In a recent blog I answered the question; what is the difference between haggling and negotiating? About $100,000.00 a year. I offered the opinion that negotiating is a skill that is acquired not inherited. I also offered the opinion that the Retail Automobile Industry is fully staffed with hagglers.

For the purposes of our industry, I submit for your consideration, that there are four cornerstones to every successful negotiation. I will define each one and do my best to communicate clearly why they are cornerstones. Please, indulge me, there are not only "four stones in the foundation", of negotiations and that is well understood but I am simply trying to identify the key components in a successful automobile negotiation.

In order to advance we must retreat! The first cornerstone is to Go Back into the process that led up to  the moment we want to negotiate. If you have an identified sales process is it fraught with landmines, trip wires, pot holes and obstacles that prevent professional negotiations? Asking foolish and unnecessary questions such as; "What is your monthly budget? How much did you want to put down? How much do you owe on your trade?" To name only a few,  are lazy and inappropriate, designed to "save time", "weed out the dreamers" and "cut to the chase" they all create obstacles to sound negotiating principles.

Each questions sends you down a "rabbit hole" and takes your salesperson further and further away from a successful outcome. If we were to encourage these types of questions we will ultimately eliminate the emotional side of the sale and be left with pure logic and price as the only and final deciding factors in a purchase which means we are forcing ourselves to HAGGLE.

The second cornerstone is STRENGTH . That can only be measured by desire. When the desire to own the product surpasses the desire to sell the product true negotiating strength is achieved. Your sales process, if you have one, must be designed to make the "car the star" and use the car to answer the basic questions of "whats in it for me?" 

It is very hard to achieve negotiating strength with a vehicle that does in fact fit the "budget" but does not meet and exceed the wants, needs and desires. No matter what the price is they will not want it if they do not want the product.

The third cornerstone of successful negotiations is WIN?WIN .  Winning is simply defined as gaining a desired position during negotiations or a competition. The customer clearly must win by getting a vehicle that meets or exceeds their expectations at a price that meets their definition of fair or good. What is a good deal? Whatever the customer thinks is a good deal. 

It cannot be a unilateral win however. The dealership must also win. It is NOT about the salesperson winning but the dealership. If the customer wins and the dealership wins then, defacto, the salesperson wins. This cannot be confused nor can it be reordered and still achieve the same result. In order to get what you want you must help other people achieve what they want. That is a near perfect definition of what a salesperson should be.

The fourth and final cornerstone of negotiations is CLOSE. It sounds so simple and it is yet most salespeople NEVER ask for the sale. In fact, in more dealerships than ever before, the sales staff are taught to show the price and terms then SHUT UP! Many an untrained manager trains their salespeople by saying the following; "The first one to talk loses!" Nothing could be further from the truth. All that nonsense does is create an extremely uncomfortable moment for the customer and the salesperson. 

We must begin to train all of our sales people to ASK FOR THE SALE every time! 

If you ensure that these four cornerstones; GO BACK, STRENGTH, WIN?WIN and CLOSE are in your process you will be developing the foundation necessary to build solid, professional negotiating skills in your sales staff.