
Would you like to optimize the results of your sales team? Do you know that there are different styles of negotiation? Do you know how they should be applied? This knowledge is crucial to get better results in negotiations. Ira Asherman explains how to apply them in your team through the book "Negotiation at Work".
This book is a compiled of 60 practical exercises that shows the importance of understand and study your customer before and during a negotiation. It can generate more empathy from both sides.
Linking with that, the book also shows how to prepare your team to this new methodology. Emphasizing the importance of a good organization and explaining how to achieve it
Got interested to learn these lessons and get better results? Stay with us in this summary!
The book "Negotiation at Work" (2012), by author Ira Asherman brings 60 exercises, from the fastest and easiest to the most complex and time-consuming, but all seek to optimize the performance of sales teams through a step-by-step of the activities to be performed.
The book defines the behaviors of a successful negotiator, as well as to demonstrate the importance of assertiveness, correct questions and the use of different negotiating styles.
In this summary, we'll cover the most practical exercises so you can start applying them today with your team.
Ira Asherman offers training and consulting for the Pharmaceutical Industry with focus on building negotiation skills, and he is president of Asherman Associates.
In addition to "Negotiation at work", Ira also published other books, such as "The Negotiation Sourcebook" and "The Sales Management Sourcebook".
As the author addresses many exercises to be applied in groups, this book is suitable for anyone who wants to optimize the performance of their negotiation team through practice and internal analysis.
The author aims to improve the performance of a sales team. To do this, he suggests performing some activities that seek, among other things:
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You would not want to have a protocol team that, at the time of the negotiation, only has obvious and protocol answers, would you? The goal is to delight the customer with creative, possible, practical and applicable solutions.
Thinking about it, the book brings a practical exercise so that you can stimulate the creativity in your team. It consists of illustrate what a creative process is. For that, you should:
Ira Asherman suggests a problem situation in this case:
Suppose that one of their biggest customers will order 5, 000 light glasses with their company logo for the launch of new restaurants. You are able to manufacture such products. However, due to a mistake in a previous order, you have in stock 6, 000 blue cups with basketball, baseball, and soccer balls.
Your boss suggested that you try to find a solution to make that customer buy the blue cups. Also know that the quality of the blue cups is greater than those of the transparent cups ordered.
So, what will be the solution of your team?
To have a more effective team in negotiation, there is nothing better than identifying the skills and behaviors of a good negotiator.
Thus, the author advises to perform the following exercise:
That way, your team will have the skills aligned and on track to optimize results!
Did you know that there are 5 different styles that people adopt in the negotiations? Understanding each one can help in the approach of your team and this directly impacts on the conversion or not of a negotiation.
For Ira Asherman the styles are:
In addition, he characterizes each style:
The author suggests that you perform an exercise with your group:
The book "Negotiation at Work" also contains possible definitions of your team about this exercise, such as:
Ira Asherman seeks in this part of the book to differentiate assertive behaviors from undecided ones and demonstrates how assertiveness is related to successful negotiation.
To do this, he suggests that you:
There are several forms of question, and the more comprehensive your team, better will be the results. For this, Asherman classifies the types of questions as open or closed and as to the stimulus or not of the discussion.
In order to stimulate discussion: The closer to 1, the less the stimulus for conversation. The closer to 6, the more they stimulate dialogue.
To set whether it is opened or closed: Closer to number 1 are those more closed questions, and those closer to number 6 are those opener ones.
The author suggests that you:
These exercises seek to identify a negotiator's skills, the characteristics of good planning as well as the quality of the items to consolidate customer trust. Such factors are essential for good trading.
Therefore, Ira Asherman suggests that you carry out an exercise in which your employees will classify the following skills:
The classification should occur as follows:
Similarly, he suggests that you perform another exercise in which your employees will rank the following characteristic skills of a person with good planning:
The classification must occur in the same parameters as in the previous one.
The last exercise seeks to classify, according to the degree of importance, the qualities of a person whose goal is to consolidate the trust of another person. They are:
The priority classification occurs in the same way as the previous one:
It is extremely important to be able to differentiate what your customers says about what they really need. In this way, the Ira Asherman suggests an exercise to improve the technique to identify and differentiate these facts.
This exercise works as follows:
It is imperative that you and your team evaluate the company as a whole. To do this, ask your employees to evaluate the following:
The second evaluation is to measure the company's connection with other areas, so you should ask your team to:
The third evaluation is guided in measuring how external departments classify the effectiveness of your department. For that, you should ask your team:
After that, you should hold a discussion meeting for each question. Priority should be given to lower rankings and also seek to devise action plans to optimize performance.
The author Neil Rackham brings in his book "SPIN Selling" a method of negotiation that is based on questions of situation, problem, implication and need of solution. For the author, asking quality questions is the best way to convince someone. It is definitely an essential reading for a sales force.
Robert B. Cialdini, in the book "Influence", seeks to explain how to influence people and also not to be influenced by others. In addition, it brings the six psychological principles that influence in customer decision-making. It is a good read if your goal is to improve the performance of your sales.
The book "The Sales Bible", from Jeffrey Gitomer, demonstrates good practices from some good salesperson, such as the habit of being positive when talking to a customer, and the importance of setting goals and cultivating a network of contacts.
Because the book's idea is practical and fairly applicable, the most effective way to achieve the goal of improving your team's results is to define which aspect should be prioritized and to perform a practical exercise that focuses on improving that factor.
It is also important to emphasize that you must align and explain all these new methodologies to your group. By this organization it will be easy to apply the ideas and then reach your goals.
Are you ready to apply those lessons in your life? Did you find it useful? Leave your feedback in the comments!
In addition, if you would like to learn all the book's explanations, it is available for purchase by clicking on the image below: