ZOPA is an acronym for “Zone of Potential Agreement”—this is the range in which a deal can be closed that is mutually beneficial for both customer and supplier.

To illustrate a ZOPA by example (see Figure 1), let’s say that a buyer is interested in a particular vintage car that is offered by a private seller.  The seller wants at least $20,000 (because of the price they paid plus all the maintenance they put into the car over the years). The most the buyer is willing to spend on that car (because they can get a similar car from a dealer) is $24,000.

So the ZOPA in this case is between $20,000 and $24,000, and hopefully buyer and seller can agree to a price in between that each finds valuable.

While this is a fairly straightforward example of a negotiation, in B2B sales, the ability to negotiate effectively is a critical skill…and understanding ZOPA is a key component of that. Read More »

We’ve all seen sales calls that progress with graceful momentum, and others that crash and burn. Chances are, the customer and rep are in sync and on the same page in those commercial conversations that end on a positive note. But when the buyer and seller aren’t in line with one another, the call goes off the rails and into the “deal graveyard.”

As one member recently put it, “the sale is a synchronized dance—our reps lead, but they must move with the customer.” So, how can you help your reps gauge whether or not their customers are open to moving forward in a deal?

We’ve already talked about strategies for synching reps’ and customers’ actions with very tangible signals aligned to the customer buying process.  But if you don’t want to outright ask a customer if they’re ready to move forward with the deal, are there other ways you can tell whether the customer would like to proceed—especially during those tough negotiations?

It turns out that some successful reps are able to gauge customers’ level of agreement by looking for subtle behavioral cues to determine when a customer is ready to move on with the process. This is one way reps are able to assert control of the interaction- a key differentiator of what makes Challenger Reps top performers.

There are a few ways that can make sensing customers’ subconscious responses- an inherently tacit skill- more explicit.  We’ve seen companies use two techniques to build reps’ sensing ability and focus them on better predicting and adapting to customers’ responses.   Read More »

By Kirsten Robinson

Every sales rep will tell you that customers are pushing back during negotiations more than ever.

To regain control of negotiations, DuPont created a 4-step negotiation roadmap and trained reps on techniques that help them overcome their tendency to give in to customer demands too quickly.

And, their strategy works. Case in point: a rep applied this training to one of their customer interactions and won a 3-5% price increase across all of the products sold and increased share by US$3.5 million. Overall, DuPont attributed $1.7 million in revenue to this negotiation training program.

We had the opportunity to speak with Dan James, former Vice President of Corporate Sales at DuPont, who described the company’s negotiation strategy in depth. But more importantly, he shed light on why each step of the negotiation roadmap is essential to helping reps stay in control.

SEC members, see the 4 steps of the negotiation road map and read excerpts from our conversation with Dan James.

By Kirsten Robinson

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

This is a great quote from funnyman Bill Cosby—and it relates quite a bit to sales reps. Sure, people-pleasers may come across as more accommodating, but when it comes down to closing deals, passive reps won’t pull in the best numbers.

Star reps are assertive and remain in control of negotiations. Yet many sales leaders are anxious about telling reps to be more assertive, worried they will end up veering too far on the spectrum toward aggressive.

So, how can your company help reps to be more assertive? A key ingredient is building their confidence. And, it’s easier than you think—it just takes some advance planning.

Think about how flustered you get when asked a question out of left field and have no response. The same goes for reps in a negotiation; they can’t win the tough conversations by thinking on the fly. When tension with a customer spikes, most reps will revert back to people-pleasing instincts—but if they’ve built a negotiation strategy in advance, they’ll have the confidence to not back down. Read More »

In response to some recent member requests for tips on objection handling, I’ve compiled below four of the slickest techniques I’ve come across.

Let’s use the following customer objection as an example and look at how a rep could overcome it using each of the four techniques:

Customer Objection:  I see the value, but I don’t think everyone on my team will. And their buy-in is crucial, since ultimately they’re the ones who would be using this.

Technique #1: Feel, Felt, Found

Rep Response: I see you feel like you won’t be able to get your team bought-in, which is understandable. In fact, one of our top customers actually felt the same way initially. But the interesting thing they found is that it only took buy-in from a few early adopters to create momentum…

Why it works: Builds empathy by acknowledging what the customer is feeling, and reassuring them that others have felt this way before. Then, you indirectly confront the objection through someone else’s success story, rather than directly challenging it yourself.

Technique #2: Tipping the Bucket

Rep Response: Sounds like buy-in is a big concern. Got it. What else is on your mind? I want to make sure you have an opportunity to voice all of your concerns before I try to address them.

Why it works: Tipping the Bucket shows that you genuinely respect and want to hear the prospect’s viewpoint, but also works to your advantage when they “show all their cards at once,” prematurely revealing the areas they’ll pushback on. Plus it always catches the customer off guard when someone actually cares what they have to say!    Read More »

By Andrew Kent

As our research on sales rep effectiveness reveals, unquestionably, your best sales reps are those who challenge customers.  And a key component of challenging customers is asserting control over the conversation.

