The other approach inexperienced negotiators follow is to attack the price. This is generally an awful idea as it will quickly reduce any negotiation to a “you’re not worth that”, “yes I am”, “no you are not” type negotiation.
In my experience, this is not negotiation, but simply an attempt at mutual suicide.
It might work if you are attempting to buy a discounted house and have 100 properties to choose from – when you are rejected, you simply move to the next one – but it never works with business partners, freelancers or service providers, because the value of the work depends on motivation and the quality of the relationship.
So, if someone says that they are worth £15 per hour or £250 per hour, then ask them to demonstrate it by giving them a project to quote on. That is, write down what you want to achieve, and then ask them how they would achieve it and what it would cost. Then you’ll have a clear idea of whether it is better to hire the freelancer at £250 per hour for a single hour (total cost £250) or the junior at
£15 per hour for a whole week (total cost £525).
If you like the quote, and want to get more value, then seek to add additional deliverables but try to meet their demand on the price. So, if you are quoted
£500 for a project, see if you can add some other valuable services into the overall quote. This method of adding up, rather than knocking down, will show that you respect the person you are working or contracting with. It shows that
you don’t dispute that they are worth what they say, and so you negotiate about what they will do, rather than what or who they are.
23. Deliver your promises up-front
If you promise to deliver a service in return for help – or bartering – then you must be prepared to deliver up-front. Why? Well, you are either the unproven entrepreneur or starting out with an unproven idea. And you will be asking to hire services from established businesses.
Therefore, as we saw already, it is ill advised to say, “If you prepare my accounts for one year, and I’m happy with the service, then I’ll get you four new clients” – you will be laughed at.
Instead, as said before, aim to deliver a new customer straight away and then promise to bring three more if you reach an agreement. This approach will demonstrate that you are not only a capable negotiator but also likely to be a highly valuable client and source of future business.
Delivering on your promises – quickly and without fuss – is a great way to build credibility. An accountant is not only going to be impressed by the new client but he or she will also be thinking that you might grow a big and successful
business.
And, of course, all accountants or lawyers like to see their clients grow – it is good for their business too.
Hence, establishing that you can deliver what you say you can deliver will change the way that people treat you immediately. Life will get a lot easier.
And, you know what, even if you don’t deliver everything you set out to deliver right away you will at least have demonstrated that you are willing to put some hard work in and keep going until you get the results you promised. This
willingness buys a lot of credibility and it is how you win people over, and begin to establish yourself and your new business.
24. Keep collaborating
Many entrepreneurs start life with no cash, a huge burning desire and a willingness to trade, barter and collaborate with other companies. As the business grows and more competitors start to attack their markets, there is a natural tendency to stop collaborating. This is a mistake.
Instead, simply look to collaborate with larger companies that have established themselves or people that convince you that they are worth believing in.
We often make the mistake of believing we have to defend our business once it has grown a bit.
I have come to the view that when everyone wants to copy your ideas, the only solution is not to hide your ideas away, but simply to raise the bar on innovation and collaboration within your market. Or sell.
If you can innovate faster and more effectively – in both your products and services as well as in your collaborative relationships – then your competitors won’t be able to keep up with you. So they’ll give up and go away, eventually.
So keep collaborating, even when you begin to enjoy some success.
25. Run a ‘to-stop’ list
You keep a ‘Things to Do’ list, don’t you?
Well, do you also keep a ‘Things to Stop’ list, too? You should – and so should your staff. And what goes onto it should receive just as regular thought as the to- do list.
A stop-doing list is a list of things that you’ve been doing that are having no material impact on the success of the business. Typically these are activities that either were a good idea but never worked out or are old processes or ways of doing things which have now been replaced by changes in the way the business works or by new software or different seating arrangements.
A good example is this: one member of my team was responsible for keeping the customer records correct and up to date. Sounds great? Well, this became a
matter of the following:
filing every client email in a separate folder on Microsoft Outlook
printing out each email and filing that in a folder
copying each email to a shared drive and replicating the filing in a digital format.
In addition, the email systems and shared drives were backed up every evening – so we effectively had five copies of every client email.
Yes, it is good to have backups, but five copies in three formats? The cost of this system was enormous in terms of manpower and, as it turned out, a near
complete waste of time and resources. When the person left, no one even used the digital filing – only a bit of rummaging around a filing cabinet.