Selling with Noble Purpose: How to Drive Revenue and Do Work That Makes You Proud

Chapter 22

Using Your Noble Sales Purpose in Tough Negotiations

It’s a huge mistake to think that people in purchasing don’t care about anything other than price. When the salesperson brings NSP to the front and center of the conversation, you get a completely different reaction from the customer.

—Keith Kuchta, Vice President of Sales, Kimberly-Clark

In an earlier chapter you learned that as much as 93 percent of a customer’s response was based on your mindset. This applies to negotiations as well.

I used to teach hardball negotiating skills, and what I’ve observed is that people who view negotiation skills as a technique to get what they want are not as effective as the people who truly believe there can be a win-win solution. Said another way, salespeople who merely act as if they want the other person to win aren’t as successful as the salespeople who truly want the other person to win.

The challenge is that many customers have been trained in the hardball—I win–you lose—approach.

Here’s what hardball negotiators will do. They’ll start by eroding your value story. They’ll make it all about price. They’ll tell you that the additional services you provide, such as customer service, warranties, and so on, aren’t needed. They’ll tell you that they’re of no value to them. They’ll strip away everything except price.

Then after you’ve agreed to the lowest possible price, they’ll try to build back in the things they previously said were of no value. They’ll say things like, “I can’t ...