Hey, it’s Jesper!
How do you feel about negotiating?
Ok, there you are — finished the presentation of a proposal, or perhaps it’s an interview.
The point is: it’s feedback time from the client, and the response is: “oh, that’s too expensive…! How low can you go?”
The pit in your stomach grows bigger — you feel an increasing need to defend yourself — but it’s mighty hard to think straight…
You wanna firmly say: that’s my price, take it or leave it. But, instead, out of your mouth comes a whimper: “well…, what do you think is a fair price?”
No, no, no, no!
I think we all agree that we could do better than that. And most of us have been there…more times than we care to admit.
To fix it, you need a time machine and go back in time to work on a better strategy.
First, you shouldn’t even have to be in this type of negotiation — where the client has the upper hand.
You see, with different positioning, you can completely flip the script — and put yourself in the power position.
While there’s more you should do…for now, I’ll speak of two things.
Nr. 1 Anticipate and prepare
- Winging the questions as you get them is brave at best, but really a fool’s tactic.
- How often do you think clearly under stress? Not too often, right?
- What if you used proven sales strategies instead? Anticipate the questions ahead of time and craft pre-canned answers. Then you’ll have a script to fall back on even if you’re nervous. It just might put the client back on their heels.
Nr. 2 The comparison game
- Are you currently making this mistake? You present yourself as something common, for example: “designer.”
- That’s almost like adding a tag to yourself that says: “ON SALE.”
- Why?
- Because by labeling yourself, you just announced that there are thousands of cost-effective alternatives — designers — out there. Some are willing to work for pennies on the dollar!
- There are ways to completely bypass this, but as a start — focus on the outcome goal you’ll generate for the client rather than putting yourself in a box.
Whatever you do, don’t join the race for the bottom.
To your success…
Jesper
