Ten Tenets To Follow When Negotiating with Clients

Ten Tenets To Follow When Negotiating with Clients
If you follow these ten tenets to negotiating with clients, you will have better client relationships.  Here they are, laid out for you and your team.

1. First off all, and I mean ALL, negotiations must start from a WIN-WIN point of view.  The moment you take advantage of a client, you will lose in the long run. And probably in the short run too.
2. Always negotiate from the client's point of view before you walk in to meet with the client.  Argue their case from their perspective.  Try to understand not only their point of view, but their fears, concerns and issues. Empathy, empathy, empathy. Be empathic.
3. Never take a subservient role. Act as an equal. This does not mean you are arrogant or superior.  Be yourself, but be an equal. And treat the client as an equal.  Even when you may have the upper hand when you have something they need.
4. There must be mutual respect for each other.
5. Try to work together to craft a solution.  This means the client needs to understand what is WIN for you as well. If they understand your position, they will more than likely try to accommodate you in some fashion. At least if they know what you can and cannot do, they will understand why you are not bending on a certain point.  If they don't know why, they will just think you are obstinate or worse, manipulative in your negotiations.
6. Always start with the mindset that this successful negotiation will lead to further negotiations.  You want to leave the client with a good taste in their mouth for you.  The concept here is make the client wanting to work with you in the future.
7. List out what you want, what you need, what you can give up.  With each item try to quantify its value in terms of money, risk, time or some other quantifiable criteria.  Have your best case scenario outlined, your median case scenario outlined and your worst case - what you will accept and live with and not be resentful of. Anything less than your third scenario, is your walk-away.
8. Never get emotional.  When you feel your temperature rise, take out a pen and start writing what you are feeling - if you can. If you need to - remove yourself from the situation by asking for a break. Another method I learned from a great book, from one of the authors of "Getting to Yes" is see yourself in a row boat on a lake, rowing away from shore.  The author also suggests "Going to the balcony" which means stop and see yourself going to a balcony overlooking the negotiations - see yourself removed and look at all the players in the situation as just that - players or actors on a stage.
9. After the negotiations, when you deliver, deliver - if you can - more than you promised.
10. Remember this - things will either work out, or . . .  they will work out. What happens sometimes is the best for all involved. 

Good Luck and Good Consulting!