Negotiating with Backbone: Eight Sales Strategies to Defend Your Price and Value

9. Beware the Signs of a Losing Game

We are all creatures of habit. Over the years, we’ve all picked up some bad habits. One of them that hurts us in selling is denial. Denial in that we fail to see the warning signs associated with a potential pieces of business: We just flat out ignore them. Along the way, we kid ourselves about the chances of winning a piece of business. The trick is to recognize a warning sign or red flag for what it is—an indication that you’ve got a problem with what you’re doing and you need to rethink what you are doing. Negotiating with backbone is about doing things better and smarter. We’ve spent the past four chapters looking at the tactics of better negotiating. This chapter is about making sure you aren’t still ...