How To Become Dangerously Good At Negotiation

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1. 9:09

   At the end of the demo call, you're oftentimes getting solution validation. At the end of the big team demo, you're oftentimes getting, Hey, we're a vendor of choice. And then at the beginning of the proposal call, you're just recapping the three or four things that you've learned in the last call. And you're saying, Hey, just confirming, are we all on the same page? Do we want to work together? “Are we actually vendor of choice?” Great. If you haven't gotten that at this point, then I would honestly ask yourself, are you really at the point where you need to be walking them through a full proposal? Because that means you're not even at problem agreement yet. You get to the point when you give price, talk to me about how that goes. So the first thing that you need to validate is problem agreement and vendor of choice.

   In Buying process discovery

2. 9:53

   And you oftentimes do this again before the proposal call. So you'll oftentimes have a prep call with your champion talking about, okay, what do you need to ultimately make a purchasing decision? They'll say a proposal and you'll use, let's just pretend language. And so you'll say, Hey Nick, I'm really excited that we seem like the vendor of choice. Let's just pretend that this conversation goes well. “I want to make sure that we're meeting all of your go live timelines and that if” we have a price that actually works for you guys, if the contract. What's the way that you want it to look? That we actually have a way to move forward together and navigate all the other boxes that you need to check off in the organization. So you mentioned that the three things that need to happen next are we need to get executive approval, we need to get finance approval, and then we need to do legal and security. This is how long each of those things will take

   In Buying process discovery

3. 10:10

   choice. Let's just pretend that this conversation goes well. I want to make sure that we're meeting all of your go live timelines and that if we have a price that actually works for you guys, if the contract. What's the way that you want it to look? That we actually have a way to move forward together and navigate all the other boxes that you need to check off in the organization. So you mentioned that the three things that need to happen next “are we need to get executive approval,” we need to get finance approval, and then we need to do legal and security. This is how long each of those things will take if this next conversation goes well. Does that look about right? And all you're doing on the proposal call is you're recapping that thing that you've already done before. So this should not be the first time you've discussed process.

   In Buying process discovery

4. 14:52

   Great, so they say, I want it cheaper. Like I didn't think it was gonna be this. And they're not gonna say it that way. They're gonna say, yeah, I didn't think this thing was gonna be 80 grand a year. Gosh, there's no way we're gonna get that approved. Totally, so if they say, I never thought this was gonna be 80 grand. The first thing you can do is you can use a Chris Voss label and you can say like, okay, “it sounds like we might not be bringing enough value” to actually justify the price. I guess, what did you have in mind? And so I still didn't get it.

   In Price and budget objections

5. 17:00

   you push them into the $1 solution is what you're waiting for them to say is, look, I do want to go with you, I'm just not willing to pay double the price. And that naturally begs the question, okay, then it's just a matter of us figuring out “what is the additional value that we're bringing above the competition.” By pushing them into the rock bottom competitors that you know they don't want, they're going to push back into you. And now we say, okay, so then it's just a matter of figuring out how much more value we bring over $40K that will determine where we ultimately land. If that value is not enough, you may need to move a bit on price, but we need to get

   In Competitive differentiation

6. 17:12

   And that naturally begs the question, okay, then it's just a matter of us figuring out what is the additional value that we're bringing above the competition. By pushing them into the rock bottom competitors that you know they don't want, they're going to push back into you. “And now we say, okay, so then it's just a matter of figuring out how much more value” we bring over $40K that will determine where we ultimately land. If that value is not enough, you may need to move a bit on price, but we need to get back to exploring that gap between the second tier and you, the first tier first, because you need some information to determine how you're going to move things around in order to get there.

   In Competitive differentiation

7. 20:34

   that you're gonna pick one of the options because you know you're not gonna get much more out of me. What you're doing that was small, you mentioned, but I think it's worth repeating, is you are saying, hey, I'm gonna have to go back to my CFO and get this approved and I only get one cut with them. And what you're doing here is you're actually removing yourself, Armand, “from being the person in control” and power in the negotiation. And that's actually something Chris Voss talks about also where he's like, hey, you don't want them to know that you might be in control. You're saying, I gotta go to my CFO, I gotta go to my executive team. And what this allows you to do then is ask, ask, ask, ask, get all of their asks on the table. You're doing some negotiation discovery. So let's fast forward a bit here, Armand,

   In Authority and approval objections

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