I grew up in selling at Xerox in an incredibly sales-focused environment. One of our sacred operational mantras was the well-known “plan your work, work your plan”. In selling to and serving major Xerox clients, we were trained not only to go deep and wide in our accounts but to do the same across our multi-faceted product line. Major accounts, of course, had needs for all sizes of copiers and for the different types of capabilities that our equipment offered. Satisfying clients, therefore, involved understanding their needs comprehensively and managing many different types of business transactions and deal sizes. As such, we referred to deals as breakfast, lunch or dinner. Our clients needed them all. And as a result, for our nourishment, quota achievement and commissions, we really needed them as well. We couldn’t hit our numbers by ignoring breakfast and lunch by gorging at dinner. But most importantly, our clients needed the value that we and our products delivered regardless of deal size. For deal size, like meal size, did not dictate value. Value, of course, was determined by the client. What may be a relatively small revenue opportunity may actually deliver tremendous value to the customer. Ah, yes. There it is. A reminder of the four most important words in selling – “It’s not about you”.

Of course, sales human nature drives us all to be excited about winning “big deals”. And at this point in the 2024 selling year, many of us seek to make up for earlier disappointments and lost commissions by making a big splash while there’s still time. Makes sense, of course. But as you dream of propelling your quota performance into triple digits, check out the overhead sign as you speed towards that big deal – “Seller Beware”.

Shifting your focus in what remains of 2024 to large deals carries big opportunity costs as other things will certainly be neglected. Like your clients and their actual needs. Especially at this point in the year, you must make pragmatic decisions about which opportunities to pursue. The “It’s a really big deal” reason preys on your emotions and often violates those four most important words in selling. As we head down the back stretch of 2024, effective opportunity decision-making is huge. It’s the very definition of competitive advantage – being smart in taking actions to maximize your chances of success. Success in winning deals, of course, but also success in serving your client’s needs. And success in that area will serve you far beyond Dec. 31 and your end-of-year quota performance.

Obsession with pursuing big opportunities also often causes you to neglect deals where you already have an advantage and where you’ve identified a very high probability of winning – in the 80 or 90% range. Consider an opportunity with a current major account where you have valuable relationships and high confidence. Your optimism is so compelling that you populate your pipeline with a lofty probability, assured of a successful outcome. “It’s a done deal”, you think. But if your focus, time and effort are diverted away to fishing for that whale, you’re betting that it won’t affect your chances of winning. Losing “done deals” would be highly unlikely. Or would it? Don’t ever forget that The Titanic was unsinkable.

Your major accounts depend on you to meet their needs at any time of the year. And they have no concern about your quota or your commissions. Your hard-earned goodwill with them can be easily lost if you divert your attention to other interests. If they sense that they don’t have your focus or that you’re taking their business for granted, you are vulnerable. If you’re not giving them your best, it’ll be evident. And you have competitors who are more than happy to fill the void.

So, how do you strike a balance to maximize your selling effectiveness? First, follow your Go/No-Go qualification process to be certain you’re pursuing the right deals. Without such a framework, you’re flying blind. And win probability is only one of the important qualification considerations. Regarding those high probability deals, many effective selling organizations closely track their three highest percentage opportunities, regardless of size. For each, they build customized four-step value propositions – the solution proposed, what it does, how it benefits and how the benefit will be measured. Then they identify and execute the critical actions to maximize the chances of winning each deal, utilizing RACI to insure accountability. And the three opportunities are continuously refreshed. Win one and replace it with the next highest probability deal, continually working a trio of opportunities. Rinse, lather, repeat. Focus, focus, focus……even for the highest probability deals.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner. They matter to your clients and, of course, they should matter to you. Follow your Go/No-Go decision process and treat your opportunities with the highest probabilities as special, never neglecting them. Achieving those high probabilities took time, tending and effort. Don’t do your organization, your client or yourself a disservice by taking your eye off the ball. It’s about caring, really. If you care, your client will know it and your reward will be long-term.

In an ideal world, negotiations would always happen face-to-face, allowing for immediate responses and a clearer read of the room. However, as virtual communication becomes the norm, negotiating via email has become increasingly prevalent. Customers, especially, are opting for email negotiations. Why? Because email offers them a distinct advantage. By negotiating through email, customers can:

• Create a virtual barrier, making it easier for them to conceal their true reactions from sellers, who would otherwise glean valuable insights.
• Extend the negotiation timeline, effectively applying pressure strategically.
• Third, the time gaps between email exchanges afford customers opportunities to research and wield competing offers to their advantage.

These unique characteristics bring a new layer of complexity to the already challenging task of negotiation. Sales professionals must equip themselves to thrive in this evolving landscape.

In this article, we’ll delve into essential strategies sellers can use to master email negotiation.

Create a Strong Draft by focusing on Tone, Brevity, and Clarity

Sellers know that to draw a customer in, they need to grab their attention from the get-go. In person, a seller’s presentation and confidence are enough to begin the conversation. However, email negotiation requires sellers to translate this into text. Sellers can do this by focusing on three areas: tone, brevity, and clarity.

Tone:

The structure of an email wields significant influence over the way we communicate, often in subtle and unnoticed ways. When traditional cues such as inflection, intonation, and cadence are absent, there’s a higher likelihood of misinterpretation on the part of the customer when trying to discern the seller’s tone. In essence, people tend to overestimate the reader’s ability to accurately decode the intended tone within written text. As such, it becomes imperative for sellers to exercise caution and craft their messages in a way that minimizes the risk of miscommunication.

In the context of negotiations, the optimal tone to strike is one that conveys a genuine interest in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome. This approach not only helps diffuse tension but also lays the foundation for future opportunities in the business relationship.

