. Our company has set the standard for sales negotiating training for over 45 years.

Opened my eyes. I will never negotiate the same again!
-GE Healthcare Systems, Sales Rep

The best seminar I've ever been to! Jam-packed with invaluable info. Thanks!
-IBM, Sales Rep

This is the greatest class I have ever participated in and it will help in all areas of my job, personal life, and material endeavors!
-Caterpillar, Special Accounts Rep

It's with a major account over pricing issues on a new order—or maybe you are trying to resolve an issue involving problems on their last delivery. Maybe you are trying to prevent a dispute from escalating to a point where you could lose a good customer.

You have been asked to change some of the specifications on a contract you won. Your customer views this as a simple change that should not affect the agreed-to pricing. You know this change will result in additional costs to your company.

You feel anxious. You don't want to knuckle under. Yet you need to preserve your relationship with this customer. You don't want to antagonize the other person.

How would a good negotiator handle it?

There are some people who always seem to get what they want and still end up friendly with the other person after an agreement is reached. How do they do it?

1. Professional salespeople know how to create value in their sales process.
2. Harvesting some of that value for you and your company requires negotiation.

Negotiation and Selling Skills

Most sales professionals have extensive selling skills. They have been educated or learned on their own about sharing information with their customers; about the features and benefits of their products and services and how to tie them to a customers' needs; about using a “consultative approach” in their sales process.

When it comes to negotiating the deal, many salespeople tragically discover they have already made serious negotiating errors. While you have been selling, your customer has been negotiating.

Sometimes you have to negotiate a transaction, and sometimes you have to negotiate a relationship. You must know how to adapt your negotiating style to fit the particular negotiating situation. To be successful, you need a variety of different negotiating strategies. These are skills you can learn from KARRASS' negotiation training for sales professionals.

Many salespeople know they must try to get their customer what they want and what they need. Sometimes a salesperson actually ends up negotiating with their own employer on behalf of their customer. “The customer is always right” is a phrase often used. Good consultative selling skills? Maybe. But less than optimal sales negotiating skills.

Salespeople end up with a less-than-optimal deal when profits, or some other type of value, are unnecessarily left on the table. When unnecessary or overly generous concessions are used to close a sale, a salesperson not only reduces the monetary value of the deal, but also can give away other value. KARRASS research shows when this happens you create less satisfied customers.

Good negotiators know not to be too quick to address a customer's price concerns. When you do, the real value of your product or service comes into question. There are better ways to negotiate price concerns and deal with the competition. KARRASS can show you how.

Good negotiators know it is a mistake to provide a customer with tons of brochures, specifications, and detailed information regarding the product or service under consideration. Control of information flow is an important factor in all negotiations. Wise negotiators know it is better to wait until all aspects of the negotiation are more fully revealed and understood. Then provide only the information that is relevant to the agreement. Providing too much information can be a fatal negotiating trap.

Good negotiators know how to create “negotiating space” that can be used to close the deal. Most negotiations involve some give-and-take. This is the part of the negotiating process that helps create real satisfaction. There are a variety of ways to create negotiating space. KARRASS' training can show you how.

Good negotiators know how to postpone some concessions until later in the deal process when there is a better understanding of the forces driving the other side's demands for concessions. Good negotiators know how to get something of value in return for every concession they grant. KARRASS can show you how to ask, and what to ask for.

This is a fast-paced, hard-hitting, and enjoyable two-day seminar. We teach and demonstrate practical skills, strategies, and tactics that you can use immediately. This training provides sales and marketing professionals with practical techniques and psychological insights needed to help create better Both-Win® agreements.

More than just a single event, KARRASS provides extensive follow-up. Each attendee receives a comprehensive package of multimedia materials to reinforce the concepts discussed during the negotiation seminar, including a seminar workbook, two of Dr. Karrass's hardcover books, online access to over three hours of streaming audio designed to refresh your memory of the seminar, and the KARRASS Compass – the negotiation coaching and navigational tool.

Excellent program, a must for all salespeople. Now I can see things from a buyer's perspective.
-Siemens Power, Account Mgr

Blown away! This course opened my eyes and my mind to new ideas and a new way to see the world.
-Lockheed Martin, Business Dev

This is the best negotiating class I have ever attended. It will add 5% to my department's bottom line.
-Microsoft, Practice Mgr

Avoid Common Assumptions that Only Reduce Your Negotiating Power

1. “They have many options.” But do they?
2. “I have a lot of competition on this contract.” But can the buyer really use your competitors?
3. “They said their budget was limited.” Can it be changed? Are there other budgets you can get money from?
4. “It's in their favor if we can't reach agreement.” But what pressures do they have? How can you find out why they need some type of an agreement?

Learn How to Identify and Handle Tactics that Put You on the Defensive

1. Wow, that's really expensive.
2. Are you kidding? Your competition is 20% less than that.
3. How did you come up with that price? We have three other bids that are much less.
4. Our budget won't support that much.
5. Look, all I have to spend is this much.
6. We never pay for setup charges, tooling, freight, etc.
7. You've got to do better than that!

