Deals Aren't Won in Negotiation

If you keep getting beaten up on price, the problem started long before the negotiation. Here's why deals are really won or lost in early qualification, and how a strong ROI up front means you barely have to negotiate at all.

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If you prefer to read - here is the transcript:

Despite what we like to believe, deals are not won or lost in the negotiation phase. They're won or lost in the early-stage prospecting and qualification phase of the opportunity. Specifically, we need to ask the right questions that uncover a number of factors early in the sales cycle, and slow down that qualification, so that when we're ready we can negotiate based on a fully formed value proposition.

Too often, sellers speed through the conversation about what the client is trying to accomplish and how they're going to measure success. They avoid the monetary conversation and stick to the intangible, the nice-to-have, the feelings about the opportunity, instead of getting to the real, hard numbers that produce a strong ROI. And when we produce a strong ROI, we actually reduce the amount of negotiation.

Negotiation happens when a prospect doesn't see the value in what they're trying to accomplish versus the price you're charging, and they're trying to extract a better return. Negotiation is far less likely when we've done our job at the front end of the sales cycle, created real operational value for that customer, and they can see that implementing your solution leads to greater and greater measurable success. Do the work early, and the negotiation takes care of itself.