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Hi!
Here's the October 2010 issue of Psyche-Selling TM
eNewsletter, and for the past 3 months, we have been getting
lots of enquiries on negotiation skills training, not just
sales negotiations, but also negotiations between foreigners
and Chinese counterparts, as well as negotiating with
"unreasonable" bosses.
In many cases, negotiating is thought to be akin to
bargaining, or specifically bargaining over prices. In
actual fact negotiation is a lot more than that, and seeks
to jointly create solutions with the adversary.
Some will say that while this is the ideal, but that may
not be very applicable to China, where negotiating
parties are skeptical and distrustful of one another.
Hence, this month's topics:
-
Sun Tzu and
the Art of Winning Negotiations in China;
and
-
Cosmetics
Sales Promoters: Creating Outstanding Sales Results
by Focusing on the Customer
This issue's main article is on "Sun
Tzu and the Art of Winning Negotiations in China", and
the focus is on how you can navigate the complex
relationships and achieve winning outcomes.
In brief:
-
While negotiation is
about giving others what they want so that they give
you what you want, most people don't know why
they want what they want. Understanding the reasons
behind your needs is crucial to your negotiation
success;
-
The problem with
negotiations in China is that negotiating parties
tend to hide what they want from each other,
resulting in breakdowns in negotiations. The
trick is to get people disclose their needs,
directly or indirectly;
-
If the best victory is the one won without fighting,
then what you need to do is make your adversary
really wanting you to win. Read on... ...
To read the rest of this newsletter, pls. of this newsletter, pls. of this newsletter, pls. of this newsletter, pls.
click here (http://www.psycheselling.com/page4.html.
In the meantime,
please check out our
upcoming events in November-December 2010:
Sun Tzu and the Art of Winning Negotiations in China
by c.j. Ng
To many of his colleagues, Sandro is an old
China-hand.
Having been working in various cities in China for
the past 7 years, Jack has more working experience
here than most of his Chinese colleagues.
One of the key success factors that attributes to
Sandro's career success in China is that he takes
time and patience to listen and understand his
Chinese colleagues, suppliers and partners.
While some of the business practices in China may be
very different, even contradictory, with the ones in
his native Germany, Sandro has always been patient
enough to understand why certain things are done in
certain ways, and then seek to get his Chinese
counterparts understand why some things have to be
done the international way.
Hence, when it was time to negotiate a major deal with
a key supplier, Sandro decided to have his Chinese
Project Manager take the lead in the negotiations.
As Sandro had not had the experience negotiating for
such a large project in China yet, he thought it may
be a good idea to learn from the local expert.
The Chinese Project Manager, Mr. Chen, shared with
Sandro his negotiating strategy, which is to divulge
nothing and squeeze them for the lowest price.
And that was what he did.
Halfway through the negotiations, Sandro found things
to be diverting away from his goals, such as:
-
While the company does have a policy of minimising
purchasing costs, there has been frequent cases of
suppliers increasing prices unilaterally because
they just realised the agreed prices were below
their costs. If the buyer does not agree to
the increased prices, the seller will cut the
supplies. And since the agreed prices were
below costs, the buyer then could not find other
alternative suppliers to supply at such prices too.
-
One of the key requirements for this deal is to have
the supplier commit on various quality and delivery
guarantees, which are critical for the buyer's
production. However, these issues have not
been discussed as Mr. Chen fears discussing such
issues will then increase their buying prices.
Mr. Chen thought it best to secure the best price,
then state these requirements after the price have
been agreed. Sandro knows that if these
requirements are stated after the price has been
agreed, the supplier may not honour their quality
and delivery guarantees because the price they get
does not cover the costs of additional work.
Having these observations in mind, Sandro was wondering
if there's a better way to get long-term commitment
to negotiated agreements in China.
Formulating Your Negotiating Strategy
"The victorious army plans for victory before fighting, the vanquished army fights before planning for victory"
(胜兵先胜而后求战,败兵先战而后求胜), says
Sun Tzu in the Art of War.
The same principle applies to formulating
negotiating strategies as well. We can use Sun
Tzu's 5 elements:
-
道:Your Goal or Desired Outcome
-
天:External Factors beyond Your Control
-
地:External Factors within Your Influence
-
将:The People Conducting Your Negotiation
-
法:How Should the Negotiation be Conducted
To start with,
you will have to define what is the goal, or desired
outcome, for the negotiation. The most primary
concern you need to have is if you just want to win the
negotiation, or would you like to have a sustainable
outcome of your preference.
