Achieve Your Objectives by Negotiating to Win !
Adolf Onwuka Nnanyel is a French-Canadian of Nigerian origin. He holds an MBA from the University of North Alabama Business School and has worked for many years in business development, sales, exports and logistics across the West & Central African sub-regions. The various multinational companies he has worked for include : Neliss International, PZ Cussons, Nosak Group, Visa International and Air France. Adolf is bilingual and speaks both French and English fluently. In 2002, he became one of the 3 bilingual Africans selected and sponsored by the government of France to undergo professional management training at the MCM, Paris as invitees of the French government. Afterwards, he was invited by Air France to head its commercial inspections team for Nigeria & Ghana. To best prepare Adolf for this new challenge, Air France further retrained him for several months in Vilgenis, Paris (France).
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As an astute manager of commercial and operational resources, achieving my negotiation objectives is indispensable to the sustenance of my business goals. I literally have negotiation as a profit pool in my profit and loss management system because on its own, negotiation supplies us with so much cost reduction that I look forward to it each time it has to play a role in moving our business goals a step further.
I work for a business that is heavily hinged on how much our West and Central African business partners are willing to pay for our unique bilingual, sales and logistics services. We negotiate regularly with partners from all over the world, but our West and Central African partners have proven to be the most up to date and astute negotiators that have come our way. Based on my business’s experiences with these partners, I’ll share with you how we always come out on top and achieve our set negotiation objectives.
Articulate Your Objectives: Before commencing negotiations with our partners, we collectively set goals, objectives and minimum requirements for our services/products. At the negotiation table, we always ensure nothing makes us go below these objectives.
Pre-Conditioning: We always pre-condition the minds of our clients/buyers in our favor before we walk into the negotiation room. This always opens doors for us.
Choose a Reasonable Starting Point: We always start our negotiations from positions higher than where we wish to be in order to create a buffer zone for eventual adjustments. E.g. if we intend to be at $100, we begin our sales negotiations at $150 and gradually descend to $120 — $100.
Series of Offers: Before walking into the negotiation room, we are usually precise on what our first, second and third offers would be. In order words, if the client refuses our first offer, what should be our next offer? However, we always strive not to exceed our third offers because if we keep reducing our prices, the message it sends to the client is that there are more reductions to come. This questions our credibility and service quality.
Know Your Client: We often ask as many questions as possible during our negotiations so as to get a good idea of how our clients think and act. This helps our business anticipate our clients’ moves and to respond adequately at crucial moments. We always ask questions regarding our clients’ Key Performance Indicators (KPI) so that while discussing with them, we understand and know how to help them achieve their aims.
Throw in Attractive Variables: We always throw as many negotiation variables as we can afford into our negotiations in order to strike a deal. This means that as we negotiate with our clients, we internally seek to understand their mind-sets and to figure out what variables matter to them. By “variables” is understood, actions/gestures that may impress the clients and change the course of the discussion.
Throw in Cost-Free Variables: While negotiating, we always use variables that do not cost us much but create great value for our customers. An example of this may be while product delivery costs money, asking a driver to help with off-loading the products from the truck may not cost money but may pass as a kind and appreciated gesture.
Throw in a Variable and Get Something Back: We never give away a variable without getting something back from the other party. As we offer variables and actions that impress the client, we silently make requests too to compensate our efforts.
Possibility of a Deal: While negotiating, we always aim to locate the areas within which a final deal may be struck. This is very important because if we intend to close the deal under negotiation, it is usually within the terms of this tight area that final deals are struck. Consequently, we always identify this grey area and hold it close to our chest.
Back-up Plan: Before walking into the negotiation room, we always ensure our business has a concrete Plan B in case the other party in the negotiation wants to call our bluff. Also, we don’t hesitate to let them know we actually have a concrete Plan B.
