In a down economy, the power in negotiating price moves to the buyer. It is typically called a "buyer's market." In a buyer's market, sales people need to be experts in executing early sales cycle discovery to effectively negotiate a favorable price at the end of the sale.

Additional challenges in a down economy include:

• Many hungry sellers trying to make a living creating more competition on price
• The internet gives buyers access to information which gives them an advantage in the negotiation
• Even if you have done all the work answering the buyer's questions, giving them advice, and developing their solution, they will still shop price with your competitors

When you think about it, you do the same thing when you buy something. How do you overcome these challenges to get a fair price?

1. Negotiation Begins with the First Sales Call. Sales people end up giving too much away in negotiation because they did not gather enough information in the early sales cycle discovery to arm them for a successful negotiation. They focus on their product and proposal, and not enough on why the buyer should do business with you.
2. Know Your Unique Value. Ask your current customers why they chose you over your competitors, and why they continue to do business with you. This will tell you your unique value from your customer's perspective. If they say price, then ask what other criteria they used to choose you.
3. Understand the Problem the Buyer Wants to Solve. During your discovery process, find out: why it is a problem; why do they want to solve it; and, why would they choose you?
4. Find Out the Buyer's Deadlines. Deadlines are important because they minimize the amount of time available to negotiate. If they do not have a deadline, you could create one by identifying how much it is costing them by not solving the problem now. You may have more power in the negotiation than you perceive because of these deadlines.
5. Negotiate with the Right People. There are people in companies who are assigned to evaluate solutions to problems, but they are not responsible to fix them and they are not the ones feeling the pain. Negotiate with the person who has the pain and is responsible for fixing it.
6. Learn the Buyer's Evaluation Process. Every purchase in a company has to go through a process. Find out how they will be evaluating possible solutions to their problem, including their evaluation criteria; who will make the decision; price; what purchasing will need from you to finalize the sale; delivery expectations; and, implementation process. Do not just focus on your product/service evaluation. You could win the product/service evaluation, but lose the sale because you did not learn that there were other criteria they were also evaluating.
7. Ask for the Business. When you have met all of the buyer's evaluation criteria, ask for the business. Present your business case, their cost of delaying a decision, and the advantage of implementing the solution now. By asking for the business you motivate the decision maker to decide to bypass other options because of the cost and time involved.

The most important thing to remember about successful negotiations is to solve the buyer's problem, not just sell your product. Motivational speaker, Zig Zigler, says it best," You can get everything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want."

These ideas are to assist you in negotiating a favorable price. If you want more information or help for your team on negotiating a favorable price, contact: jimsearls@commonsensesales.com

Web site: www.commonsensesales.com