But that language of “challenging” and “being assertive” can be a bit intimidating. The fear is, if we tell our reps to act like “challengers,” they’ll just act like jerks; if we tell them to be assertive, they’ll be aggressive. 

Even more surprising than the need to challenge customers was our finding that reps who focus on relationship building were the lowest performers.  At companies where personal relationships have been the primary basis for sales for years, this finding can be quite shocking.

Of course, challenging a customer doesn’t mean making them feel like an idiot—it means challenging them to be better.  And relationships do still matter—it’s only that building personal relationships can no longer be a salesperson’s primary talent.  

It’s easy to see how that message can be misinterpreted, and further proves the point that the language we use matters.

So then, how do you tell reps to be Challengers without sending the wrong message?  Read More »

As sales teams round out the second half of 2010, we’ve been receiving a growing number of member requests for resources on negotiation tactics. This makes sense – our research shows that top performing reps are more comfortable discussing money and asserting control of over deals than their peers.

To help inspire your teams to defend margins through these tough times, I’ve pulled together stories of some of North America’s least-known but most-skillful negotiators. 

1. The Red Paper Clip Guy – Starting with a single red paper clip, 26-year old salesman Kyle McDonald bartered his way to a 2-story farmhouse in Saskatchewan through a series of creative trades involving a ballpoint pen, a doorknob, a camping stove, and a snowmobile.

• See our resources on manager innovativeness to bring deal-level creativity to your own organization.   Read More »

Think about how many times and ways a customer says “no”…

There is the “matter-of-fact no” ( I am not interested in this offer);  the “no-without-no” (I’ll contact you myself when I am ready to make a decision);   the “passing-the-buck no”  (The decision is out of my hands now);  the “maybe-yes no” (I’ll have to check my calendar) and the “restraining-order no” (For the last time, no).

While searching for more examples (and for my own amusement), I Googled “how to say no.” As I looked through the more than 206,000,000 results, I learned how to say NO in over 520 languages and how to come up with 100 Excuses to Say No (my favorite one: “because my subconscious says no”).

The all-mighty Internet taught me how to say no to bosses, relatives, friends, co-workers and pushy sales people, but it had little to say about how to push back on customers.  Is that because we’ve been brainwashed that the customer is always right?

Maybe…But, unless you’re running a charitable foundation, saying no is a critical skill, especially now. In the current economy, customers feel entitled to more discounts, more customization and less risk, and they don’t hesitate to ask for more.    

One of the main reasons why salespeople find it hard to say no to customers is because they don’t know how people will react to it. Fortunately, it is fairly easy to predict a customer’s reaction if you know what type of customer you’re talking to: 

Read More »

Most of us have been training reps on questioning techniques for years, but have seen limited results.  

And here’s why– it’s not that reps don’t know what questions to ask, or how to ask them…it’s that they’re not even trying to ask questions.  They’re trying to close the deal. 

Most companies believe the best way to improve needs discovery capabilities is to build reps ‘ questioning skills – but skills are not the problem. The bigger barrier you must overcome is reps’ unwillingness to ask questions.

In today’s world of complex solution selling, we’re selling bigger, more complicated solutions that reach across multiple departments within customers’ organizations. And this complexity introduces a whole host of new challenges to closing deals.  

There are hundreds of reasons why deals could go off the rails…and that makes reps afraid. Reps aren’t asking the right questions for fear of introducing or uncovering additional obstacles that could give the customer a reason to say No. 

Rather than adding even more risk to the equation, reps just try everything they can to close the deal and sort all that stuff out later.  A member recently referred to this as “drive-by selling.”  Close now, and ask questions later.  Read More »

We all know by now that Sales can learn a lot from the field of psychology, but it is worthwhile from time-to-time to have a refresher on some of the more surprising findings coming out of university psych departments.

Here I’ve summarized a few such findings particularly relevant for Sales. A word of warning: it wouldn’t be a psych study if the findings weren’t a bit quirky!

Finding #1: Customers are more likely to say “yes” if you give them coffee and speak into their right ear

• Explanation: An Australian study finds that consuming even a moderate amount of caffeine makes individuals “more likely to agree with persuasive arguments.” Additional research conducted in Italian discotheques finds that people are twice as likely to give a stranger a cigarette if the request is made into the right rather than the left ear (which allows the request to be processed via the “preferred,” left hemisphere of the brain).
• Implication for Sales: Train your reps to suggest a refill and to choose their chair carefully before sitting down at the negotiation table. Then have them use our Controlled Negotiation Roadmap to seal the deal.

Finding #2: People spend most of their time in meetings sharing information everyone already knows         Read More »