«
»

Walking Away

Thursday, November 19th, 2009 - 8:54 am - Sales

She Walked Away With Nothing I Own

In negotiation the power is with the side that can walk away. If your client needs your solution, can’t live without it, and you know it – then you know that you have that deal won. If the roles are reversed and they know that you need the sale then it is a lot more work for you. As with many things in sales this often is as much a perception issue as it is a reality.

Your job is to make them feel like you can walk away without their business and be ok, but if they walk away from you then they’re potentially in serious danger. You have to convince yourself that you can walk away from this deal if you had to – and then actually do it when the deal is unfavorable. Buyers can smell a desperate salesman – and they’ll use that to their advantage as soon as they can. This is why a good number of people wait until the end of the month or the end of the year to buy a car – they know that there are plenty of salesman who need to hit a quota or a bonus level.

Don’t show desperation, show that you can walk away if you have to and that they shouldn’t even think about walking away.  You’ll win more negotiations and at a higher number than before.


  • http://www.justinmchood.com Justin

    Great post.

    This concept was taught to me by a guy who called it “the one with the least interest controls the relationship…”

    What it looks like in the mortgage world:

    http://www.zillow.com/blog/mortgage/2009/06/18/zillow-mortgage-marketplace-3-day-rule/

    But it applies to pretty much all things business.

  • http://customersystemsinc.com Chris Lee

    Nice post! I actually used your post to illustrate this point to a colleague today in a non-sales relationship negotiation that we are involved in.