Negotiating with a Customer You Can't Afford to Lose

By: Thomas C. Keiser

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Synopsis: When a customer turns combative during a negotiation, it is important to avoid confrontation or compromise. Instead, a salesperson should lure the customer into a search for creative solutions to tough problems. To do this, salespeople should: 1) increase their variables and know their walkaway, because the more options, the greater the chances of success; 2) keep aggressive customers talking and listen for valuable information about the customer's business; 3) pause often and summarize the progress to reassure the customer; 4) assert their own company's needs to prevent making concessions; 5) try to make the customer commit to a full solution that works for both partners; 6) save the hardest issues for last; 7) start high, concede slowly, and know the value of every concession; and 8) avoid giving in to emotional blackmail and always refuse to fight.