How The Sales Process Has Changed
Challenges Affecting Sales Strategies
Tips for Overcoming Objections
Examples of Effective Negotiation Training
Sales Negotiation Skills Training From RED BEAR
Frequently Asked Questions About RED BEAR Training
The Ultimate Guide to Sales Negotiation Training
What does it take to find success in today's rapidly changing and fast-paced sales world? While many are turning to tech-based solutions to solve their problems, there is no denying the impact that negotiation still has on maximizing the value of deals.
Understanding the fundamentals of negotiation can help your team build better relationships, find creative solutions, and, most importantly, grow your business. Of course, not every sales training course is the same. Some value manipulative tactics and cookie-cutter strategies, while others focus on the core principles and behaviors that drive successful negotiations.
Here at RED BEAR Negotiation Company, we value the latter. Our goal is to take individuals and turn them into world-class negotiators.
To help you better understand how the sales process is changing and why the right win-win negotiation strategy is mission-critical, let’s take a deep dive into sales negotiation.
Supply chain disruptions, geopolitical pressures, and other changing consumer behaviors have significantly impacted the sales process. For sales professionals, this new landscape presents new challenges as well as plenty of opportunities.
To help you understand these changes, let's explore each of the catalysts more in-depth.
The sales process is changing because buyer behaviors have changed. Fueled by new approaches to business, more and more buyers are searching for convenient ways to interact with businesses.
Omnichannel sales are the name of the game. While in 2016, a successful B2B business might see five channels in the customer decision journey, that number now eclipses 10. In fact, more than 90% of surveyed organizations in a McKinsey study view today's omnichannel reality as equally or more effective at reaching customers than ever.
The shift highlights the need for effective win-win negotiation strategies and the value of process-driven approaches that can succeed in almost every environment.
Adding to this complexity is the vast amount of stakeholders involved in your average sales decision.
According to the 2024 Dentsu B2B Superpowers Index, the average number of decision makers involved in a purchase was 7.4, up 6% YoY. And the number of brands buyers considered for each purchase jumped 64% over 2021, further complicating the decision process.
The number of brands buyers considered for each purchase jumped 64% over 2021, further complicating the decision process.
Navigating these tense and complex situations requires a unique set of skills designed to help sales reps find common ground between parties, both external and internal.
The impacts from COVID-era disruptions are not only shifting the way B2B sales take place; they're also adding unique challenges to virtually every industry.
There is no denying the impact of supply chain disruptions. For example, consumer packaged goods (CPG) professionals argue that these supply chain issues are still an extreme challenge with around 62% of CPG executives identifying them as a significant threat.
These disruptions also affect sectors like MedTech and the medical industry at large.
For example, stressed supply chains lead to doctors and nurses not having the necessary equipment to do their work. More than half of surveyed medical professionals can recall a time in the last 12 months when they didn't have access to an essential product for a patient's procedure.
More than half of surveyed medical professionals can recall a time in the last 12 months when they didn't have access to an essential product for a patient's procedure.
There are also geopolitical pressures, which can be just as formidable and complex. As business trends globally, incidents and disruptions have ripple effects thousands of miles away.
For the telecom industry, these geopolitical challenges are leading to unique problems with international compliance.
By working across borders, organizations need to constantly adapt to shifting privacy laws. Take China. Today, almost every multinational company operating in the People's Republic needs to understand recent changes in data privacy laws fully. The Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) and Data Security Law (DSL), both enacted in 2021, have significantly impacted how companies collect, store, use, and transfer data. These new regulations pose substantial compliance challenges for telecom leaders, especially when operating across international borders.
As the world finds footing in an increasingly digital world, it's not always the case that what's new is always better.
Take the sales journey. Buyers who prefer a rep-free experience often regret their decisions around 46% of the time — suggesting these buyers might not know what they want from the sales process. Conversely, those who chose seller-led approaches were 63% less likely to complete a high-value deal.
As the demand for improved customer experiences, success hinges on sales professionals' ability to identify and address buyer preferences and positively influence their final decisions.
