You may be wonderful at closing sales, but you may be doing so at the expense of the price of your product. When you keep your profit margins razor-thin, you leave no wiggle room should unforeseen circumstances creep into your business. It may be time for some good old fashioned negotiation.

The golden rule when negotiating is to be willing to walk away. If you are too invested in a negotiation, you will almost never come out ahead. If you aren’t willing to walk away, your opponent can get whatever they want. You will often see that walking away will get them to concede. This is because too many people don’t do it.

Have concessions ready to use, but don’t use them until absolutely necessary. A mistake people make is they lay out all their cards and give all concessions up front. The biggest problem when doing this is what if the opponent declines the offer? You have nothing left to offer.

Keep in mind that price isn’t the only factor to use for your concessions. Much will depend on the type of products or services you offer. But, when you have several concessions, this can tip the negotiation without changing the price Sometimes, these concessions can be extras offered, or it can be a service plan. Sellers come up with all kinds of creative ways to throw in these concessions.

One of greatest tools for negotiations is using silence. People become uncomfortable with long periods of silence and will often give out their concessions when confronted with it. It’s a tool that most don’t know about, and it does take some getting used to it in order not to experience that uncomfortableness yourself. 

It’s important to remember that the best negotiations are the ones where both parties leave with something gained. If it’s too one-sided to your benefit, you’ll find it difficult getting repeat sales from that customer. If you are left with the short-end of the stick, you are going to find it difficult to continue your operations. 

If you are a weak or inexperienced negotiator, you can hire someone else to do it for you. Maybe you already have someone in your organization, or you’ll need to look on the outside for a skilled negotiator. The key is to find someone who doesn’t cost more than the benefit they give. Often, the way to handle that is to give them a percentage of the benefits negotiated.

Hope it helps.

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