Negotiation - A Critical Area for Sellers

With the holidays coming up, and family getting together for many people, it might be a good time to refresh our negotiation and listening skills.

Seriously, negotation is an area that most people selling products and services could improve and hone dramatically. I've worked with fifteen- and twenty-year sales veterans who consistently left money on the table when we conducted some negotiation skills scenarios and it was very eye-opening to me as to the importance of refresher for these skills.

Negotiation expert Jeanette Nyden has a great PDF on the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Negotiators - her first two points on preparation and on questions are critical for any sales conversation - and the seven points together could bring immeasurable help in your sales negotiations.

I also enjoyed seeing negotiation tips from Barbara Braham here. Perhaps it was "know thyself" that grabbed me first - how true in selling.

Finally, a wonderful resource for changing how you communicate is Marshall Rosenberg's Non-Violent Communication site. I know it sounds prety extreme - in that we don't associate violence with business, but his book and other resources have helped me tremendously over the years.