While these statistics paint a complex picture for sales professionals, it's all about how these challenges change buyers' interactions with a business.
We've explored a few major trends that are shifting how buyers approach the purchasing process, but let's dive deeper into what's changing.
Buyer behavior is changing. Buyers today are better informed, prefer self-service options, and prioritize visibility and transparency. They're also not as plugged in and tech-dependent as some business leaders might think.
As more businesses focus on the customer experience, buyer expectations for high-value experiences also increase. This can significantly affect sales negotiations as customers expect personalized service, quick responses, and higher-quality products and services.
These customers don't simply want to move through the purchasing process as they did in the past. They want more agency, are intimately involved in the buying process, and need to feel empowered about their choices.
Sales prospecting is changing in the new digital world. In the past, sales cycles often began with face-to-face meetings, cold calling, or even chance encounters.
Interactions on digital platforms characterize virtual sales. That means video chats, virtual meetings, and even social media channels. Moreover, these sales cycles often happen faster than previous cycles. For sales teams, being quick and ready to adapt to new technologies is a critical component of overall success.
It's not enough to put on the charm during face-to-face interactions. Sales teams also need to learn to evolve those strategies for the digital landscape.
For example, according to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Sales Report, 71% of prospects prefer to do their own research before buying a product, now that their ability to do research has been skyrocketed by AI tools. According to their survey of sales professionals, this means the most important sales roles will be to help buyers feel confident, answer their questions and build rapport—in other words, acting as a consultant to help finalize the buyer’s decision.
71% of prospects prefer to do their own research before buying a product.
Keeping this all in mind during the sales cycle might seem overwhelming.
In reality, these steps become seamlessly integrated with everyday operations with the right negotiation process in place. The best salespeople don't rely on manipulative tactics or single-use strategies but rather focus on the right principles and behaviors that drive successful discussions and lead to win-win outcomes.
Plenty of negotiation training courses focus on memorized tactics that seem, at first, to find success in mock scenarios and B2C situations. In reality, though, the results will fall far below expectations when used in actual real world scenarios.
First, what is a tactic? There are two distinct meanings:
Tactics might seem at face value as critical tools for getting your way. But, they often lead each conversation into a strictly competitive, win-lose outcome that inevitably damages the relationship. It's important to understand these tactics and learn how to deflect and mitigate their possible effects.
Some customers will use tactics to throw you off your balance, force you to lose focus, push you off, or make the salesperson react rather than be proactive.
Navigating tense sales situations starts with mastering essential negotiation principles and behaviors. These skills set expert negotiators apart, allowing them to turn conflicts into collaborative opportunities.
Sales professionals must highlight the unique advantages of their product, showing how it directly addresses the prospect’s pain points. Strong positioning helps influence decision-makers and drive favorable outcomes.
Setting ambitious targets is key to success. However, remaining flexible and open to compromise ensures your team can negotiate effectively without sacrificing too much.
Information is a powerful tool. Knowing when to share key insights and how to manage the flow of information helps sales reps stay in control of negotiations, allowing them to use information as leverage when needed.
Understanding your strengths in the negotiation, from your product’s value to external market factors, helps assert control and seize favorable conditions.
Focusing on the customer’s core needs, rather than just surface desires, builds trust and creates long-term value. Addressing real challenges fosters stronger relationships and lasting outcomes.
Planned concessions build goodwill without weakening your position. Offering concessions in exchange for equal value helps maintain a win-win balance.
Effective negotiators make clear demands, ask open questions, test assumptions, and propose conditional offers. These behaviors help guide negotiations toward mutually beneficial outcomes, with a focus on building trust rather than manipulating the process.
By adhering to these principles and behaviors, your team can navigate even the most complex negotiations, creating long-term value and stronger relationships.
Effective negotiators make clear demands, ask open questions, test assumptions, and propose conditional offers. These behaviors help guide negotiations toward mutually beneficial outcomes, with a focus on building trust rather than manipulating the process.
It's worth putting to bed the old perspective on negotiation. For novice negotiators, it's easy to see the purely competitive chest-beating approaches as a positive. In reality, though, these tactics are played out and not practical.
