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34Explain Your Position

Step one in the DEAL Sales Negotiation Conversation Framework is asking questions to discover, clarify, and isolate the negotiation list of the stakeholder group or individual buyer. The goal is to get everything on the table that stands in the way of aligning on an agreement and to understand what’s most important to the stakeholders.

Once you know what you are dealing with, the next step is to minimize the buyer’s concerns by explaining your position in context of the value you are delivering. In particular, one goal is to disrupt the often myopic focus on price. Much of the negotiation is going to center on price. And though price is a ticket to the game, price is not the game.

The real game is the value trade. That is, you and your company deliver something of value for the price your prospect pays.

If you executed the sales process effectively, then your presentation and proposal should articulate that value in the context of the stakeholder group’s desired business outcomes. The concept of value, though, is often pushed aside by the buyer’s fixation on price once you get to the negotiation table.

You may, in fact, have walked the stakeholders through your business case during your presentation twenty minutes earlier. You might have listened as they readily accepted your recommendations, solutions, and planned business outcomes. You celebrated as they said they wanted to do business with you, then watched in awe as amnesia kicked in once the negotiation ...