The Art of Negotiating

How to be confident in the price you share with buyers

Author

Mike Gallardo
September 01, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

The Best Sales Newsletter

The art of negotiating (how to be confident in the price you share with buyers)

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Hey sales friends,

Given the economy… the skill of negotiating is more important than ever.

So in this week’s newsletter I’m going to break down how I think about pricing deals.

That way you can head into these tougher conversations with a lot more confidence.

Let’s dive in!

What You Need to Know

Whenever an AE asks me about how they should structure pricing I ask the following questions:

  1. How differentiated are we? On a scale of 1 to 10 how well do we know their priorities and challenges and how well have we communicated how we’re different and why that’s valuable?

  2. What’s the size and scale of the deal? How many people and products are at stake here? Also, what are their headcount plans this year? The more they’re growing the more important solving their priorities and challenges are.

  3. What competitors are involved? Every competitor prices differently so you need to know this in order to come in sharply (above their price of course).

  4. Are we the vendor of choice? Has the buyer verbally communicated that we are the vendor of choice? This is one of the best ways to understand how well we did step 1. If yes, we can confidently price higher.

Key Takeaway:

You shouldn’t price every deal the same. It really depends on the factors above.

The more favorable the tougher you can negotiate and vice versa.

So for the next deal you price out go through this exercise and then set time with your manager to review your plan — one of the best ways to learn and improve your skills.

When Buyer’s Push Back

At some point you’re going to be at your best and final offer.

If a buyer’s still pushing back at that point.

Here’s my favorite script to use.

Hey Jill,

I appreciate the tough negotiation.

But we also have to recognize the value of our service and product.

As we’ve discussed your biggest challenge is X.

And that impact of that challenge is Y.

One of the biggest differentiators of ABC Company Z and that’s valuable because of:

1. Insert reason 1

2. Insert reason 2

Based on that how do you feel about moving forward with the price and terms we’ve discussed today?

[and then be quiet]

Pro tip: Have this talk track already planned out ahead of the call. That way the reasons are super sharp and dialed in.

That’s it!

Remember… pricing shouldn’t be the same for every buyer.

So go through the process I outlined and think more strategically about the price and terms you offer every buyer.

And most importantly be more confident when you’re negotiating because of the process you’ve run and the homework you’ve done.

- Mike G

When you’re ready…

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