Interestingly,
while it is often mentioned that Chinese business people
expect negotiated agreements to be re-negotiable later
should there be some unforeseen circumstances arising,
most Chinese negotiators tend to view a signed contract
or agreement is an indication of negotiation success.
They often are too myopic to see that if the agreement
is not sustainable in the long term, or that if it is
deemed unfair, their negotiation adversaries will want
to re-negotiate. As such, the negotiated outcomes
are NOT sustainable
Hence, to reach a sustainable negotiating outcome,
you will have too consider a few more factors, such as:
-
What is the negotiating outcome you want to
achieve, besides price or immediate gratification?;
-
What is your best-case, second-best case and worst case scenarios?;
-
Why should your adversary agree to your demands or requests?;
-
What are you willing to give in
return for what you get?;
-
When to walk away and negotiate with
someone else instead?
The next question then is: would it be safe to tell our
adversaries what we want?
The best victory is the one that is won without fighting
In simple terms,
negotiation can be defined as: getting others to give you
what you want, by giving them what they want.
The problem is, most
of us would like others to give a lot MORE of what we want,
while we give as
little of what they
want. While the reason behind such thinking is to
control costs or maximise profits, there are however some
flaws in this logic:
-
It doesn't mean that if you give a
lot more of what they want, it will cost you a lot.
There are some things that you can give at minimal
or zero costs to you but may benefit your adversary
a lot;
-
Many times, the costs of NOT getting
what we really want (apart from lower price
and immediate gratification) is higher than the
savings of giving as little of what they want; and
-
Sometimes, you need to educate your
adversaries to understand what is the sustainable
outcome that is what they really want too!
As Sun Tzu says, "The best victory is the one that is won without fighting" (不战而屈人之兵,善之善者也).
If you want your adversaries to give in to your demands
or give you a lot of what you want, you may want to make
your adversaries feel that:
-
When they give you what you want,
they will get what they really want (besides
price and immediate gratification);
-
You will make sure that whatever deal
you make with them is something that they will be
happy with, even if it's made in your best
interests;
-
You make the conscious effort to
shift from adversaries in the the negotiation, to
being partners in the long term.
Sun Tzu also
says, "use conventional methods to get organised, but use
out-of-the-box methods to achieve victory".
(以正合,以奇胜). Talking endlessly about price will end
in a stalemate, but if both parties are willing to
explore the reasons why they want what they want, they
might be able to come up with a creative solution that
meets mutual needs.
There is a Chinese expression called "words spoken from
the bottom of one's heart" (掏心话),
which is actually quite common between buyers and
sellers whom have done business together for a long
time. It goes back to the Chinese ideal of taking
care of the welfare of your business partners,
even if they may be your negotiation adversaries.
The trick is to make your adversaries trust you quick
enough for this effect to happen.
Know
Yourself and Your Adversary
When
we mention we need to win the trust of our adversaries, it
doesn't mean that we are just being nice and sacrifice all
our profits. Hence, Sun
Tzu says, "Know yourself and know your adversary, a
hundred battles fought and not be imperiled in any"
(知己知彼,百战不贻).
What this means for
the negotiator could be:
-
You can't win with ALL adversaries.
Knowing whom you can trust, and get them to trust
you, is key to getting winning outcomes;
-
You don't just learn about your
adversaries by talking to them only. You can
get more information about your adversaries
(including if there's a huge need for you to give
them what they want) from their colleagues, business
partners or industry news in general; and
-
In negotiation, knowing your
adversary could be just as important to let your
adversary know you. If the adversary is
someone whom you do not know, start with disclosing
less sensitive details in smaller deals.
In short, while there are
overwhelming tips, techniques and other resources on how
to win in negotiations, there is only one thing in the
minds of your adversaries, and that is "Why should I let
YOU win?".
Here's one last
little story to illustrate why it is important to get
your adversaries to want to let you win, rather
steamrolling over them. We often see some
unreasonable and rude guests in hotels or restaurants
who make unreasonable demands to the service staff in
very rude ways, knowing that because they are paying the
money, the service staff will just have to say "yes" to
most of their rude demands. While some service
staff merely suffer in silence, some experienced service
staff know how to get back by secretly spitting or
adding other unmentionable "ingredients" into the food of the rude
customer.
