8 Proven Strategies to Negotiate Like a Pro and Close More Deals

The ability to negotiate effectively is one of the most valuable skills any salesperson can possess. Strong negotiators create better outcomes for their company, their clients, and themselves. Finalizing mutually beneficial agreements paves the way for strong, lasting business relationships.

Yet many salespeople lack confidence when it comes to negotiating. It‘s understandable – most of us only engage in a handful of negotiations in our daily lives, usually around big ticket items like a house or car, a job offer, or a major business deal. We rarely get the chance to practice and hone our negotiation skills.

For salespeople though, negotiation is a key part of the job. Every interaction with a prospect or client is a form of negotiation. To be successful in sales, you need to be an expert negotiator.

The good news is, negotiation is a skill that can be learned and mastered with the right knowledge and plenty of practice. Here are eight proven strategies that will have you negotiating like a seasoned pro in no time.

1. Always Start with Your Maximum Plausible Position

When kicking off a negotiation, you should always begin by asking for the absolute best terms you can reasonably expect to get. If you‘re selling a product or service, that means quoting the highest justifiable price. If you‘re the buyer, start by proposing the lowest justifiable price.

The key word here is "justifiable." Your starting position needs to be grounded in a solid understanding of the value you provide and what the market will bear. You should be able to back up your offer with facts and data if challenged.

But as long as you can credibly justify it, always start at the most favorable price point for you. This gives you room to make concessions and still land at an outcome that meets your needs. If you start in the middle, you have nowhere to go but down.

Even if an extremely high or low initial offer gets rejected, it sends a strong signal about how you value your product and anchors the rest of the negotiation around that number.

2. Use Bracketing to Determine Your Counteroffer

What if the other party throws out the first number? You can use that to your advantage with a technique called bracketing.

Let‘s say you‘re hoping to sell your product for $10,000. If the buyer offers $7000, you would come back with $13,000. Your counteroffer is equally far apart from your target price as their initial bid.

By doing this, you position both offers as equivalent "gives" to get to a fair deal in the middle. If the buyer comes up $3000 and you drop your price by $3000, you‘ll meet at your original goal of $10,000. Bracketing aims to put you both on equal footing.

3. Never Be the One to Split the Difference

In the above scenario, you may be tempted to jump right to proposing a compromise at $10,000 since that‘s what you want anyway. Resist that urge. You never want to be the one to offer to split the difference.

Here‘s why. A shrewd negotiator could flip that right back on you and use it to their advantage:

You: "Why don‘t we just split the difference and agree on $10,000?"

Them: "So you‘re willing to drop your price from $13,000 down to $10,000? That‘s great. We appreciate you coming down $3000. But we still can‘t quite get there. If you can do $8500, just $1500 more, you‘ve got a deal. You said you could easily come down $3000, so what‘s another $1500?"

See the problem? By offering to split the difference, you‘ve essentially changed your offer without securing any concession from them. You‘ve lost the bracketing effect and surrendered the middle ground. The savvy buyer will either meet you there, or more likely negotiate down from your new position. Splitting the difference yourself weakens your stance.

4. Taper Your Concessions

Of course, you will need to make some concessions to keep the negotiation progressing. The key is to taper them – start with larger concessions and then make each subsequent one smaller.

For example, imagine you make an initial concession of $1000. Then the next time, you come down $500. The time after that, just $250. By making each concession smaller than the last, you send the message that you‘re getting close to your bottom line.

In contrast, if your concessions are $250, then $1000, then $500, your counterpart will assume you have plenty of room left to negotiate. Since you made a large concession after a small one, they‘ll expect a similar pattern to continue and push for more.

Tapering your concessions sets the expectation that you‘re converging on a final offer and protects you from giving up too much.

5. Never Accept the First Offer – Even If It‘s Amazing

So what if the buyer shocks you and accepts your very first offer or even makes an initial offer that exceeds your wildest expectations? Congratulations! You‘ve clearly shown them the value of what you provide.

