Expertise
Manage Smarter Article – The Bottom Line: Redefining Negotiation
Marie Dudek - November 27th, 2007
Keep your sales team from getting eaten alive
By Dave Stein, Founder, Chairman & CEO, ES Research Group
- as published in Manage Smarter, the online home of Sales and Marketing Management Magazine
Any sales manager will tell you that negotiation is one of the required skills for success in sales. Yet few salespeople are equipped to go one-on-one with the increasingly experienced and tough corporate buyers and purchasing officers with whom they must negotiate in order to make a sale.
Even some companies that provide guidance for pursuing the most complex sales opportunities not only leave money on the table, but allow the perceived value of their brand to be whittled away during negotiations.
To read the rest of this article, click here.
HBS Article: Dealing with the ‘Irrational’ Negotiator
Marie Dudek - October 3rd, 2007
- as published in Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge for Business Leaders
According to Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman, chances are the main hurdle to smooth negotiation is behind one of three questions. When you label someone “irrational,” you limit your own options, as they write in Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond. The following except describes strategies and tactics to overcome another party’s counterproductive behavior and keep the deal on track.
These are ideas that anyone can put to use in multiple settings of business. As Malhotra and Bazerman observe, negotiation geniuses are made, not born.
To read the rest of this article, click here.
SAMA Velocity article – Wake up to negotiation reality: transform your negotiations and avoid commoditization
Brian Dietmeyer - September 1st, 2007
You’re delusional. Well, all right, you may not be, but I’m playing the odds. Too many sales professionals work in a state of negotiation delusion, though the marketplace is trying to shake them awake with ever-increasing commoditization.
Twenty years ago, keeping customers at any cost may have been acceptable negotiation practice. However, according to current research…
Three offers are better than one
Brian Dietmeyer - August 15th, 2007
- from Selling Power Sales Management Newsletter
Many sales organizations have successfully transitioned from selling products to selling solutions, articulating value, and solving business problems. But when it comes to negotiating, all that progress goes up in smoke. “Salespeople are selling value, but they’re negotiating price,” observes Brian Dietmeyer, president and CEO of Think! Inc., a global strategic negotiation consultancy. “They are selling complexity well, but then it becomes a commodity during negotiations.”
The solution, says Dietmeyer, is to use a strategy called “Multiple Equal Offers.” MEOs give prospects…
ITSMA’s article: Combating Commoditization and Upholding Value: Marketing’s Role in Shaping Negotiation Strategy
Marie Dudek - July 10th, 2007
ITSMA (IT Services Marketing Association) cites Negotiation for Sales Effectiveness research study results in their July 2007 e-zine.
According to a new research study by the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) and Think! Inc., a vast majority (80%) of the 361 study respondents said that “they see mounting irrational competitive behavior, such as competitors drastically lowering prices or giving away services.” This type of behavior, added Barrett Moore, a negotiation consultant at Think! Inc., is a problem because “giving away value tarnishes brand perception and signals competitors to do the same, lowering margins for everyone.”
To read the rest of this article, click here.
Are your negotiation techniques sabotaging your business relationships?
Brian Dietmeyer - June 29th, 2007
When a negotiation ends, a positive, lasting relationship with the customer should begin.
However, negotiation that demads zero-sum concessions usually results in one side gaining at the expense of the other, which means someone will walk away feeling defeated. This kind of adversarial energy won’t create the momentum necessary to get a great relationship rolling.
But it doesn’t have to be this way…
State Of The Art: Negotiation
Brian Dietmeyer - May 7th, 2007
We’re Not There Yet, Why We Need To Be, and How to Get There
The Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) and Think! surveyed global sales leaders to attain a snapshot of organizational negotiation approaches and benchmark it against their sales management processes. This is a synopsis of the findings.
CPSA article, “How to Time Negotiation to Win the Deal”
Marie Dudek - April 19th, 2007
The Canadian Professional Sales Association’s e-newsletter, Sales Exchange, publishes article written by Brian Dietmeyer.
Timing is everything in negotiation – to get the upper hand you have to know when to start. We suggest you begin negotiation at precisely the same time that Livingston International, Canada’s leading custom broker and trade services company, does.
“We constantly get inquiries for our services; but we always ask ourselves, ‘Why are they interested in us?’” explains Tod Walton, Livingston’s Director of Business Development. “Unless we are certain that we can help the prospect do business better, we’re not going to pursue the opportunity.”
To read the rest of this article, click here.
Selling Power’s Gerhard Gschwandtner interviews Think! Inc.’s Brian Dietmeyer
Marie Dudek - April 18th, 2007
Selling Power, the most trusted site for professional selling skills, motivation and sales management know-how in the business-to-business environment, showcases interviews with Brian Dietmeyer, Think! Inc. President and CEO, on the Selling Power Daily Report website. To view videos, click on the appropriate link below.
Tom Martin Named Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Think! Inc.
Marie Dudek - March 2nd, 2007
Chicago, Ill. – Think! Inc., a global negotiation consultancy, has named Tom Martin Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Martin will focus on creating the infrastructure that will take the organization through its next phase of growth.
Martin has more than 15 years of top-level management experience with the nation’s leading business consulting organizations. Most recently, he was Managing Partner/Senior Director with OnTarget, Inc., a division of Siebel Systems. During his five-year tenure, his responsibilities included sales forecasting, pipeline management, competitive intelligence, process improvement, and technology-driven business analytics. Prior to that, he spent eight years at Miller Heiman, where he rose through the ranks to become President for North America. His background also includes several years with Price Waterhouse where he developed and implemented sales process automation.
“Mr. Martin is a results-focused leader and innovator. He is expert at driving success through process, which is the foundation of our approach to negotiation,” says Brian Dietmeyer, President and CEO of Think! “His broad knowledge of the marketplace – from sales to training to consulting to information systems – is unparalleled. We are very pleased for both ourselves and our clients that Mr. Martin is now a part of Think!”
“Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of working with sales training companies that were redefining their industry – Miller Heiman in the early ‘90s and OnTarget at the turn of the millennium. I’m excited to be working with Think!, today’s thought leader that is redefining the negotiation world.”
In addition to his work at Think! Martin also operates his own management consulting business, Strategy 2 Revenue, Inc. He is a University of Florida honors graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Advertising.