Let's say your sales team is working with a client. One strategy might be to hammer at the price, using manipulative tactics to get the other party to agree to outlandish terms. Might this work? Yes, but you need to consider the long-term value of a relationship like this. Which, given the sour sales experience, is probably non-existent.
Customers are much more likely to work with you and your team if they can trust you. This puts into focus the other dimensions of negotiation — the collaborative and creative dimensions — which we'll explore later.
Alternatively, a more seasoned negotiator with the right training might focus not on price but other valuable areas, such as better delivery schedule, after-sales support, or product customization.
These salespeople can identify opportunities to satisfy the other party's needs and preferences, resulting in a win-win outcome and a long-term relationship. It's less about a 'zero-sum game' where one party's gain is another party's loss and more about creating mutually beneficial outcomes where all parties can benefit.
A key element of RED BEAR sales negotiation training is the three-dimensional negotiation model.
The negotiation process is situational, meaning, at times, it will be either competitive, collaborative, or creative. Each serves a different purpose, and understanding when to use one over another is the key to creating successful and fair outcomes.
While many believe negotiation is primarily a competitive activity, that's just not true. Even so, it's critical to understand this dimension first.
These competitive situations are characterized by self-interest, focusing on one negotiable (often money), and rarely end in a win-win situation.
Most negotiations will contain both the collaborative and competitive dimensions, but understanding the competitive dimension is essential to learning how to meet your business goals and needs.
Alongside the competitive dimension are the collaborative and creative dimensions. Collaborative situations are highlighted by concern for the customer relationship, more than one negotiable, and the possibility of a mutually beneficial agreement.
The relationship behaviors we outlined earlier, are essential to mastering the collaborative dimension. You can negotiate collaboratively and produce valuable results when you ask more questions, clarify and understand, and offer outside-the-box thinking toward gridlocks.
The creative dimension focuses on creative problem solving to find solutions when the other two dimensions are balanced.
This creates “healthy tension,” where both parties seek equitable outcomes that maintain and nurture the existing relationship. Only then can both parties get creative and find unique solutions that result in mutually beneficial and profitable agreements.
Here at RED BEAR, we teach you and your team how to master all three dimensions to develop beneficial customer relationships; create better, more profitable agreements; and grow your business.
An essential component of any sales negotiation strategy is a solid understanding of the value of making concessions. To get it right, sales professionals need to strike a strategic balance of give and take.
But, it's often the case that novice negotiators fall for the same traps. Concessions are the key to building rapport and maximizing outcomes. Here are the common pitfalls that beginner negotiators find themselves in:
A good concessions strategy will accomplish a few tasks:
The goal of a good concessions strategy is not to get the most out of the negotiation.
Remember, we want to maximize the outcome for both parties. To do this, always keep in mind the health of the customer relationship. If our mission is to build long-term relationships that produce results repeatedly, we should adjust our concessions strategy accordingly.
At RED BEAR, our sales training for negotiation focuses on building these types of relationships. Most concession strategies follow a pattern; understanding these patterns can help your team understand what responses you can expect from the other party.
An effective strategy for negotiating concessions can significantly influence a business's success. If a negotiator maneuvers the conversation to secure concessions leading to a deal at or beyond the target price, the resulting boost to operating profits can be substantial.
To put it in perspective, a slight positive shift in price — say, 1% — can elevate operating profits by an impressive 11%. However, the opposite also holds true. Poorly handled concessions that result in a price reduction of just 1% can lead to an equivalent 11% slump in operating profits.
A 1% positive shift in price can elevate operating profits by 11%.
72% of surveyed business leaders report an increased negotiation volume with people from different countries. In today's hyper-globalized and connected world, even small- to medium-sized businesses are expanding their reach into global markets.
This shift in how we do business puts into focus the need for effective cross-cultural negotiation processes in everyday operations.
Many factors contribute to this trend including:
Selling across cultures is a challenging feat. Several key issues face sales negotiators. Whether it's distrust, stereotyping, language barriers, or the role of nonverbal communication, effective cross-cultural negotiations start with a clear understanding of the fundamental negotiation principles that work in any culture.
