The Perfect Deal Negotiation Process (Armand Farrokh, 30MPC)

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1. 10:32

   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. The second thing that you need to validate is process agreement. And so the way that you validate process agreement is you say, let's just pretend.

   In Problem and impact discovery

2. 10:58

   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. The second thing that you need to validate is process agreement. And so the way that you validate process agreement is you say, let's just pretend. And you oftentimes do this again before the proposal call. “So you oftentimes have a prep call with your champion talking about, OK, 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 looks the way that you want to look, that we actually have a way to move forward together

   In Needs and requirements discovery

3. 11:48

   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. “This should have happened earlier in your sales cycle.” And so all you're saying is like, okay, assuming this goes well, here were the timelines, the high level buckets that we discussed. Are we still all on the same page? You now have process alignment. Now you need to give a number. Not yet. A third thing. The last thing you need is you need pricing structure alignment.

   In Buying process discovery

4. 25:58

   to close by the end of the month? We mentioned this plan that we had earlier. Can you get this done? They say, yes. Awesome. I'm not telling you I can get this done, but I will tell you that if this thing slips past that, and they do acknowledge that we can get this deal done, that deal is going to be taken off the table. “So I need your word.” They'll say, yes, awesome. The second thing I'm going to do is I'm going to force some trade-offs in the other things they brought to the table. I'm going to try for those billing terms. I'm going to try for the one year deal, but I can't promise those are going to get done. It sounds like the 70k price is really the most important thing for you, right?

   In Authority and approval objections

5. 29:22

   My guess is we're going to have to review some of these options live because I don't know if I'm going to get everything that you want. And so we should just be ready to have this conversation together. If I know I've got the deal in the bag, I will still not tell them that I know I've got the deal in the bag. I will tell them, Hey, I got to go meet with my CFO. I'll send you an email by end of day. “Worst case scenario, let's use this meeting as a backstop.” The moment I get off that call, look, we're in sales. We know what deals we can get done. I'm drafting an email that says, Hey, here's the terms that we can get. I know you asked for this, this, this, and this, right? I'm glad to tell you that this has been fully approved by finance.

   In Authority and approval objections

6. 30:55

   And the reality is we can't give you everything because this would just be massively inequitable to multiple others. And if word got out, we would be seeding bad seeds in the market. And so I have two options for you based on what's most important to you. And oftentimes what I'll do, for example, is I'll present a one-year deal at a higher price and a two-year deal at a lower price. “Essentially what I'm doing is I'm just forcing them to make a trade-off based on what's most” important to them. They're going to be like, all right, you gave me my 20% discount. No, I want it to be 25. But when I give you two different options, now I've created a cost to you getting a bigger discount and it's your choice. If you would like to pick the two-year deal as your cost to get that discount, that would usually get the deal done in one cut.

   In Competitive differentiation

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