A discussion about sales, sales tips and advice, and about those who land the deal

Wish I could take credit for this great negotiation tip, but I can't.  It comes from Roger Dawson, author of "Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople."

For all of you sales pros who have a tendency to low-ball your proposal to a client right from the start, here is advice from Dawson that will make you think otherwise:

The less you know about the other side, the higher your initial position should be, for two reasons: First, you may be off in your assumptions. If you don't know the other person or his needs well, he may be willing to pay more than you think. Second, if this is a new relationship, you will appear much more cooperative if you're able to make larger concessions. The better you know the other person and his needs, the more you can modify your position. Conversely, if the other side doesn't know you, their initial demands may be more outrageous.

If you're asking for far more than your maximum plausible position, imply some flexibility. If your initial position seems outrageous to the other person and your attitude is "take it or leave it," you may not even get the negotiations started. The other person's response may simply be, "Then we don't have anything to talk about." You can get away with an outrageous opening position if you imply some flexibility.

You might say to the buyer, "We may be able to modify this position once we know your needs more precisely, but based on what we know so far about the quantities you'd be ordering, the quality of the packaging and not needing just-in-time inventory, our best price would be in the region of $2.25 per widget." At that the other person will probably be thinking, "That's outrageous, but there does seem to be some flexibility there, so I think I'll invest some time negotiating with her and see how low I can get her to go."

Inexperienced negotiators usually want to start with their best offer, like the salesperson saying to his manager, "I'm going out on this big proposal today, and I know that it's going to be competitive. I know that they're getting bids from people all over town. Let me cut the price up front or we won't stand a chance of getting the order."

Power Negotiators understand the value of asking for more: It's the only way that you can create a climate in which the other side feels that he or she won.

Great advice...its a good reminder for me, as I was putting together a proposal earlier today and took Dawson's lesson to heart when I created it.