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Quick quesiton: Can you offer your customer something more, which will save them money in the future, add value, and is provable with other customers? Do you offer an awesome product, on an engaging level play with your buyer, yet fail to enjoy repeat business from happy clients?  Let's discuss how independent sales professionals can learn the fine art of negotiating for creating repeat business, and do relationship selling.

In many cases, a sales maverick who knows everything about creating, maintaining his/her pitch, may be less fluent about the ins and outs of negotiating a deal with partners, retail stores, manufacturers, suppliers, and, eventually, buyers.

When you have designed a product or service, you feel a certain parental pride that sometimes causes a rigid emotional attachment, a protective stance, when it comes to adding other collaborators into the equation.

This problem is not difficult to understand since product managers, developers, often have a hard time selling by themselves, imposing their opinions, and discussing finances. And, this is purely a mindset problem.

Negotiating is a balance of sales. A winning sales strategy only comes after months, even years of experience and a large amount of patience. And still, every deal will be different, and every dealer is way unique. The big question in your pitch, can you still replace your competitor?

Face the facts

When both sides make a point to listen carefully, priorities will become clear. Learn to listen, and finding a common ground makes for a win-win outcome. There are usually mutual benefits on which both sides can agree. Know when you should walk away from a sales negotiation. Everybody has a bottom line, so you should know yours before you go into the sales pitch. Set a point of no return, and once you have decided how far you will bend before you leave a sales negotiation, you become a party with most strength.

Keep Your Emotions in Check

A sales negotiation is no time to let your ego show. Be as neutral and self-controlled as possible. Be willing to flock but know where the line is that you will not cross. Ask a friend to go through the process with you so virtually so you can experience the scenarios that night occur. Create a dry-run, and the words you say and thoughts that come up as you are practicing will come back to you when needed in the real sales pitch. In this case, as in many others, practice makes (a bit more) perfect.

Relationship Selling

If your product is a loser, you need to ditch a ship. Before you pitch your product, think value. Does your product/service compromise ethics?  Doing so may help you see an issue that you had not envisioned. Also, don't base all your hopes and dreams on one deal. Don't make a politician's pitch. Always make sure you are not selling a false/fake promotion, just to earn your commissions. Do not indulge in sales when the customer is not satisfied with your first product/service. Respectfully, whoever advises the converse don't deserve the necessary position as your boss. Be ethical, sell responsibly, and build relationships.

Know Yourself

Understand what you are willing to offer to the other side and what you have that the other party does not have, as well as what the other negotiators have that your business cannot offer. The end of the discussion does not have to be perfect. If you can get to the point where the deal is working for both sides, the final agreement is dose at hand. Even if the transaction results in disagreeing, think of it as being the wrong time for this specific project. Still afraid of sales pitch?

Propsecting

Don't go into a sales negotiation until you have done your research on your sales lead with whom you are making your pitch to. Understand their sales strategies. Talk to associates who know the company better and get an idea of how their business thinks and what their opportunities are for your product/service. Go into a session feeling rested, be on time, wear something that makes you feel good, and think positively.

Damage Control

Also, negotiating does not have to lead to conflict. There are ways to get yourself thinking about how to increase your net sales that do not involve anger. An expert in the field of bargaining says that attempting to make a business deal does not have to be a win-lose proposition. When you think of this sales pitch  as a method for developing solutions, your mind will relax, and you will remove the necesscity to talk more.

Your mind does have a lot to do with the outcomes. Positive emotions commonly result in positive consequences, and if you envision that the outcome of your sales pitch going to be positive, the interaction, even if the ending is not what you wanted, will usually go well.

Till the next article, cheers!