I’ve seen some amazing negotiators who have personally bought houses, Ferraris, a garage full of home appliances, even school fees with great results.

The Ferrari buying sales guy dined out for years on purchasing a $378,000 car for $192,000.

Wanker!

So why aren’t these superb outcomes translated into protecting solid margins, reasonable project delivery timeframes and clearer scopes when selling your solutions.

Ah, because we’re selling now, not buying and they have all the power goes the refrain.

Really?

Let’s look at the core planks of negotiation you happily exhibit on the weekend in your daggy track suit pants and see how they translate to your work life.

1.  Planning

Many of you will have bought your own home or investment property and prepared very well.

You researched the market, looked at a lot of options, set expectations with Estate Agents and then at Auction set your walk away position which gave you a sense of structure and anchored your decision making.

Come Monday morning you have a client who wants to re-negotiate consulting rates, software licenses or volume product pricing, payment terms and the whole bucket of ‘more for less’

As a negotiation coach, unfortunately I often don’t see the same rigor and planning in these client meetings as might occur with a house purchase and often the figures over a three year contract are similar or even greater.

Too often sales people have a 5 minute meeting to think about their pricing, competition and offer and then WAIT for the client to lead the negotiation.

You are on the back foot.

Ideally you should have your own positions on these issues and negotiate from there.

If you don’t know your positions on each issue including pricing, timeframes, scope, terms, variations, they will bend you over like an inappropriate Yoga Instructor.

2. Bundling vs Unbundling Solutions

When you’re buying a new fridge does the salesperson itemise each component?eg additional crisper tray, stainless steel or white, additional warranty, delivery and removal of our old fridge.

What do you do?

You ask them to throw stuff in of course or decide that you’ll pick it up yourself to save $200. That’s $200 that had $100 margin in it for the seller.

Companies do the same thing to their detriment. When you list the 19 line items in a spreadsheet including each individual service or hardware, software, installation, warranty component you invite the client to ‘pick off’ expensive items and ask you to throw it in or reduce its price.

When you bundle a solution with a quote that says ‘Advertising Solution for VIP Client Inc’ $88,590,  clients have less room to negotiate. You describe the complete solution and it then becomes a matter of proving its value, not its individually priced components.

3. Concession Trade

How many times have you traded in your personal life with ‘I’ll pick up the kids if you cook dinner tonight’ or ‘I’ll give you a foot massage if…..you get the gist’

It’s called concession trading based on the principle that you don’t give something away unless you get something back.

Back at work, rather than totally conceding with the intention to ‘keep them happy’, why not counter with ‘If we reduce the price by 5%, will you place the same volume order next quarter as well. ‘If we agree to a three day faster turnaround, will you pay the 15% premium?’ (PS Your dry cleaner has no problem with this – nor should you.)

If you are going to concede in a negotiation, ALWAYS get something back in return.

So, look at how you negotiated last weekend and take some of those great negotiation skills from your everyday life to work. The other party does not have all the power.  You too can control how you negotiate.

You might then even be able to afford a new pair of track suit pants.

Elliot is a sales and negotiation expert and keynote speaker who has  trained and coached over 4000 people throughout the Asia Pacific Region including sales teams, sales leaders and major bid teams to win new business rapidly.

He once saved $29 buying a microwave oven.

For more information on Negotiation, go to www.salesversusprocurement.com.