Why those terms?
An extremely important negotiating question. If you don’t ask it at least once, you are not doing your job well.
If you have an impasse on one of those three things, you can always step back and ask to look at one of the other three elements.
If an issue is only producing disagreement and frustration, there is no sin in asking that it be postponed in order to allow you and the prospect to discuss something that you do agree on. Emphasize commonalities, and you will eventually be able to build up enough trust to move forward to the most difficult issues.
It is also true that by postponing the most difficult issues, at least with someone whom you know to be committed to finding a way to work out a deal, you may improve your negotiation position. But this depends, to a large degree, on who really has the most control of the negotiating session. If you have reason to suspect the prospect will in fact walk away if you put off discussing X for too long, and you don’t want the person to walk away, you’re probably going to have to discuss X sooner rather than later.
Okay—how were you planning on paying for it?
Use this to get a sense of the other side’s priorities when your organization’s payment terms are under assault. Don’t just volunteer to improve the terms; ask, specifically, what kind of terms the other side has in mind.
Can we come back to this?
If the answer to Question 241 is not something you can sell to your boss, explore the reasoning behind the terms suggested by the other side. Is it based on past experience with other vendors—or is it the kind of request one places on one’s Christmas list, while hoping for a visit from Santa?
Did you have any problems with (X) last time?
Use this question to spotlight the value your company delivers in a given area that a competitor probably did not deliver in the past. For instance: If you know the deal the prospect negotiated last time around included a lousy maintenance program, and you know your company delivers a superior maintenance package, you should emphasize (or perhaps subtly re-emphasize) the value you will be delivering.
How much do you think those problems ended up costing your organization?
A necessary follow-up to Question 243. If specialized technical help, additional repairs, reduced effectiveness, or lost customers resulted from the problems you identified in Question 243, you should use this query to quantify how much that problem ultimately cost the prospect, in hard-dollar terms. If you have expertise, support, or other resources that will keep your prospect from experiencing that loss again, you should not be shy about emphasizing that dollar figure, and pointing out that it is not part of the cost—direct or indirect—of doing business with you.
Is it too low?
A good tension-reducing question you should pose—with a straight face—when the prospect says “We’ve got a problem on price.”
Don’t underestimate the role humor can play in establishing a good emotional atmosphere for your negotiating session. This very joke can lighten the mood with a “hard-as-nails” negotiator, and lead you to a win-win outcome.
What did you think the number was going to be?
This is a good question to ask if the prospect reacts negatively when you are placed in the position of naming your price first. It is a marked improvement over looking for opportunities to offer discounts.
I came in contact once with a salesperson who sold over the phone. He was so used to getting price resistance from his prospects that he actually offered to discount when one of his prospects agreed to buy! It was simply a knee-jerk reaction, an instinctive response. Do not let that happen to you. Before you agree to, or even consider, discounting, ask the other person what figure he or she was looking for. Do not move on until you get some kind of meaningful response.
Let’s assume that I come up with a great program/product for you, and it costs ($X). Would you buy it?
It should go without saying that you will not want to volunteer prices along the lines suggested here until you are well into the discussions with your prospect.
With that warning out of the way, I do want to emphasize that your goal in the negotiation phase should be finding something that will work for this organization, at this time, through this series of discussions. This question can be an effective tool for identifying what that something is.
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