What Can Be Negotiated?

As a professional negotiator, who for more than three decades has negotiated hundreds of hotel and venue contracts, as well as numerous business contracts of a variety of different types, I have often been asked what can one negotiate, and why is negotiating meaningful. While this would require a far more extensive discussion to fully explore, the simple answer is that almost everything is, in fact negotiable (particularly under the correct set of circumstances and conditions), and that quality negotiations are very often the difference between a successful or less satisfying result. While this is true regarding many different aspects of our lives and activities, it is often most readily obvious when it comes to events.

1. In my experience, I have found that a quality, professional negotiator will save an organization a significant amount of time, aggravation and wasted resources. When negotiations are done correctly, not only should an organization save far more money than what they are paying for the negotiator’s services, but they should be able to count on the professional to make a series of meaningful recommendations that should provide more value, enhance marketing efforts, and locate additional areas of significant efficiencies. My personal policy is that I guarantee my clients a savings that will exceed the fee I charge by a significant percentage.

2. Many individuals negotiate, but only a quality professional negotiator will get an optimum deal made. Great negotiations come from had work and effort, an enormous amount of homework and research, emphasis on developing relationships based on mutual respect and integrity, attention to details, needs analysis, and knowing what can be asked for, and what cannot. I equate it to someone that wants to purchase a home. If someone really wants a house, he must know what other comparable properties go for, and then, whether he wants to be in a position to perhaps receive and entertain a counter – offer. If someone is only willing to pay a particular figure with no flexibility, then little strategy is needed. But, when someone wants the house and is somewhat flexible, he must be certain that his offer balances his ability to get a great deal, with a realistic possibility of at least receiving a counter – offer. If the offer is too little, the seller may merely consider it not to be serious, or even worse, insulting. That’s why an essential duty of a professional realtor is to be a quality negotiator. If someone is unrealistic in demands when negotiating with a hotel, the long term result is generally less than optimal.

Not everyone is a great negotiator. Not even every professional negotiator is. Before hiring a negotiator, you must feel conformance and confident in his abilities and performance. Great negotiators ask questions, but spend far more time listening than talking.

How To Close Your Presentation Confidently

To close your presentation confidently is not as hard as one would think, remember in my last post we talked about dealing with objections, so if you have dealt effectively with these your close should not be that hard, we really do not want a hard sell situation, in fact if we have prepared the way with our own story, the prospect will be ready to close themselves.

A few things we can say to motivate them to make their decision as we finish our presentation: “And that’s it”. This phrase leaves the next bit up to them, if you felt that they needed a bit more prompting you could finish with “and the rest is up to you” this will put the ball into their court and move them towards a decision, another good phrase to finish on would be “Well, what do you think?”, or for a slightly harder finish, we could put all three phrases together as in, “And that’s it, the rest is up to you, what do you think”. By now your prospect has all the information needed, another test close we could try would be,” In your opinion would this (solve your cash flow situation)(allow you to spend more time at home with your family)etc. Sounds to me like you are ready to join.

Another great question to ask is, “If you were to join now, what would be the best benefit to you?” remember even at this stage you may get objections, always try to turn objections into a question, never be defensive, we could say something like, “I am sure you have a reason for saying that, what is it?” If we get objections about the cost of joining, we could turn the situation around by saying “let me ask you a question, Isn’t it possible for you to get more benefit from this business than your initial investment?”

Your prospect may have been in network marketing before and will come up with, “tried this type of business before, it doesn’t work”, our reply can be along the lines of – “It looks to me that in the past you experienced that it didn’t work for you because you didn’t have your why in place, or financially you were in your comfort zone, would that be right?” We need to dig for their need their why, there must be one otherwise they would not be here, address that need for them.

Email Etiquette For Business: 5 Tips To Help You Present Yourself As A Professional

As the world becomes more and more hurried, it seems that email etiquette for business is falling by the wayside. However, keeping the rules of business letter writing alive and applying them to your email communications is a great way to present yourself in the most professional light possible and to make your clients and associates feel respected.

Here are 5 tips to help you write better, more professional, and polite email business letters.

1) Greetings and Salutations

Remember when you were in school and learned how to write a letter? The first thing you learned was the salutation – the “Dear so and so.” While “Dear sir,” isn’t likely to be the greeting you use in an email, you do still want to include a salutation. Common salutations, if you are communicating with this person for the first time include:

Dear,
Hello,
Thank you,

Proper email etiquette for business will include a comma after the salutation or a period at the end depending on the greeting. For example, “Dear Anne,” or “Thank you, Anne.”

2) Use Complete Words and Full Phrases

While it’s common to use acronyms or text speak like LOL and TTFN, just don’t do it. This is appropriate for friends and family, not for business associates. Even if you become friends with your customers, in general, keep the use of acronyms to a minimum and even then use them only after your customer or associate has.

3) Check Spelling and Punctuation

It takes five seconds to hit the spell check button on your email toolbar. If you have frequent misspellings and poor grammar you’re making an indelible impression on your associate or client that you may not be able to remove. Do your best to put your best foot forward in your email communications. A quick spell check and grammar check just tells your client you take the time to communicate effectively and correctly, you’re a professional and your communication with them is important to you.

4) Get To the Point

Respect the time of your business associates and clients. That doesn’t mean you jump right into the meat of your email though. Make sure you still include a friendly sentence or two to inquire about how the person is doing or to introduce yourself. This is courteous and expected of you. However, it’s also important to get to the point of your email as quickly as possible.

Time is our most precious and valuable commodity because we cannot get it back once it is gone. Show your associates you understand that.

5) Closing Remarks

Finally, once you’ve wrapped up what you have to say, it’s time for the good old-fashioned closing. Sincerely is considered a bit too old-fashioned in this day and age, but the following are quite acceptable:

Regards
Best
Best regards
Warm regards
Thank you

When writing an email to a client, prospect, or business associate, it is important to make sure you present yourself in the best light possible. That means spending a little extra time on your communications and following a few simple email etiquette for business rules.