The moral of the story: even if you have overwhelming
bargaining power, you may still want to make your
adversaries wanting you to win. As in the Art of
War, "To win, use reason to connect with your
people, and use discipline to implement your strategies"
(合之以文,齐之以武,是谓必取)
Need help in winning more negotiations in China? Simply e-mail
info@directions-consulting.com or call +86-136 7190 2505
or Skype:
cydj001
and arrange to buy me a mocha. All information
shall be kept in confidence.
Practical
Intensive Workshops:
24-25 November/ 4 December 2010
Sun Tzu and the Art of Negotiations in China for Foreign Managers/ Sun Tzu and the Art of Winning Sales Negotiations in China
Join international
Sales Force Effectiveness coach and trainer c.j. Ng in these
workshops in Shanghai and Qingdao respectively where you will find
out:
DATE
&
VENUE:
PRICE:
please click the above links for the pricing and
detailed information, or contact Viven @ +86-21-6219
0021 for details. Limited complimentary 1
night stay @ the
Crowne Plaza Qingdao is
available for the first 3 registrants.
For optimal training effectiveness, we are expecting a small group of
about 15 people for each workshop only. Please e-mail your
enquiries to sales@directions-consulting.com .
Pls. check out our web sites
www.directions-consulting.comm and
www.psycheselling.com/page4.html for more inspiration.
Need a Keynote Speaker for your
Major Sales Conference?
Whether you are holding a conference for your regional staff, resellers or
even customers, we have the right speaker who can help you deliver the
spirit of your conference, and effect positive changes to meet your goals.
The topics our speakers can speak on include:
-
Why Some Sales People
Succeed While Others Fail?;
-
How to
Lure Away Your Competitors' Key Accounts, and Make Them
Buy from You Instead?;
-
Improving Sales Productivity by Motivating the Sales Force;
-
Sun Tzu and the Art of
Strategic Decision Making;
-
The
End of Guanxi as We Know It!; and many more!
Simply e-mail your requests to
info@directions-consulting.com or call +86-21-6219 0021 for enquiries.
Sample video and audio recordings available upon requests.
Practical Tips for
Cosmetics Sales People:
Creating Outstanding Sales Results by Focusing on the Customer
By c.j. Ng
I have been asked this question by many retail or FMCG (Fast
Moving Consumer Goods) companies if the concepts that
Psycheselling.com has been applying successfully when
selling to corporates or businesses can also be applied onto
selling to consumers.
The fact is, since we focus largely on B2B
(Business-to-Business) sales, we don't quite have the
exact answer. That is until recently.
We happen to have this "confession" of a skincare cosmetics promoter,
Sharon, who was very new to her job and was almost
hopeless with numbers, but is now the top sales person
of her team and is currently coaching her more senior
colleagues how to improve their sales too. Here
are some excerpts of Sharon's "confession":
"I started my new job on 1-Sep-2010 as a cosmetics
consultant because a long time friend whom I lost the
number called me asking me if I know anyone who wants
that position. I took the job, without time for
interview, put to be the make-up artiste there because
of a discussion I had with my friend (my new boss) who
happened to see me doing a demo for a customer who
bought all the colours I recommended $400 in all.
"Best of all I didn’t know what the promotion mechanics
were so all the items I sold were not discounted or 'vouchered'
as I was NOT informed about them... ...I was put to work
immediately after a brief training. I broke the sales
records, 80% of my receipts were high-value items in
ala-carte items undiscounted. The balance 10-20%
were small items like single lip balm items or small
hand creams mainly because those customers are really on
a tight budget and were willing to give one out of 3 or
4 my recommendations a try."
"To my surprise, those non-discount customers were the
ones who came down from Orchard to Raffles City
(quite a distance in Singapore) to look for me when
they hear from my colleagues that I am on duty at
Raffles City. They came to me with their friends to seek
advice for their skin/hair/body-care problems and they
also paid WITHOUT discount and/ or free gifts.
Hey...come to think of it may be I am the gift!"
"It’s not even end of September, and I don’t even know
the ingredients and technical details in the products!
Yet, I am already training the new girls who only came
in days later than me and giving refresher training to
the girls who came in earlier than me. To my
surprise girls with problematic attitude opened up to me
about their concerns and dissatisfaction. These
are the two girls my boss says were fighting with each
other, and they don’t fight anymore after the 2 sessions
of training with me."
