We’ve been looking at negotiation skills that set extraordinary salespeople apart from average ones, and now we have arrived at #7: Be willing to walk away!
Nobody wants to walk away, but you must be comfortable in doing so at any point during the negotiating phase. More importantly, the other party must know you’re comfortable walking away.
If the customer has rejected your offer twice, you’ve spent time selling first, you’ve uncovered their needs, you’ve determined you’re dealing with the decision maker, you know their timeline for making a decision and you’ve learned their value of money, the next step is negotiation.
Yes, the next step is negotiating with the other person, but that does not necessarily mean you should.
Before you enter into any negotiation, you must know what your walk away point is and be comfortable at doing just that – walk away should the need arise.
Far too many negotiations are not completed well, due to the salesperson giving away too much.
Keep in mind that sometimes the most profitable deals you’ll ever negotiate are the ones you don’t complete. By this I mean that it is best to not attempt to negotiate a deal where the outcome is simply not going to be beneficial.
The point at which you will walk away is something for you to merely keep in the back of your mind. You have to be careful to not simply default to a level slightly above your walk away point. In fact, you want to reach an agreement that is nowhere close to your walk-away point.
I can’t emphasize enough why you need to hold firm to your walk-away point.
If the customer gets any sense that you will not actually walk away when you start to end the discussion, they will simply push aggressively to get you to give them a better deal.
Your goal is to never have to walk away, but at the same time, should it be necessary, you must be able to do it confidently.
Copyright 2015, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
