The DriveSales™ | Looking for sales roleplay? here is the perfect example for you to learn and grow exponentially!
This is a real conversation from one of our internal The DriveSales™ team meetings when the expectation from the client was not matching that of ours. Negotiation was at its highest and we were exploring options to balance the offering as well as sustainability well.
A — So what do you think?
B — This is not profitable, and I do not think we should go with the client XYZ at this cost.
A — But the client is a prestigious Brand across the world.
B — Yes, so they should pay right.
A — There is another vendor who has offered a lower cost than us, but the client likes us more for the business orientation we have and for our work culture.
B — I understand. I am just sharing my perspective. If it would have been even 15%, more I would have been fine.
C — Hey B, let us say if client XYZ offers to let us use their Logo for our client list where do you want to put it.
B — I would put it on the top of my client list.
C — And if they charge money for the logo usage, how much will you pay them to convince other businesses in such a domain.
B — ‘X’ amount.
C — Check if that ‘X’ amount covers the 15%.
B — Yes.
The conversation above is very situational and not, in reality, any respected brand will ask for money to let someone use their logo in the client list. What we did was allocating a number to the value addition by offering a further discount.
The other major aspect of any such negotiations which is not covered as a part of the above dialogue exchange is, “creating a pipeline”. As a salesperson, you need to look if the current deal is helping you put your foot at the door, or I call it creating an ice breaker. This is one of the most important tools a salesperson should use if you know that your offerings are strong and/or your work culture is great. If both, your offerings are not strong and your work culture is not great, as a leader you should fix that first by asking what made you be in this business and if you are an employee, you should rethink what made you work for this company.
A new relationship, may it be personal or business, is good to have a small or slow start. It gives time to both the parties to understand each other and make things work. Once the relationship matures, businesses flow even without a lot of negotiations.
People want life to be simple. If I have access to a grocery store next to my house, I will first check my relevant need to the nearest shop. The same happens when you create this ice breaker and a pipeline with any client. The people at the client organization first prefer to check with you about the services. And now since there has been some time, a lot of the first-time-related hesitation is gone.
For us, we were able to solve the case, and now the big corporate XYZ is working with us. In the dialogue exchange, everyone was right and shows a great culture that everyone was sharing their perspective still being open to others. This all-small component makes a great business and a great sales team.
So, what should you do when you are in any such situation?
1) Discuss within the team to hear out all the perspectives.
2) Look for overall value out of the relationship than just the cost.
3) The cost for sure such be least to be sustainable and not at a loss.
4) Try to acquire the knowledge from the project in scope to offer better price services to other players.
Now, as an effective SALESPERSON! We can do three things from here.
1. Not ignoring the opportunity and blaming the situation for revenue loss.
2. Taking necessary notes and revisiting your sales strategy with a growth mindset.
3. Reach out to The DriveSales™ in case you need any specialized help.
To conclude, what you believe also provides some idea of your development as a consultative salesperson. For more, please be connected to team The DriveSales™ as these are the foundations for our culture and ways of working!
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