Brevity:

Keep email text brief. Negotiations are inherently demanding, and the burden is amplified when the information must be digested from lengthy messages. Simplify comprehension for the customer by employing concise and straightforward sentences. This becomes particularly crucial when presenting your offer. Sellers should steer clear of compromising language, as it not only extends the message unnecessarily but also implies a readiness to haggle, which may not be strategically beneficial.

Clarity:

Prioritize clarity in every email you send. Failing to do so not only confuses the customer but also erodes the trust and openness essential for a successful negotiation. To uphold clarity, sellers need to convey the full terms of the offer within a single email and establish a direct connection between the value of the solution and the customer’s expressed requirements.

Remember that written communication provides a chance to construct deliberate and considerate responses. Use this to select the most effective wording and steer clear of the pitfalls and run-on sentences that can arise when facing the pressure of immediate, on-the-spot replies.

Use Extra Time Between Emails to Track Customer Changes

One of the greatest challenges in selling and negotiating today is the need for quick responses as the customer’s needs change by the minute. However, email communication offers a solution to this challenge. It provides sellers with the time they need to adapt and respond as the customer’s motivations evolve. During this time, sellers can dig into the changing factors that drive stakeholders’ decisions. Often, monitoring the customer’s online presence, such as their website and social media, can provide valuable insights into their latest initiatives. A skilled sales professional can use this information strategically throughout the negotiation process, making it more dynamic and effective.

This approach becomes even more powerful when dealing with multiple stakeholders. In such situations, each stakeholder has their own unique perspective on value and their own specific set of needs. The breaks between email exchanges give sellers the opportunity to understand these different viewpoints and requirements. With this understanding, they can advocate more effectively for the relevance of their solution within each stakeholder’s individual context.

These email intervals also provide a chance for a more precise and strategic trading approach. Instead of making one-sided concessions, effective negotiations often benefit from mutually beneficial trades, especially when both sides aim to bridge a gap. With time on their side, sellers can carefully assess the assets they have available for trading, ensuring that what they offer is of equal value to what they receive. This thoughtful approach to negotiation uses the gaps between emails to create a fair and balanced negotiation environment.

Maintain Momentum by Ending Each Email with a Next Step

During email negotiations, maintaining a smooth transition from one message to the next is pivotal. Failing to establish a clear next step at the conclusion of each email can lead to stagnation in the negotiation process. These gaps provide openings for competing priorities and unforeseen developments to disrupt the proceedings. To keep momentum through an email negotiation, sellers should use the following tactics:

Establish Knowledge-Based Trust

The subsequent move in your negotiation need not always be a direct request from you to the customer. It can take the form of you committing to providing specific information within a defined timeframe. This presents a valuable opportunity to establish “knowledge-based trust,” where trust emerges from the alignment of your statements and actions. Building trust based on experience and evidence increases the likelihood of the customer following through with the purchase, knowing they can rely on you during solution implementation.

Uncover Customer Needs

The next step also serves as a chance to inquire about the customer’s motivations behind their negotiation demands. Understanding the “why” behind their requests allows you to eventually transform a mere demand into a genuine need. This approach is pivotal for successful negotiations because needs are typically easier to fulfill than demands. The rationale is simple: non-financial solutions often suffice to meet a need, preserving the value of the sale.

Use Open-Ended Questions Strategically

While open-ended questions are exceptionally effective for this purpose, they can be challenging to employ in email due to the limited space for in-depth exploration. To navigate this constraint, consider presenting questions alongside brief examples of occasions when you addressed a customer’s demand by fulfilling the underlying need. This tactic propels the conversation forward by demonstrating the versatility in addressing the customer’s demand.

Provide Clarity

Finally, when you find yourself without a clearly defined next step, a straightforward approach involves summarizing your understanding of the customer’s needs and seeking confirmation that your interpretation is accurate. This ensures that both parties remain on the same page and allows for the negotiation to progress with clarity.

Progress to an In-Person Conversation

While these techniques provide sellers with a strong framework for email negotiations, it’s equally important to recognize when to shift to a live conversation.

This shift is often advisable when a customer makes demands that cannot easily be transformed into needs or when the customer’s responsiveness diminishes. Additionally, live conversations prove highly effective in de-escalating situations where a customer becomes overly aggressive.

Continue Building Your Negotiations Skills

Effective negotiating is what empowers a seller to capitalize on the full scope of work they have put into the sales pursuit. Learn how Richardson Sales Performance can help your sales organization learn and apply the Sprint Negotiation™ methodology. Visit Richardson.com for more.

Udi Ledergor is a five-time B2B marketing leader and is presently the CMO of Gong, the Revenue Intelligence category leader that helps go-to-market teams close more transactions and accelerate growth by gathering, understanding, and acting on their most valuable asset – customer interactions. Today John and Udi discuss “forecasting: why force thinks forecasting is broken” in this expert insight interview.

This Expert Insight Interview Discusses:

• Why do humans have such difficulty forecasting?
• How do you approach forecasting, and what makes you different?
• Four essential forecasting tips.

Why Does the Forecast Fail?

Forecasting has made great progress in recent years. On the other hand, managers must learn from experience about what they can and cannot foresee and design plans that are open to surprises. Unfortunately, we cannot predict many things, and uncertainty is much larger than most of us are willing to accept.

Forecasts ultimately fail because no strategy has been established that permits the forecaster to foresee when a nonlinearity will occur prior to the event occurring.

Four Key Recommendations For Trying Forecasting

1. Replace Opinion With Reality.
2. Replace a lot of manual work that goes into the forecasting process.
3. Consolidating all the different tools and all the different spreadsheets that companies use into a single tool.
4. Replacing the past with the present.

So, all these 4 key recommendations can exist in a single platform that can help your team forecast better than they’re doing with all the manual opinion-based processes so far.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.