How to Negotiate for a Win-Win Situation

Congratulations! You are on your way to making a sale!

Although a successful sale is a victory in and of itself, there are a lot of variables that have to be negotiated, which have an influence on how profitable that particular sale ends up being. Here’s how to increase the chances of a negotiation leading to a win-win deal for you and your customer…

-Schedule the negotiation during the middle of the work week.
-Generally, it is best to have the negotiation in the mornings, although the specific time varies according for each customer.
-Research your buyer so that you know their cards. The more you know about them, the more you can gain from a negotiation because you’ll know how to respond to objections.

Let’s say the seller starts a negotiation with an opening price of $100. The buyer counteracts with an opening offer of $75. However, the seller knows that the buyer is unlikely to go for the $100 right off the bat. As such, the seller’s “real” goal is to make the sale at $85. At the same time, the buyer knows that $75 is a lowball offer and is willing to pay a little more, $85. Most negotiations end up somewhere in this middle. In case the negotiation gets a little off hand, the seller has a minimum price and the buyer has a maximum price which he or she is willing to pay. The “real” $85 middle is the situation in which both the buyer and seller win. Anything at the opposite end of the spectrum would have only one of the parties being satisfied. To insure that negotiations yield win-win results it can help to assemble a negotiating team to help with the research aspects needed to generate a favorable result. You as the salesperson would lead the team at the negotiating table to an outcome that works for both parties.

Although sellers want to create a win-win situation, buyers, sometimes try to create situations in which only they are on the winning side…


Good Guy-Bad Guy

In this case the buyer will come across as completely uncompromising and unwilling to buy due to a number of different objections. The difficult buyer will then step outside the room and a much more friendly decision maker will step into the negotiation and come to favorable terms, albeit at ones which still favor the buyer.

Sly Tricks

Some buyers will resort to emotional outbursts or intimidation. The buying party may also throw in some minor objections (red herrings) in order to confuse the seller and resort to odd behaviors such as total silence.

When confronted with these tactics, keep your cool and don’t give in. When responding to win-lose negotiation tactics, be understanding with the buyer but don’t budge from your goals. When people get confrontational with you it’s only natural to want to be confrontational in return. Your goal at all times should be to maximize the wins for you and the buyer. Below is a list of different negotiation styles, ranked by effectiveness…

Collaborating negotiators are assertive and cooperative, doing everything they can to maximize the net benefit and cooperate with the buyer to make sure that they are happy with the outcome.

Compromising negotiators are not that assertive and not that cooperative. They seek for a net benefit to both parties but do so in a way that doesn’t maximize the wins for both parties.


Avoiding negotiators don’t see any form of compromise at all. They are neither assertive nor are they cooperative.

Accommodating negotiators are cooperative but not assertive, meaning that they are willing to give the buyer the upper hand in a negotiation, at a loss to his or her side.

Competing negotiators are assertive but not cooperative. They seek to be the only winning side in a negotiation.

As a seller you want to collaborate to achieve the best outcomes for both parties, even with the opposing buying party isn’t willing to collaborate.