Be Willing To Negotiate

Salespeople — I don’t envy you. I’m sure you get plenty of grief from customers who think you charge too much for your products. Grief from people like me.

Last month I went shopping for a new truck and spent many hours bargaining back and forth with different salespeople, and I wouldn’t exactly say I was kind about it. I’m the kind of customer who knows exactly what he wants and how much he wants to spend. For the most part, the salespeople and I didn’t always see eye to eye. In fact, I heard the word “no” on more than one occasion.

But, hearing “no” was OK. I had come there to negotiate. I knew how little I could realistically offer and how much I could afford to spend. I expected them to reject my first offer and shoot back with a slightly higher price. However, I was surprised to find that many salespeople were firm in their prices and not willing to budge a dollar. One even laughed at my offer. In these cases I wasted no time taking my business elsewhere.

I ended up buying a truck from the one salesperson who listened to my needs and effectively told me his. He still rejected my initial offer, but he countered a realistic one and we negotiated from there. In the end, neither of us were at our ideal prices, but we were still happy with the final terms.

Many of your end-user customers are probably a lot like me — always looking to pay less for products. But don’t think you have to cave to their demands and sell for bottom dollar. At ISSA I took part in a negotiating exercise and two key points I learned were: “don’t be afraid to say no” and “understand where your customer is coming from.”

These points go hand-in-hand. Distributors are facing price increases from manufacturers and many are forced to eat these additional costs. They can’t afford to decrease prices and sell products at low profit margins. On the other side of the equation, in-house service providers are facing budget cuts and building service contractors have customers demanding lower prices for services. They’ll be looking to save money by paying less for products.

So, what does this all mean? When customers try to negotiate a lower price for products, don’t be afraid to tell them “no” during the process. However, be prepared to counter with a price you can afford to offer, or explain how you can supplement the order with value-added services. Customers will be appreciative that you made an effort to meet their demands at least part way — I know I was.