Negotiative
Selling
Discovering
Decision Making Values
By Jeffrey Hansler, CSP
As the world becomes smaller through technology and overnight
delivery, as quality becomes the norm, and as customers learn
of vast alternative sources for similar products, selling
will lose any remaining association with one-way communication
and enter a new era of "Negotiative Selling".
Webster
defines selling as convincing and negotiating and conferring
with another to come to terms. I offer that
negotiative selling is the act of assisting someone in
coming to a decision about a product, service or idea.
One of the
first things you can do for yourself if you desire to become
a successful negotiative seller is to complete the following
exercise.
Imagine
that you are going to have yourself cryogenically frozen
and that you can only purchase one more "thing".
What would you choose? Why? If you couldn't get it, how
would you feel? Why?
This
exercise may begin a process of self-discovery. Often
people are surprised about their decisions. We
make
the erroneous assumption that because we have lived
with ourselves, we understand ourselves, our decision
making
process, and our communication with others.
Just
as we can be surprised by our decisions, we can be surprised
how we react to a series of spoken words.
We
may understand
words, but not the impact of words. For example,
when I say, "Don't think of a blue elephant.", what
do you think of? So when I say, "Don't worry.",
what immediately happens?
Once
you have begun to explore assumptions about yourself
and communication, you can begin to learn
about your
communication with others. For example, many people
think they listen
well, when in fact they aren't listening, just
waiting for the next moment they can talk. A negotiative
salesperson understands the difference and truly
listens to the
prospect.
Successful
negotiative selling requires helping the buyer discover
their underlying needs and resolving
any conflicts
between those underlying needs. Only when this
has
been accomplished can a decision be reached.
I
call the process used in effective negotiative selling
Directed Communication™. Directed Communication™
has
five steps: Contact, Qualification, Needs Analysis,
Agreement, and Follow-up. Directed Communication
is a part of
natural conversation. It is honest, straightforward,
and non-manipulative. Most importantly, it
guides a negotiative salesperson to uncovering the underlying
needs of the buyer.
The
major contributing factor to the success of negotiative
selling is the large quantity
of questions.
The
best negotiative salespeople are open to
receiving as much
information as possible, factual and otherwise.
Emotions contribute
to a conversation, sometimes bringing forth
facts and sometimes assumptions presented
as fact.
The greatest
benefit
from the five step Directed Communication
process to the negotiative salesperson, is that it
enables the
salesperson to successfully determine the
facts.
Step
one is the CONTACT. In it, you briefly state your product,
service or idea, and
focus on learning
about
the prospect with your eyes and ears. You
need to have awareness of your personal
strengths and weaknesses
and those of your product or service. You
should
have
a clear
idea of what you intend to happen and several
ideas on how
it should happen. Your plans may be based
on a great deal of information about the
prospect, some
facts,
or only assumptions. Great negotiative
salespeople realize
that every situation is different and the
process is dynamic.
Step
two is QUALIFICATION. This is an evaluation of the resources
you will need
to invest
to make a sale,
and the prospect's ability to come to
a yes decision. Qualification
is a critical part of negotiative selling,
because it provides the salesperson with
the ability
to spend time
with the
right prospects. It's great to have a
prospect who really needs your product, but unless
they can afford
it you
will be wasting valuable time.
Step
three is NEEDS ANALYSIS. This is where the successful
negotiative salesperson
spends
the most
time. In this
step, you help the prospect reveal
the underlying needs for a product, service,
or idea. One
of the best methods
for
determining a prospect's needs is to
find out how they have satisfied their
needs
in the
past. In
other words,
what products they have purchased in
the past. This is accomplished by asking
a
great many
questions beginning with who, what,
where, when, and why,
why,
why? If
any conflicts come up, you ask questions
about which NEEDS are more important
and why, why,
why? By questioning,
you assist the prospect in realizing
their own decision making
process.
Step
four is the AGREEMENT. In this step, you and the prospect
discuss
possible options
available
and
you demonstrate
or explain the ways your product
or service will better meet their NEEDS,
if it does.
Then you
assist the prospect
in making a decision based on their
needs. This is the point where the
prospect
says yes and
becomes a
satisfied customer, if the product
addresses their needs, or you
decide
that the resources required to change
his mind from a no will be too great.
A maybe
is merely
a postponement
of a decision, and indicates that
underlying needs are
still in conflict. Remember, many
people that truly need your product, service,
or ideas,
will never
purchase them.
A
negotiative salesperson's responsibility
is only to bring
the process to a decision for that
moment in time, not force a desired
decision.
Step
five is FOLLOW-UP. It provides you with the customer's
perception
of their
needs satisfaction.
This more
than anything else, guides the
salesperson to providing
better
service to this customer, all current
customers and future customers.
Follow-up should
be done with those
who
purchased and those that did not.
Obviously, everyone who did not
purchase cannot
be followed up on,
but some of your greatest learning
lessons about you
and your
communication with others come
from those that did not purchase.
Negotiative
selling works well because it uncovers the underlying
needs
of the prospect.
Needs
that they themselves
were
not consciously aware of before
they began answering your questions.
Heck,
you can
even use it to
guide your children to clean
up
their rooms. But be careful,
negotiative
selling is an art form to children.
#
# # # #
Jeffrey
Hansler is a professional speaker, author, and consultant.
He is a frequent speaker at association events and is the
author of Sell Little Red Hen! Sell! He can be reached at jhansler@oxfordco.com.
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©
2004 Jeffrey Hansler All rights reserved
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