Negotiating Is Always 'Us vs. The Problem' (The Seller's Mindset Series)

By the time you get a deal to the price negotiation stage, the most important factor in actually closing it isn't your price or your feature set, it's your mindset. I say it all the time: A salesperson's job is to make their customer's life better. People tend to enter price negotiation, though, as if it's a fight to the death.

While it is everyone's prerogative to get the best deal, it can and should be done in an environment of mutual trust and beneficial outcomes. I tell my clients to have the mantra "It's us versus the problem." This is the mindset that moves deals through your funnel.

If we've done the qualification work, if we found prospects who really do need our product, and if we've clarified the value, then the natural base of this conversation is that everybody at this table wants this to work. The question is just how. 

In fact, I was just in back and forth negotiations with a prospect of my own. We couldn't come to an agreement on exact terms and pricing, but I just kept starting every email with, "It's clear to me we both want to work together. The question right now is how." 

See, this mindset makes this about problem solving. It turns us from enemies into creative partners trying to get a deal done together. So the next client meeting you have coming up to discuss price, terms, scope, etc, take a moment to make sure your mindset is framed to "us versus the problem." Ask yourself whether you have really qualified this thing so you can confidently say that, or do you need to go back and address a couple of outstanding questions and give this deal a really solid foundation to work on?

I believe that will make all the difference, not just to your success rate with your deals, but also to the love that you feel for your customers, your job, and yourself.