Elevate Your Game: Mastering Negotiation and Influence in the New Sales Landscape (video)

The world of sales is always in motion, and the skills that separate top performers—negotiation and influence—have become more intricate than ever. To thrive, sales professionals must move beyond treating negotiation as a last-minute hurdle and instead weave it into the entire sales journey.

Drawing from a recent conversation on the Sales POP! Online Sales Magazine podcast, Andres Lares, Managing Partner at the Shapiro Negotiation Institute, shared his expertise on how to authentically integrate these skills, adapt to modern communication, and drive better outcomes. Here’s a distillation of the key strategies every sales pro needs to know.

The Fundamental Difference: Influence vs. Negotiation

While often used interchangeably, Andres Lares draws a sharp line between these two critical concepts:

• Negotiation is an exchange. It’s a collaborative process where both sides have something the other wants, aiming for a win-win outcome rooted in mutual value.
• Influence (or persuasion) is more one-sided. It’s the art of guiding someone to a desired action, even when there is no direct exchange immediately on the table.

The Takeaway: Before you speak, ask yourself: Am I negotiating (seeking a mutual trade) or influencing (guiding a decision)? Your approach, tone, and tactics will change dramatically based on that clarity.

Strategy 1: Make Negotiation an Ongoing Process

The biggest mistake a salesperson can make is waiting until the contract phase to start negotiating. Lares stresses that negotiation should be a continuous, integrated part of the sales cycle.

• Manage Signals Early: Early discussions help you manage perceptions, preventing signals of desperation or an automatic willingness to discount. You constantly assess value, and so does the buyer.
• Prevent Bottlenecks: Introducing contracts, legal terms, and stakeholders like procurement or legal counsel early ensures a smoother close. Transparency builds trust and dramatically cuts down on last-minute snags.
• Negotiate Incrementally: Instead of one massive, high-pressure negotiation session, address terms, pricing, and deliverables in stages. This reduces friction and makes the final decision easier.

Strategy 2: Master the Space Between Meetings

The time between calls is a critical, often-wasted opportunity to maintain and build influence. Don’t go silent after a promising conversation.

• Provide Value, Not Noise: Stop sending “just checking in” emails. Instead, send a targeted article, a relevant case study, or a thought-provoking question directly related to their pain points.
• Keep the Relationship Active: Consistent, meaningful follow-up keeps your solution top-of-mind. Map out a content plan for each prospect, aligning follow-up materials with their specific challenges to demonstrate you’re truly invested in their success.

Strategy 3: Grow the Pie (Don’t Just Discount)

In a tight spot, the impulse is to offer a discount. Lares argues that this erodes your pricing power and margins. A far better strategy is value creation—or “growing the pie.”

Instead of cutting the price, add value that costs you little but matters greatly to the client. For instance, you might:

• Add a complimentary strategic review or an onboarding package instead of reducing your professional service fee.
• Bundle in a complementary product or a limited-time extended warranty.

This approach demands deep client understanding—you must know what they value most—but it pays off in stronger relationships and healthier margins.

Strategy 4: Choose the Right Communication Channel

While technology has changed how we connect, the fundamentals of human interaction haven’t. Lares advises against defaulting to low-nuance channels for critical conversations:

• Prioritize Richness: The most complex or difficult negotiations require the “richest” medium: in-person is best for reading body language and building rapport, followed by video calls.
• Avoid Email for Meaningful Exchange: Email and text are convenient but are the lowest-richness media—they are prone to misinterpretation and can easily derail a sensitive negotiation.

The Golden Rule: For any meaningful negotiation or critical influence effort, pick up the phone or schedule a video call.

By viewing negotiation as an integrated, relationship-driven process—not a final battle—you can create a frictionless buying experience, build long-term loyalty, and consistently accelerate deals.

Do you feel your team is most often getting stuck with negotiation at the beginning (before a deal is started) or toward the end (when closing the deal)?