"She (my boss) asked me what I did? I said I really
don’t know... ...I only shared what I know and think can
help my customers and colleagues. All constructive
and non-constructive details were sounded out there and
then."
"My only fear is my boss test on my technical details.
I only know how to sell them by the usage or the
solutions they provide. I don’t know what are the
technical details that make them different from other
brands. People buy from me because I got them to
open up their skin/hair & body-care problems and I just
bring the bottle as the problem solver to them - based
on the bottle’s labels. I am still learning the
technical details at my own time and I hope my boss
doesn’t think I am incompetent or ask me lots of weird
questions on 'how I did it?' *Shrugs*"
I wish I can say that Sharon was one of our trainees,
but unfortunately for us, she is not. However, if
we were to take a closer look, here are some reasons
behind Sharon's success:
-
Customers don’t care about the discounts or vouchers
as much as they care for how they can look beautiful
without damaging their skin. This is especially so
for high-value items where their objective is to get
value for the money they spent much more so than the
little price savings on the vouchers. Hence, had
Sharon known about the vouchers, she might have
ended up selling the vouchers than to sell the value
as she had done;
-
Sharon's customers came all the way hunting for her
for advice about skin/ body/ hair care. It goes to
show that Sharon can engage and connect with her
customers. She cares for their well-being too.
Hence, Sharon is right to say that she is THE
gift to her customers;
-
Helping her colleagues to engage and connect with
customers actually help them (those colleagues) to
generate more sales. It’s not at all
surprising that they will have a drastic change in
their attitudes towards work, since they can see the
improvements they’ve gotten at work, with Sharon's
help;
-
While it’s good to gain knowledge of the technical
details of one's products, it’s evident that
customers value Sharon's skin care advice much more
than the technical details of those products;
-
While understanding the technical details may not be
Sharon's strengths at the moment, I don’t think her
boss is ever going to make things difficult for her
top sales person, as well as a highly effective
sales manager or coach
(which happens ONLY to 15% of top sales people).
It's also noteworthy that Sharon sees her products as
"solutions" to her customers' problems. The term
"solutions" seems to be used more frequently in B2B
sales than for consumer sales, but in this case, it has
become relevant to consumers.
Also, Sharon probably thinks she is selling "solutions"
to her customers, even though what she is doing is to
provide a solution that fits individual customer's
needs. Her skincare/ hair care/ body care advice
are an integral part of her customers' solution as it is
the products they buy. If only more retail sales
promoters could be more sensitive to customers' needs,
they will also see faraway customers beating a path to
buy from them too!
If you would like to get more and better ideas how to
create outstanding sales results by focusing on the
customer, you can e-mail
info@directions-consulting.com or call +86-136 7190
2505 or Skype:
cydj001 and arrange to buy me a mocha. All
information shall be kept in confidence.
About PsycheSelling.com
Sales... ...the
lifeblood of a company, a matter of "life and death", survival
or extinction. Indeed, something that needs to be studied,
applied and re-modified consistently.
Yet today,
-
many companies still don't have a coherent approach as to how they can
generate more sales and achieve better margins;
-
many sales people are still lying to their customers so that they can
meet their targets at the end of the month;
-
many customers are still waiting ethical and professional sales people
to help them find out their real needs, and provide solutions that work
Psyche-Selling TM
is set up so that companies and sales people can make healthy profits and
STILL provide genuine solutions to customers.
Psyche-Selling TM
would like to create an environment where customers can trust sales people
to give them what they want, and NOT be pushed with all kinds of products
and services. In return, customers will become loyal fans of these
ethical and professional sales people, and repay them many fold for the
long-term.
Psyche-Selling TM
will not rest, until the above is achieved. Not just in China. Not
just in Asia. But everywhere where buying and selling takes place.
Psyche-Selling TM
is a wholly-owned brand of
Directions Management Consulting Pte Ltd that specialises
in the field of improving sales performance by enhancing the performance of
the entire sales team. Apart from the regular "selling skills
training", Psyche-Selling TM
conducts pre- and post-training analysis, interviews, monitoring and
reviews, working closely with managers and even senior management, to
deliver real improvements in sales leadership and performance.
Hence, Psyche-Selling TM
would like to be known as the preferred choice of outstanding and remarkable
clients, and pride ourselves as such. We will also be continuing to
assist our clients achieve greater heights in 2009 and beyond.
Enquiries and suggestions,
pls. e-mail
info@psycheselling.com or visit
www.psycheselling.com
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