Coffee's for Closers

28Negotiations

‘A wise man is only a fool for a short while’.

—Sun Tzu

The purpose of negotiation is to reach a fair and reasonable compromise, not to try to do the impossible. The ideal aim of negotiations for those involved in the negotiation process is to find new ways of arriving at better outcomes, by working in cooperation with the other side. Negotiating should develop a ‘partnership’ approach, not an ‘adversarial’ one.

When my father‐in‐law, Boyd, and I first set up our business in 2006, we won a small contract with a promotional merchandise company within our first six months. We delivered about four days' sales training at our standard rate (£1200 + VAT per day), and the feedback was exceptional.

They saw an immediate uplift in sales, a real boost in motivation and had a clear return on investment (ROI) within six weeks of the training. Boyd and I went back in to see the client and discuss putting a training programme in place. The feedback he gave was incredible, and in the client's eyes we couldn't have done anything more.

The client agreed the training needed to be continually reinforced and wanted us onsite at least seven days a month. Before Boyd and I started high‐fiving each other and doing our success dance, we took out our diaries to start booking dates. He said, ‘Obviously, I am expecting a discount for booking seven days a month with you, so what can you offer me?’

This would be our first really big deal for our business and in the first few months that ...