RED BEAR training teaches your team to understand their blind spots, identify gaps in their strategies, and adjust and refine the plan in real-time to tackle the unique challenges of cross-cultural negotiations.
Companies that lead in developing better global negotiators will undoubtedly perform better. That is why investing in this area promises a significant return.
Even with the right strategies, tools, principles, and behaviors, sales reps will still need to understand some common buyer objections and how to navigate them. Overcoming these objections is simply part of the sales process.
Here are a few tips to help you tackle these types of thorny customer issues.
Understanding emotional intelligence is an essential skill when dealing with people. Successful team members should be able to identify, interpret, and manage their emotional responses but also react appropriately to the emotions of others. During each negotiation, emotional intelligence ensures your team has a handle on their reactions and can maintain control over the situation.
Emotional intelligence ensures your team has a handle on their reactions and can maintain control over the situation.
Emotionally intelligent sales reps will have negotiation skills highlighted by a high level self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and motivation.
Despite the changes to the sales process, there are always decision-makers. It's critical that the sales rep identify, approach, and engage them directly. These individuals are critical players that have the ability to accept proposals and close the deal. Speaking with them directly, can eliminate misunderstandings and accelerate the entire buying cycle.
Here are a few tips you should consider:
Even the best negotiators must be adept at handling objections; it's just part of the process.
It is important to remember that objections often indicate something deeper and rarely equate to unreasonable demands such as significant price concessions. It could be that the other party needs more information or that they can't see the proposal's value. Active listening skills, along with clarifying the objection can help the sales rep respond appropriately to move the conversation forward.
Investing in a high-quality sales negotiation course is the key to improving your team's ability to negotiate and overcome objections.
When you invest in your team, they gain essential skills, tools, and knowledge necessary to navigate the complexities of the negotiation table confidently and competently.
When it comes to sales negotiation techniques, having the right tools and knowledge is the key to success. But what does this look like when applied to real-world scenarios? When it comes time to put these strategies to work, you'll find that most negotiations are as complex as they are unique.
That's precisely why RED BEAR focuses on the sales negotiation skills that work in virtually every industry — no matter where the sales process occurs.
To help you better understand the power of these concepts, let's explore real case studies related to RED BEAR clients.
RED BEAR was approached by a major player in the packaging and container industry. Facing pressures from declining prices, competition, and commoditization, the industry leader was searching for effective strategies to build market share and profitability.
The challenge was a common one. This client faced increasingly savvy customer negotiators with a mission to cut costs. Moreover, integrated supply and group purchasing organizations flexed their combined muscle to consolidate buying opportunities and force price concessions.
How did RED BEAR help this Fortune 1000 global leader? We introduced a rigorous planning discipline that helped essential sales team members and leadership increase their sales negotiation skills and deliver consistent performance in every sales deal.
After rolling out these changes to their methodology, the organization was able to boost profitability and reduce margin erosion. The results? An increase in projected annual revenue totaling $37.699 million with a 46.7 to 1 ratio of return on the company's investment.
Results: $37.699 million increase in projected annual revenue with a 46.7 to 1 ratio of return on the company's investment.
At RED BEAR, we see equipping staff with the right tools and methods for approaching sales negotiation as an investment in your team.
Let's explore another real RED BEAR client to put this idea into action. This time, it's a food and agriculture products and services company looking to improve margins.
The company was looking for strategic ways to navigate an increasingly competitive marketplace, professional purchasing negotiators with little brand loyalty, complex layers to management, and internal pressures to perform with shrinking resources.
RED BEAR provided the groundwork for a stronger sales discipline by integrating a planning methodology with uniform tools, abilities, and communication techniques into the client's managerial and sales structures.
The company quickly leveraged its investment. By building a sales culture focused on execution, the company was able to transform the selling dynamic from a commodity bid to a value-added strategic purchasing decision. This translated into profit margins that increased by over $1.4 million during the first reporting period.