But even in this best case scenario, you still shouldn‘t take the deal on the spot. Always come back and ask for at least one small concession, even if it‘s just a slight change in terms or a small add-on.

This tactic is designed to make the other side feel good about the deal. If you immediately accept their first offer, they may start wondering whether they offered too much and feel they lost out. A small final negotiation lets them feel like they got the best deal possible.

Ultimately, you want the other party walking away from the table feeling positive about the outcome, you, and your company. That‘s critical for your long-term relationship. Pushing for one last minor concession protects the durability of the deal and partnership.

6. Ask Open-Ended Questions

As you go back and forth, pay close attention to how you phrase your inquiries. Closed-ended yes/no questions make it too easy for the other person to shut you down without providing any useful information.

For instance, if you ask "Can you do any better on the price?" they can simply say "No" and stop you cold. You learn nothing about their limitations, preferences, or priorities.

Instead, ask open-ended questions that invite them to elaborate: "What can you do to get us closer to my target price?" or "How can we work together to find a price that works for both of us?"

These questions compel them to engage and provide more detail about their position, objections, and what they value most. The answers give you material to collaborate on an agreeable solution. If they struggle to give a satisfactory response, you‘ve uncovered a weakness in their stance you can press on.

Well-crafted questions are one of a negotiator‘s most potent tools. Use them wisely to extract information and steer the conversation.

7. Keep Your Cool

Negotiations can be intense, frustrating, and emotional. But no matter how heated things get, you must maintain your composure. Appearing flustered, angry, or defensive will weaken your position and sour the mood.

Before you begin, take a moment to breathe deeply and adopt a mindset of calmness, confidence, and positivity. Aim to keep the overall tone of the interaction professional and friendly.

Look for opportunities to build rapport and establish common ground with some casual conversation. Get to know them as a person. The more you can develop a human connection and sense of trust, the smoother the actual negotiation will go.

During the back and forth, listen carefully to their perspective and acknowledge their concerns, even as you work to persuade them. A little empathy goes a long way. If tensions start to rise, don‘t be afraid to suggest a short break to let everyone regroup. Keeping the atmosphere constructive is key to getting a deal done.

8. Always Negotiate a Trade

Inexperienced negotiators often give up concessions unilaterally, with no strings attached. This is a critical mistake. It creates the impression that what you‘re offering has no real value and there‘s no cost to pushing you for more.

Skilled negotiators understand the power of a trade. Every time you agree to modify your position, you should seek to gain something in return. Give a little to get a little.

Maybe you agree to throw in some extra features, but in exchange you get a longer contract commitment. Or you match their competitor‘s price, but only if they sign the deal that day. If they want an accelerated delivery date, they need to put down a larger deposit.

This tit for tat demonstrates that your offering has worth and your concessions aren‘t free. It motivates the other side to really examine what they value most and prioritize their asks accordingly. The terms you trade for will also help offset the impact of what you gave ground on.

Of course, some requests may be unjustified or simply impossible for you to accommodate, trade or no trade. In those cases, be prepared to firmly decline and hold the line. If the other party won‘t budge on an unreasonable demand, you have to be willing to politely end the negotiation and walk away. Better no deal than a bad deal.

Go Forth and Negotiate

There you have it – eight powerful strategies you can start implementing today to take your negotiation skills to the next level. While simple in concept, these tactics have been battle-tested and proven effective in negotiations of all shapes and sizes.

With practice, they‘ll become second nature and you‘ll find yourself engaging in negotiations with greater ease and confidence. You‘ll waste less time chasing bad deals, stand firm on your value, and consistently leave the table with agreements that set both you and your customers up for success.

So go out there and look for opportunities to flex your negotiation muscles. Find a friend or colleague to practice with. Test out these approaches and see how they work for you. The more you put them to use, the more natural they‘ll become.

Remember, every interaction is a negotiation to some degree. Mastering this key skill won‘t just improve your sales results, it will pay dividends in virtually every area of your life and career.

Happy negotiating!