Don’t Take “No” for an Answer: We always keep in mind that the first rule of buying is to say “NO”. This is done to kill the morale of the seller and to reduce his negotiation power. So, If a customer is still undecided as to whether to buy our product or not or even if he says “no”, we are usually resilient and often resell the product to him again and again if he has been segmented into our potential top client segment.
And yes, with these negotiation tips, we always come, we negotiate and we conquer !
REFERENCE : Achieve-your-negotiation-objectives-by-negotiating-to-win !
*****************************************
As an astute manager of commercial and operational resources, achieving my negotiation objectives is indispensable to the sustenance of my business goals. I literally have negotiation as a profit pool in my profit and loss management system because on its own, negotiation supplies us with so much cost reduction that I look forward to it each time it has to play a role in moving our business goals a step further.
I work for a business that is heavily hinged on how much our West and Central African business partners are willing to pay for our unique bilingual, sales and logistics services. We negotiate regularly with partners from all over the world, but our West and Central African partners have proven to be the most up to date and astute negotiators that have come our way. Based on my business’s experiences with these partners, I’ll share with you how we always come out on top and achieve our set negotiation objectives.
Articulate Your Objectives: Before commencing negotiations with our partners, we collectively set goals, objectives and minimum requirements for our services/products. At the negotiation table, we always ensure nothing makes us go below these objectives.
Pre-Conditioning: We always pre-condition the minds of our clients/buyers in our favor before we walk into the negotiation room. This always opens doors for us.
Choose a Reasonable Starting Point: We always start our negotiations from positions higher than where we wish to be in order to create a buffer zone for eventual adjustments. E.g. if we intend to be at $100, we begin our sales negotiations at $150 and gradually descend to $120 — $100.
Series of Offers: Before walking into the negotiation room, we are usually precise on what our first, second and third offers would be. In order words, if the client refuses our first offer, what should be our next offer? However, we always strive not to exceed our third offers because if we keep reducing our prices, the message it sends to the client is that there are more reductions to come. This questions our credibility and service quality.
Know Your Client: We often ask as many questions as possible during our negotiations so as to get a good idea of how our clients think and act. This helps our business anticipate our clients’ moves and to respond adequately at crucial moments. We always ask questions regarding our clients’ Key Performance Indicators (KPI) so that while discussing with them, we understand and know how to help them achieve their aims.
Throw in Attractive Variables: We always throw as many negotiation variables as we can afford into our negotiations in order to strike a deal. This means that as we negotiate with our clients, we internally seek to understand their mind-sets and to figure out what variables matter to them. By “variables” is understood, actions/gestures that may impress the clients and change the course of the discussion.
Throw in Cost-Free Variables: While negotiating, we always use variables that do not cost us much but create great value for our customers. An example of this may be while product delivery costs money, asking a driver to help with off-loading the products from the truck may not cost money but may pass as a kind and appreciated gesture.
Throw in a Variable and Get Something Back: We never give away a variable without getting something back from the other party. As we offer variables and actions that impress the client, we silently make requests too to compensate our efforts.
Possibility of a Deal: While negotiating, we always aim to locate the areas within which a final deal may be struck. This is very important because if we intend to close the deal under negotiation, it is usually within the terms of this tight area that final deals are struck. Consequently, we always identify this grey area and hold it close to our chest.
Back-up Plan: Before walking into the negotiation room, we always ensure our business has a concrete Plan B in case the other party in the negotiation wants to call our bluff. Also, we don’t hesitate to let them know we actually have a concrete Plan B.
Don’t Take “No” for an Answer: We always keep in mind that the first rule of buying is to say “NO”. This is done to kill the morale of the seller and to reduce his negotiation power. So, If a customer is still undecided as to whether to buy our product or not or even if he says “no”, we are usually resilient and often resell the product to him again and again if he has been segmented into our potential top client segment.
And yes, with these negotiation tips, we always come, we negotiate and we conquer !
REFERENCE : Achieve-your-negotiation-objectives-by-negotiating-to-win !
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