These kinds of internal investments pay off in increased profit margins and employee engagement, retention, and recruitment.
Employees increasingly seek assurance that their individual growth is as significant to leadership as the company's growth. This is precisely why a growing number of organizations are focusing on learning and development. According to an Amazon and Workplace Intelligence survey, 78% worry they lack the skills and 71% believe they lack the education to advance their career.
By investing in the right sales negotiation training, your business can change that.
Results: Over $1.4 million profit margin increase during the first reporting period.
Having the right sales negotiation process means you'll have the right conversions with buyers.
Let's look at another RED BEAR client. This client is a Fortune 1000 energy and chemical company looking, like many other businesses, for better sales results and a boost to profitability.
RED BEAR helped the company develop the methodology and tools needed to establish a sophisticated sales execution culture that focused on profitable and sustainable outcomes. By learning to have the right sales conversations with customers, the company expanded the scope of services and products sold. They focused on value, not solely price, selling new product lines to existing customers by better understanding their needs.
During a year of historically high and volatile energy and feedstock costs, this Fortune 1000 company realized incremental profitability of $20.6 million in less than one year using the skills and concepts from the RED BEAR methodology.
Results: $20.6 million increase in profitability in less than one year.
Are you searching for the right sales negotiation training course to invest in?
With so many courses on the market, it can be a challenge in its own right to source a quality course that delivers value. Fortunately, RED BEAR is here to help transform your sales team.
Below are some key reasons why RED BEAR Training differs from other sales negotiation training companies.
At RED BEAR, our mission is to transform individuals into world-class negotiators. We value process-based approaches to sales negotiation that deliver results.
When you decide to explore training with our team of negotiation experts, you get much more than a simple workshop. You get:
RED BEAR customers realize an average return of $54 for every dollar they invest in our training programs.
We'll work with your sales team to help them mature through every stage of the sales cycle.
When economic uncertainty or volatility hits, you'll know your business is prepared to negotiate and find win-win outcomes. We understand that many individuals may have no formal training in sales negotiation, and many organizations don't have processes around negotiations.
Here is what you can expect:
At RED BEAR, our learning process follows four steps:
How can you ensure your team makes the most out of RED BEAR's training? How can you reinforce our ideas and methods?
Our 100minutes to Improved Sales Results course is an email-based training course that helps reinforce the skills learned during our training workshops. The program is based on Situational Negotiation Skills and delivers weekly emails with short learning activities to learners.
There's also the Coaching & Reinforcement Workshop (CRW) that empowers managers to develop clear action plans for internal coaching that help build motivation within your team and double down on continuous improvement.
We've already explored cross-cultural negotiation, but it's worth revisiting how vital this aspect of modern business is for your organization. That's why we have a workshop focused on teaching the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in these international business negotiations.
RED BEAR's Cross-Cultural Negotiation Training helps your team build cultural agility and avoid common pitfalls. We'll help you plan, build awareness, and avoid cultural faux pas so you can confidently enter any global negotiation.
We also offer Virtual Instructor-Led Training that helps alleviate pressures from limited budgets, travel restrictions, or distributed teams. RED BEAR negotiation experts lead each workshop, featuring our hallmark hands-on training.
These workshops perfectly replicate the in-person workshop experience, leveraging our discovery-based learning methodology.
If your organization has its own learning division, we can help by certifying in-house instructors to facilitate our tested methods. The Train-the-Trainer instructor certification program is the ideal choice for global corporations.
The educators in your institution will gain the ability to impart profound insights, techniques, technology, and tools that enable the crafting of agreements with higher profitability and the cultivation of more robust business relationships.
Ready to get started mastering the negotiation process with your sales team? Our sales negotiation courses offer unparalleled access to experiential training focused negotiation skills that can be applied in any industry.
For more information on RED BEAR's workshops or to speak with one of our team members, contact us today.
Let's explore a few common questions about our RED BEAR training:
At RED BEAR, we aim to teach your team how to properly approach sales negotiations. Our sales negotiation training focuses on the right methods and tools, so your team can enter any negotiation with confidence!