Issue 03: Negotiating like a pro

This week I’ve been helping a founder and his first GTM hire work through a key negotiation with a 30,000 person enterprise founded in 1927. It’s one of those household brand names you want to make sure you close while also ensuring you’re not losing money on the deal.

They are in the thick of negotiating and were preparing for a negotiation call that included their champion, an engineering leader, a procurement person from their parent company, and another procurement / business leader who was acting as the main negotiator for the deal on the prospect side.

The negotiation is ongoing and while I can’t regurgitate every detail I wanted to share some mentality advice I gave the team to keep in mind when preparing for this milestone 30 minute negotiation call.

1. Less is more: When the prospect brings multiple professional negotiators to the table, they are clearly interested in procuring your product. So overstating the value of your platform is not helpful. Quick alignment on the value and having them convey why they are excited about your product is great to start the call with, but you don’t need to go into pitch mode for these calls.

2. It’s all about how many and what types of questions you ask: With concise reconfirming of the value without overselling, you should have ample time to ask pointed questions about their goals and what number + deal parameters are required to get to a deal everyone can agree on. “Is there a magic number you have in mind?”, “If we can hypothetically get to those ranges can we have a signature by X date?” < These are all direct questions you should think through asking in rapid succession. Write down everything you need to know and ensure you have enough time to ask all the questions you need to get to clarity on a number that will get the deal done.

3. They need you more than you need them: As a startup it’s easy to think you need the deal, but it’s the wrong mentality to go into a negotiation with. As long as you’ve vetted the alternatives and are confident that your solution is unique and one of a kind, you’re in the driver’s seat and the onus should be on your prospect to prove to you why you should be going down in price. Avoid having scarcity mindset within negotiation discussions with large enterprises. No matter how big and shiny the logo, you have other organizations you can sell to whereas the prospects you’re aligning with likely don’t have good options to leverage, especially if you’ve done your job within the proof of concept phase.

These are just some of the pointers I provided so if you’re interested in learning more and are going through similar stages in your deals, I highly recommend considering opting into my Sales Sprint program which launches September 18th. Reply to this email to learn more about the group based bootcamp where I also provide custom 1:1 coaching.

Zero to Hero: A membership platform with curated sales advice for tech founders.
Sales Sprint: A 10-week group coaching program with high touch access to myself and other tech founders where you will learn the complete sales cycle from pitch to negotiation and closing your first 6 figure deals.
1:1 and Advisory: Limited space to connect with me directly 1:1 on a consistent basis where I will be the sales leader and coach in your corner.