Persuasive Storytelling: The Scientific Approach to Engaging Your Audience
The ability to capture attention, influence decisions, and forge lasting connections is invaluable in business and sales. Persuasive storytelling is one of the key ways to do this. It draws on deep-rooted psychological mechanisms to engage and persuade the listener, making it an excellent tool in sales and negotiations. This article explores the science behind persuasive storytelling and discusses how professionals can harness its power to become more successful negotiators.... Read more
High-Stakes Negotiation: How Mario Martinez Negotiated a 46-Million-Dollar Deal
While Mario Martinez was with Sprint, he’d been working with a Fortune 10 company for years. He built out a wireless infrastructure in their corporate offices. He created a system where employees could become customers through an online portal versus paper forms. Seven years later—and over 5 million dollars of investments into this company—they’d recouped all of their expenses. During this time, Mario also built a strong friendship with the... Read more
Will Negotiators Be Replaced by AI?
Will negotiators get replaced by AI anytime soon? AI can be used to shortcut understanding contracts, reading contracts, writing contracts, and more. AI is a wonderful tool. Negotiation expert Keld Jensen believes that if we can realize more value and have better negotiations using AI, we very well should. We should not stand in the way. But will we be replaced by AI? The current answer is no… Keld Jensen firmly... Read more
Sales is the Transference of Belief
Sales is the transference of belief. If you yourself aren’t sold on the product or service, you can’t transfer that belief to another human. You can’t convince your way in. Are you bought into the ROI of your product or service? Do you care about serving your customers and helping them achieve results? Will your product or service transform their business? Tom Randall once told Justin that he made things... Read more
Due Diligence in the Wine Industry
Why would someone want to buy a winery? What is their motivation? What are their objectives? According to James Cluer—a designated Master of Wine and owner of Fine Vintage LTD—due diligence in the buying process is everything. You can’t just buy a winery or buy land and hope for the past. You need a detailed business plan. How does James start the process, before even doing due diligence? Due diligence... Read more
The Four Types of Benefits to Communicate in Sales
Ian Campbell is the CEO at Nucleus Research, an “Investigative technology research firm that uses a return on investment, case study approach to assess the value of technology.” They focus on whether or not something delivers value. In episode #427 of Negotiations Ninja, Ian talks about how to weave value into the sales funnel so that prospects are propelling themselves forward. But to get to that point, you need to understand... Read more
Empower Your Employees: 2024’s Top Game-Changing Training Courses
Providing your team with access to continuous training opportunities is a great way to keep your business operating efficiently. Whether training them to become better time managers, stronger negotiators, or diplomatic problem solvers through conflict resolution training; investing in regular employee courses for your team can improve team morale and productivity. In fact, according to data published by PwC, 74% of workers hope to attain new skills through ongoing training... Read more
Alex Yakubovich and Stan Garber’s Procurement Solution: Levelpath
Alex Yakubovich was the Co-Founder and CEO of Scout RFP and is now the Co-Founder and CEO of Levelpath. Stan Garber was the President of Scout RFP and helped Alex Co-found Levelpath. He and Alex have worked together on different projects for nearly two decades. In episode #425 of Negotiations Ninja, they shared how every venture they take on is obsessively focused on serving their customers. Levelpath is no different.... Read more
How to Leverage New Products to Get a “Deal”
A vendor like Microsoft or Salesforce wants the adoption and utilization of their products—especially the new ones. The “new” things must be deployed well as a new revenue stream. The deployment and buy-in usually fall on salespeople. But because of the desire to get their new product or service up and running, some legacy products/services might become less important. Oftentimes, you can leverage the new to get a deal on... Read more
How to Hold Buyers Accountable
Most salespeople are afraid to hold buyers accountable. They feel like they'll damage the perceived relationship by saying, “You said this, and now you have to follow through.” Let’s start by tackling the first issue: The relationship. Does the “relationship” only exist in your head? The relationship that most sellers think they have with customers usually only exists in their heads. Why? Because sellers often confuse a relationship with the buyer... Read more