As a digital marketer, one skill that you must possess is the skill of negotiation. Most people think negotiation in terms of price only, but it is far from the truth. It has many possibilities beyond money. For instance, you can negotiate your salary; you can negotiate your perks, job benefits etc. Negotiation is the skill that you will find very useful in other areas of life as well like negotiating prices in the local market and so on and so forth. Now let’s talk about Business. Does negotiation tactics in any way help in growing your business? Many researchers say yes. It does not matter whether you are the owner of the company or a small seller; negotiation helps in improving the growth of your business. In today’s article, I will be talking about the importance of negotiation skills and how you can improve them?
Let’s jump right in
Why are negotiation tactics important for business?
You can improve most decisions of your business by learning powerful tactics. Here some reasons why negotiation tactics are important for business.
- Succession/Exit Plan: If you plan on selling your organization at last, negotiation can likewise help you find the right purchaser at an incredible price.
- Improve Operations: Negotiation can help you find the right remuneration package for your employees, get discounts from your manufacturers, have a fruitful fund raising round, and help you scale your business quicker.
- Business Relations: Negotiation can help you strike mutually useful deals that are beneficial as well as fabricate positive long term relationships.
- Life satisfaction: You can also use negotiation tactics in other areas of life as well. For instance, getting good deals on products and services, building good and healthy relationships. This will enhance life satisfaction, creating an optimal mindset for success in your professional life.
- Enhance revenue: Negotiation can help reduce business costs and increase profits if done the right way.
Negotiation Tactics Every marketer should Master
Negotiation can offer many advantages, but it can also offer some challenges to enter a negotiation without strong negotiation tactics.
Now let’s take a look at some negotiation tactics that can help you make better business decisions, land better opportunities and successfully close business deals.
✅ Use the framing method
Perception can interestingly affect how we see the world. We decipher data diversely depending upon how it is introduced to us. It’s a psychological bias called the Framing Effect. You can utilize this information to work on your negotiation skills. This principle can undoubtedly be utilized as a negotiation tactic. To do this, outline your negotiations as a win-win opportunity.
For instance, suppose you need to make a deal for $30,000 yet your client is set on $25,000. So, rather than going to and fro over the price, take a stab at reframing what you have to offer. Would you be able to highlight the potential savings your client can enjoy by utilizing your product? Would you be able to risk of not utilizing your services?
Ask yourself “How might I outline this deal so we both win?” Remember that you are not really changing the end outcome. You are essentially changing the manner in which you outline the conversation.
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✅ Rank your priorities
Ranking your priorities is another important part of planning your negotiation tactics. There are some things you definitely need to have if you want to enter a profitable agreement. While some things may be ‘good-to-have’, but are not a necessity. You have to rank your priorities to make them clear to you. You need to decide what you will give up if you have to compromise on something. Here priority lists can help. For instance, your priority can be building a good relationship with your client over making a big sale. In this case, you can compromise on the sale and earn the trust and goodwill of the other party.
✅ Identify the real issue
In certain negotiations, the issue and the solution may be self-evident. For instance, when you negotiate your salary, the two parties know you’re requesting more money in return for continuing to offer your services to the business. Sometimes the main problems aren’t as self-evident.
Suppose you’ve lost interest in your present job, and need some leisure time to put resources into a side hustle. You go to your boss and try negotiating more PTO or similar benefits. You haven’t conveyed your actual requirements, so your boss may not get what you’re seeking for. Perhaps they’ll offer you a raise.
They believe they’re making the best decision, however both of you are stuck in an awkward situation since you were unable to convey your genuine issue. This frequently occurs in negotiations. Individuals negotiate for money when they truly need more time, freedom, consistency, adaptability, or even another employee for help with the expected workload.
If the objective of a good negotiation process is to tackle the issue, then, communicating the genuine issue turns into a vital part of negotiation tactics. To prevail at negotiating, you need to understand what solution or result you’re chasing. This means you need to communicate the genuine issue—not simply the most obvious one.
✅ Be ready to walk away
If you’ve outlined the negotiation as a win-win opportunity, made an honest effort to compromise, discussed the hidden issues, and still failed to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, it could be an ideal opportunity to walk away.
Many people are frightened of having to walk away from a negotiation. This makes them bound to take a bad deal as opposed to have no deal at all. This is a counterproductive methodology. Being ready to leave will give you a benefit. It may not be what you expected when you entered the agreement, however sometimes it’s smarter to say no than sign a bad agreement.
In case you’re comfortable leaving the agreement; you can utilize it as leverage. By having different options, you’re already in a stronger position—and now you have a good degree of experience to bring to your next round of negotiations with another person.
✅ Offer a win-win situation
As I mentioned earlier, framing your negotiation as a win-win situation can help you become a powerful negotiator. A win-win situation really matters because it helps both the parties feel comfortable about the deal. It builds mutual trust, respect, and a good rapport. It focuses on problem solving, eliminates the winner-loser power dynamic, and opens up possibilities for working together again.
Whenever we frame negotiations as a win-or-lose proposition, in the back of our mind, we always think that someone has to lose. When you enter a negotiation with this mind-set, your goal is to convince the other party to accept defeat. Whereas, a strong negotiator always frames the negotiation as a win-win opportunity, so everyone is satisfied with the deal.
✅ Make the first offer
“Never show your cards” does not work so well in real-life negotiations. But to your surprise, you should always be the first to say a number when it comes to negotiations. This is because the starting number sets the tone for the rest of the negotiation. It puts you in control of the negotiation process. This practice is known as anchoring. Even if your number is incredibly high or amazingly low, now you can control the negotiation conversation toward your choice.
If your first number is extremely high, you have one-sided the negotiations to slant higher. As a rule, this insanely high number will be disregarded, but you are already plotting at a higher price than if you came in much lower at a “reasonable” cost.
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✅ Be a great listener
This is a wrong notion that successful negotiation is all about talking. In fact, I think that successful negotiation is less about talking and more about listening. You must have heard “A good listener is always better than a good speaker”. You are able to understand what the other party really wants when you listen carefully to them without waiting for your turn to talk. This may help you in striking a win-win deal so at the end both the parties will get what they want. This skill is called active listening. This will help you build a healthy relationship with your client.
Wrapping it up
Negotiation tactics sound daunting. Like they are just for the high-profile business person in suits which is not true. Anybody can negotiate practically any aspect of their life for better results. From yearly raises to monthly rent, there’s room for utilizing these tactics everywhere. Every one of the negotiation tactics we discussed today is strong alone, yet together, their effect can be staggeringly effective. Give them a shot, and you will see.
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