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Sales Training Advice: Obtaining What You Want From Your Sales Related Calls Through Effective Negotiation Skills

In Sales training programmes, negotiation skills are often overlooked. You could say that the reason most of us feel the need to negotiate with anyone else is so that we can find a way to get what we would like. Being human, we all believe that our point of view is very important and that others should at least think about seeing things our way. If you had no desires or needs, there would be little reason for you to negotiate with others.

If sales courses don't always teach influencing skills, how then can you convince other people to favourably consider your propositions?

Believe it or not, there is a science backed up by more than 60 years of research that has evolved our understanding of the use of influence to meet our needs and wants in sales negotiation. The world's leading authority on the science of influence, Dr Robert Cialdini, has uncovered 6 principles of persuasive communications in his research:

Reciprocation
Liking
Commitment & Consistency
Authority
Scarcity
Social Proof

Whilst influence will always be somewhat of an art, it is astonishingly helpful to use the power of the 6 principles discovered by scientific research to maximise your odds of persuading others to give you what you really want.

Let's start by examining at what is believed to be the key principle from a negotiation point of view - reciprocation.

Reciprocation means that we return to others the same behaviour that they exhibit towards us. If you have helped me, then I should do you a favour. If you invite me to your birthday party, then I should invite you to my birthday party. If you make a concession to me, then I should make a concession to you.

So what does this mean to you and how can you use it to get what you would like?

Here's how:

Ensure that when you start a negotiation you ask for a little more than you would like to receive.

Let's say you are trying to sell a widget and you would like to get $ 100 for the widget.

If you want to apply the principle of reciprocation, then you should start by asking for a little more - let's say by requesting $ 105.

If your counterparty does not agree to paying you $ 105 for the widget, then you can offer a concession by discounting your price to $ 100 in exchange for your counterparty also making a concession to you. A concession that your counterparty could make in this case could be to pay you cash on the spot or to pay for shipping etc.

The key is for you to offer the concession - don't wait for your counterparty to offer a concession. Just make sure that you use the word 'if' when you make your concession:

"If you are prepared to hand over the cash right now, then I could reduce the price from $ 105 to $ 100". This way you give an indication to your counterparty that you are prepared to be flexible and you will now significantly enhance the likeliness of them also being flexible and offering a concession in return.

Just be sure to use this principle 'in the moment' whilst you are negotiating. If you went away from a negotiation to reconsider your proposal, your counterparty will be more likely to regard your revised offer as a new proposal, not as a concession.