Over the last 10-15 years, purchasing processes have changed. In the 80s and 90s, salespeople were generally a buyer's first point of contact to get information regarding products and services. Now the Internet and a variety of independent third party sources are today's buyer's primary resources. Today's procurement professionals probably have significant knowledge about your products and services before you ever meet.

So when you meet a buyer for the first time, you must anticipate that they already know a lot about your company, your products, your services, your reputation, etc. They have probably already formed an opinion regarding both your strengths and your weaknesses. And you can assume they've done their research on you personally as well.

With the increased visibility from social media websites, a lot can be learned about the individuals you negotiate with—work history, business connections, personal and professional interests—long before you may ever even meet.

Because of all this knowledge, a potential buyer is probably already negotiating with you the first time you meet—you just don't know it. What's more of a risk to you is the fact that more and more buyers are now receiving professional negotiation training. We should know. KARRASS has trained hundreds of thousands of them. Are you equally prepared to negotiate a good deal for you and your company?

Companies such as GE, Lockheed Martin, IBM, Merck, AT&T, Microsoft, ADP, Bayer, Boeing, Nike, Oracle, Honeywell, Siemens, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay, Wal-Mart, Time Warner, Intel, and thousands of others have all used KARRASS's Effective Negotiating® seminars to help sharpen their negotiating skills. See our client list »

We examine innocent, yet untimely statements you may make that can put you at an immediate disadvantage and jeopardize your negotiations.

We demonstrate the art of creative compromise and the best way to make concessions.

1. How do you build a credible opening position?
2. What is the best way to trade concessions?
3. Why is “splitting the difference” never a good idea?
4. How can you say “no” in a way that minimizes resentment from your customer?
5. How can you use the “quid pro quo” technique to build stronger agreements?

Build Your Contract Negotiating Power

1. How to lend legitimacy to every position taken.
2. How to develop probing questions to uncover your customer's real position and real interests.
3. Techniques for getting budget information while protecting your team from giving away detailed cost breakdowns.
4. When and how to use a team negotiating approach.
5. How to gain greater insight into the hidden pressures your customer has placed on their own people.
6. Understanding how cultural differences affect the way people negotiate.

Make Creative Both-Win ® Agreements

1. Refining the specifications to afford your customer a lower total cost, and make the sale more profitable for you.
2. A willingness to share risk and resources can save money for both parties.
3. Adjusting production or delivery schedules, or implementation to save money while optimizing resources.
4. Gain efficiencies by adjusting customer and company resources for testing, inspection, and quality control to help streamline flow of work.
5. Using some of your customer's resources or facilities to help lower your costs.

What are other sales and marketing professionals saying about the KARRASS Effective Negotiating® Seminar?

What Our Attendees Are Saying About Our Sales and Negotiation Training

This is far and away the best corporate training I've had after 14 years in the finance business. I'm turning this information into results right away!
-Caterpillar Financial, Ed Norfleet, Regional Account Manager

This training will allow me to be a better negotiator immediately. Both my customers and I win.
-Microsoft, Steven Southerland, Account Executive

Anybody involved in negotiations needs to take this course.
-Intel Corporation, Alan Otlo, Business Development Manager

KARRASS provides a fresh viewpoint to old, standard negotiation pitfalls.
-Wal-Mart, Karen Townsley, Carrier Relations Manager

The benefits of this course are invaluable. I will have all of this knowledge on top of my mind when I go into a negotiation. Thanks!
-GE Advanced Material, Sanjay Shah, Global Account Director

Outstanding. I feel like I have a new powerful secret.
-Caterpillar, Debbie Hyde, Customer Service Rep

This course takes real world issues and helps you to develop practical tactics to effectively negotiate at all levels both internally and externally.
-IBM, David Vanasse, Client Executive

The KARRASS training helped me see and understand perspectives from both sides of the negotiating table. I now better understand the context and reason for the 'other side's' behavior and where I had been making critical errors on my side.
-Microsoft, Rick Hansen, Account Manager

This program will really help me to bring new and innovative strategies to my daily business's external and internal negotiations.
-Nike Canada, Steve Parish, Sports Marketing

Thought provoking and insightful. Excellent information presented in an entertaining manner.
-Wal-Mart, Ed Bonin, Regional Manager

I was able to learn the finer points of negotiation, as well as the planning strategies that will assist in future business relationships.
-Intel Corporation, Joe TeSadilla, Partner Development Manager

I found the tools & techniques very helpful and applicable to my job. I can't wait to negotiate my next KARRASS seminar!
-Oracle, David Telford, Critical Accounts Manager

Learning how to negotiate effectively helped me understand how complex negotiating is. I now feel better prepared for my next negotiation, and the opportunity to achieve a better result. Knowing the concepts of effective negotiations is a powerful tool.
-Siemens Medical, John Barrett, Sales Director