6 Essential Rules of Sales Negotiation [Infographic]

Erica Schultz December 3, 2021

Whether you work on a sale for 8 hours, 8 weeks, or 8 months, when you get to the negotiation phase of the sales process, you can lose the sale in an instant.

Even sales professionals who make it to the finish line, their negotiated outcomes may not always be ideal.

Sellers may win sales but lose most of their margin in negotiations. Final agreements are often subject to changes or budget restrictions at the last minute.

No wonder many sellers approach negotiations with anxiety. In fact, studies show that anxiety is the most common emotion associated with negotiation, and our work confirms that anxious negotiators don’t perform well.

To make things even more challenging, negotiation is very different today than it was a decade ago:

• Procurement is more involved
• Buyers have more information about you, your products and services, your competitors, and your prices
• Third parties often sit between buyer and seller (representing and insulating buyers from sellers)
• Procurement technologies are fast becoming the norm

This might make sellers think that buyers have all the leverage.

But they don’t.

In fact, the RAIN Group Center for Sales Research found that Top Performers were 3.8x more likely to understand the leverage held by each side in sales negotiations.

In most cases, a sales negotiation is critical to the success and failure of both the seller and buyer. To handle negotiations that result in the best possible agreements, sellers (and buyers) need to be skilled. They need to use the best sales negotiation strategies, approaches, and tactics at the right time, and they need to know how to respond to the other party regardless of what’s thrown at them.

Succeeding in sales negotiations takes experience and a strong foundation of core negotiation skills. In this infographic, we reveal the 6 Essential Rules of Sales Negotiation to help you create great agreements, win sales at better terms, and position you to handle anything buyers throw your way.

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