In every step in your business, negotiation is essential. It plays a crucial role, especially in the sustainable business development domain. In this article, I will share the top 10 tips that will help you make a business negotiation successful.
You can find a detailed article on the importance of business negotiation here published earlier.
In most successful business negotiation, professionals aim to be fair. They try to crack a beneficial deal for both parties.
Whatever proposal you bring or you get, you have to be a master negotiator. This will eventually lead to you through the negotiation stage in the business setup for a win-win outcome.
It is an art to make a successful business negotiation. It is also one of the key factors in business that can strike a visible difference in the important stage of transformation.
Here are some simple yet highly effective 10 tips that can help you make successful business negotiation:
Start with the groundwork before the negotiation takes place
You will need to do some groundwork to know the other party and their interest. It has to be thorough in order to assess their strengths, weaknesses. Figure out the pain points and emotional connection to the business negotiation topic.
To do so, perform deep research on the company’s activities via Google or LinkedIn. Besides, you can also go through their business websites, press releases and product reviews from the customers.
I always suggest that you should do a reference check with their suppliers/ someone with whom they had/have business transactions before.
Eventually, this helps you to assess the track record of the party and prepare accordingly for successful business negotiation.
Ask open questions during the business negotiation
You can get a lot of explicit as well as implicit information by asking open questions during the negotiation. Even if the question sounds redundant, let it be that way.
Therefore, the answers of the open questions, wordings, body language will let you derive important information from the other party. Thus you will know how and when to steer the discussion in what directions.
You can ask about the best pricing they can offer and get to know more about their products and competitors. Besides, ask about their history, story, some non-business questions like the community, ecosystem, suppliers, customers etc.
In addition, you should seek assurance whether their product/ service or the business partnership will literally give you the promised results.
Not only that, but you can also inquire about the possible ways they can help you with useful services before proceeding further.
Asking open questions and be attentive to the answers will give you the right tool to steer your business negotiation to its desired end.
Keep your ears to the ground during the business negotiation
Good listening ability is important for the negotiator if he or she wants to make a good choice.
Don’t try to be a manipulator in the conversation. Instead, keep all ears open and listen to the perspective of the party on varied discussion topics.
This will help you to a great deal to understand their limitations or flexibility and reach the most beneficial conclusion at the end of the business negotiation.
Understand cultural aspects to win business negotiation
Business negotiations always take place between human(s). Hence, it is important to understand the cultural upbringing of an individual in order to listen to the underlying meaning of the things and also to understand & predict the next move.
This is indeed important for making any international level of business negotiations.
Avoid accepting a single negotiation offer
Many negotiators will make this mistake to get tempted. As a result, they will tend to accept the first offer made by the other party without doing a benchmarking.
You must have a good understanding of the value of your product/service. Otherwise, you will be the one to go in the loss for giving out too much against a lower value.
Even if you find the other party reluctant to change their offering, do not give up of doing a benchmarking.
Eventually, it will boost your confidence in what you are proposing which will lead you to firm the base of your business negotiation.
Do not give in to the psychological pressure
We often make compromises while negotiating in our deals because we feel deeply pressurized by our own crises and problems.
This is a psychological trap that you must escape and avoid making the other party feeling superior over you. The other party may look very cool and composed but they too have unsettled troubles inside.
Try to recognise the limitations and pressures of the other party in this deal and convince them during the business negotiation to give in.
Keep a business negotiation observer
Continuing a business negotiation takes in a lot of emotional tolls. Often time, emotion leads the entrepreneur to miss the important cues during the negotiation phase. This could lead to having missed the winning pitch.
It is utterly important to have “extra ears” as the observer in the negotiation. The observer will observe the tiny bit of the details and capture them. For example, the voice modulation, body language, eye contacts, word choice, gesture, the opposed perspectives etc.
The observation is to be used to reflect on the situation and come out with the best winning strategy.
(see a detailed blog on why do you need observer in a negotiation)
Look for mutual benefits in the business negotiation
You will be defeating your own self if you give out more than the value you are actually getting. So, for every incentive that you offer you should ask for the best value for it.
Basically, the outcome of your business negotiation should bring out a win-win value for both parties instead of compelling one side to compromise more.
I have made a Business Negotiation Effectivity Tracking Template. Download it free by clicking here. You can use this template to design and track the effectivity of your business negotiation.
Be cautious about the time spent during the negotiation phase
Determine on the full length of time that you can afford to spare closing the deal. Thus you should have the comprehensive-time plan for the business negotiation.
The time plan needs to have visibility to both the parties too. As a result, it will become easier to follow up with the planned timeline for both the parties being on the same page.
Keep in mind that, you should always need to evaluate your time plan status with reality.
You can use the Negotiation Time Planner to plan and track the time.
Click here to download the Negotiation Time Planner for free.
Be strict on business negotiation time plan so that even if the negotiation outcome goes wrong, you do not fall into acute desperation in the end.
Walk away from the negotiation if it does not value your business
Often entrepreneurs tend to look at the deal as the last deal option to close. Eventually, they forget the courage of having a “ walk away“ – attitude. This lead to closing the deal without having a win-win closing.
In the business negotiation, you must have the courage and attitude to “walk away”. It does not matter how much desperate situation your venture is in.
This attitude, of course, can not be on the emotional ground only. Some negotiations are better to be left unresolved if it is not giving you the value that your business deserves.
If the proposal is right, it must bring a win-win situation for both the parties. But it is important to do an objective evaluation of the negotiation activities. This would help to be better next time.
Business negotiation, especially the strategic ones, are not easy to crack. It takes good homework and also good expertise to make the deal successful.
The above 10 tips to make successful business negotiation are derived from the first-hand experience from varied diversified industries across the international borders. So you definitely can count on them to become the master of the business negotiation.
If you struggle, feel free to book a free 50 minutes consultation with me. I will walk you through towards your desired result of the business negotiation by effectively utilising the tools mentioned above.
