B2B Sales Negotiation Tips and Best Practices

Staff WritersBuyer InsightsPredictive MarketingProduct Management

By STS Staff Writer On Jul 27, 2022

Often sales reps may come across customers who are expecting something different from what is being proposed in terms of price or features/end deliveries. That’s where sales negotiation comes in, where both the potential client and salesperson tend to work out the differences and reach a point of mutual consensus to close the deal. B2B sales negotiation can never be emphasized enough in its importance for the growth of the business. It ensures customer satisfaction, integrity in the deal, and profitable transactions.

What is B2B sales Negotiation?

When a buyer and a seller discuss and negotiate different factors while making a sales deal, it’s a sales negotiation. While engaging in the process, the sales rep strives to address the customer’s concerns about the purchase by affirming the value of the service or product and making practical compromises. During these discussions, buyers and sellers can also annul the arbitration amicably, if needed. Negotiating skills are highly significant since these strategies help them clinch the customer, make more business deals, rake up the sales, and connect with potential clients effectively.

Incredible Tips To Conduct B2B Sales Negotiation

So far, you have grasped the concept of sales negotiation, its indispensable role in upping sales, and its significance. Therefore, it is pragmatic to understand the mentation of the customer and negotiate accordingly. Here are some tactics you can employ to crank up your negotiation skills as a B2B salesperson:

Listen actively: Engaging in active listening when doing sales negotiation facilitates the sales rep in better understanding the customer’s expectations and concerns. Further, it also makes the customer feel respected, and you can in turn offer the best solutions to them.
Make a strategy: When negotiating, take some time away from the customer to discuss things with your team. Talk on subjects of concession in the deal, compromises, and so forth to clinch the deal successfully.
Address underlying concerns: Customers often fail to articulate their fears and concerns when discussing things with the sales rep. Thus, it is on the salesperson to grasp, reflect, and tackle these roadblocks in the deal.
Remain positive: Coming across as a positive personality tremendously influences the buyer’s decision. Further, people tend to involve themselves more with upbeat folks and easily reach agreements.
Inculcate and build trust: When you come across as thoughtful, honest, and respectful when engaging in sales negotiation, it helps build trust between the sales rep and the customer. Strive to preserve this trust and endorse them to recommend your products to their family and acquaintances.
Empathize more: Retain in mind that your customers are real humans; therefore, it is crucial to empathizing with their concerns while negotiating. Treat them respectfully, with kindness, and address their concerns. Such behavior ensures that your customer refers you to others and returns to make a purchase.
Highlight values: A master sales rep iterates the value in the deal they offer to the customer. Passing this step successfully aligns the product or service with the customer’s expectations, and they are more likely to compromise and comply with the deal.

What do leaders in sales do for effective negotiations?

Sales leaders build their negotiation strategies around value creation in the deal. They understand that price cannot be a blank wall when a customer sees value in the service or a product. The chief objective that the reps try to realize is seizing fair returns for the value they offer. Another thing that great sales leaders do is not stop after Negotiation. They believe that the negotiation practice needs to go on during the product or services, which lays a firm ground for the next repeat sale. A smart firm should integrate its growth strategy with its negotiation regime.

Inspiring Quotes from popular tech leaders on the Art of Negotiation

Carol Frohlinger says, “Don’t bargain yourself down before you get to the table.”

John Dean Acheson said, “Negotiation assumes parties more anxious to agree than to disagree in the classic diplomat sense.

Howard Baker goes on Negotiation that, “The most difficult thing in any negotiation, almost, is making sure that you strip it of the emotion and deal with the facts.”

Interesting statistics that spotlight the trends in sales negotiation for 2022

A stat indicates that folks tend to remember 65-70% of the information shared through a story instead of when the information is relayed via stats. And this is what great sales leaders strive to capitalize on. Juggernauts are focusing more on creating relatable and fascinating stories, which can assist them in delivering value to their customers. Further, personalization is gaining more importance everywhere, as it appeals to more than 90% of the customers. Over 80% of customers feel to conduct business with companies that provide personalized approaches.

With this information at your service, it becomes easier to grasp the vitality of sales negotiation and, therefore, endeavor to upskill yourself in the field.