According to Randall Murphy, president of Acclivus Corp., “Sales negotiation training is about to come into its own.”

“We have identified three fundamentally different levels of negotiation.”

In every sale, a negotiation of some sort takes place. Whether it is over the subject of price, availability, delivery time, parts, service contracts, or payment terms, every salesperson has had to give or get concessions. If 1986 is becoming a year of sales negotiation, then the Acclivus sales negotiations course is the one to watch.

Developed over a two year period of intensive research by Acclivus Corporation, a Dallas-based consulting company with over 12 years experience, this unique sales negotiation course is packed with everything every salesperson or manager needs to know to come out a winner. As Acclivus president Randall Murphy himself readily admits, “The more the sales representative applies what he learns in Acclivus Sales Negotiation, the less he will ever feel forced to negotiate, and the better his negotiating position will be if and when he does choose it.”

From videotapes that provide positive models to interactive practice opportunities, from case studies to group discussion and workbook exercises, here is a course that trains the salesperson in the what, why and the all important how of negotiating in sales. Says Murphy, “People respect strength and it’s ironic that the salesperson who is willing to make concessions that seem easy to the customer is perceived as weak, and therefore doesn’t command respect. Our course teaches him the appropriate use of power. It teaches how to sell strong.”

Murphy began his selling career in a variety of sales and sales management capacities for Wycoa, Xerox Learning Systems, Systema Corporation, Performance Associates prior to forming Acclivus Corporation in 1976. Murphy holds an MBA from Southern Methodist University and is listed in Who’s Who in Finance and Industry and Who’s Who in the World.

PSP: There are many courses on negotiation on the market. Why did you develop a new one?

Randall Murphy: We were asked by client companies to develop a program in sales negotiation. To the best of my knowledge, there wasn’t such a program on the market.

PSP: Was yours the first course to specifically deal with sales negotiation?

Randall Murphy: Yes.

PSP: How does your course help the sales manager turn a sales team into a team of sales negotiators?

Randall Murphy: What we are teaching is much more subtle and more practically useful than that. Certainly we are teaching them how to negotiate, but more important, we are teaching them how to avoid the necessity of negotiating.

PSP: How do you do that?

Randall Murphy: We teach salespeople how to develop power prior to the negotiation. Negotiation is the application of power to meet needs.

PSP: So your course teaches the application of power.

Randall Murphy: That’s correct and we teach more than that. Our sales negotiation course teaches how to create an environ-

(line missing)*********************************

like having a black belt in karate. Once you have the skills, you feel the power inside you. And once you feel that power, you have an aura that other people sense on a very basic level.

PSP: Can you then direct that power?

Randall Murphy: Well, that’s a key point about power. People who have black belts in karate rarely get into fights. More often they put themselves in cooperative situations where the opponent senses they would be formidable. In our course we train the sales person to recognize and effectively counter tactics. There are virtually no buyer tactics that the sales representative will ever come up against that he will feel unsure of countering.

PSP: Do you think that sales people sometimes have a problem sensing their own power in a sales situation?

Randall Murphy: I don’t think many professional salespeople think very much about power in a sales situation one way or the other. To them power may have some negative connotations. But that’s only because they don’t understand the difference between power and aggressiveness – which, by the way, is overused and unnecessary.

PSP: What do you mean by power then?

Randall Murphy: We have identified three fundamentally different levels of negotiation. They are 1) competitive, 2) cooperative, and 3) collaborative. To succeed in a negotiation, power is required at every level, but is applied at the competitive, simply exercised at the cooperative, and balanced in order to achieve fairness and equity at the collaborative. We teach salespeople how to succeed at each level of negotiation and how to elevate the negotiation process.

PSP: How many sources of power are there in sales negotiation?

Randall Murphy: We have identified ten different sources of power and each source can be developed prior to contractual negotiation.

PSP: There must be some special strategies for developing power that you’ve come across in creating your course. Can you share them with us?

Randall Murphy: In our program, salespeople learn a number of specific strategies for developing power. For instance, the salesperson who walks into a negotiation without having involved the client in at least as much preparatory work as he himself has made it at a disadvantage. In other words, that salesperson is building up the customer’s power of investment commitment. The salesperson is making a considerable investment by preparing for the meeting, or negotiation or whatever. If he has made a larger investment than the client, he is at a disadvantage. Therefore, part of the strategy for developing power includes getting the customer, or members of his organization, involved in the process so there is an equal investment made. From that point, there will be a perception of compatible, perhaps even interdependent, needs.

PSP: Do you feel that there is ever a problem in negotiating from a position of power?

Randall Murphy: You cannot successfully participate in negotiation at any of the three levels without power. Negotiation is the application of power to meet needs and you cannot exercise balance, or share that which you do not have or which you are not perceived as having.

PSP: What do you consider the shortcomings of the classic negotiation course?

Randall Murphy: Most courses are long on theory but short on practical application. In our course participants apply, in realistic negotiation circumstances, all of the techniques and strategies which are introduced in the program. Most courses in negotiation espouse a win-win philosophy but fail to provide the specific tools required for creating win-win. In our program salespeople learn specific techniques for elevating the negotiating process.

PSP: So, you looked at other courses and discovered that they aim at increasing awareness, whereas your course increases skills.

Randall Murphy: That’s exactly right. Knowledge doesn’t get results – skills do. The consistent shortcoming of other courses is the limited amount of practical application.

PSP: I’d like to get into the one specific universal sales negotiation statement that every salesperson in the world has heard more often than any other.

Randall Murphy: Shoot.

PSP: “Your price is too high,” or “You’ve got to do better than that.” How does a salesperson counter that?

Randall Murphy: Well, usually the salesperson will erroneously do one or two things. He or she will think “What a jerk…” about the customer, or will ask “How much do we have to lower our price to get your business?” Both are wrong because one is high risk and the other is low return. What you want is just the opposite. In addition to that, there is specific evidence to show that a concession that is easily made by a salesperson is not valued by the customer. It will then tend to elicit more demands and the customer will want more easy concessions.

PSP: It sounds like most salespeople remain at the competitive level of negotiation. They find ways to reduce the price and therefore are not transferring value to the customer.

Randall Murphy: That’s true. Customers buy products and services to achieve goals, solve problems, and meet needs. The true value of the product or service lies in how effectively it helps the customer do those things.

PSP: What about the customer who offers the carrot of, say, more business down the road for concessions right now?

Randall Murphy: A salesperson who is trained in sales negotiation has to establish the long term value that he can provide to the customer – value which is commensurate with the future business he or she may provide to that customer.

PSP: Does that also apply to “Your price is too high.”?

Randall Murphy: Price often serves as a symbol for all kinds of needs of negotiation. It is easy to get your hands on the symbol. If you have a published price list, you can adhere to that. You can use early exclusion – a technique we teach in depth – that deals with the issue of price with an eye towards exploring other ways to make the deal special for both sides.

PSP: What are some of the common misconceptions salespeople have about the subject of negotiation?

Randall Murphy: I think there are two. One is that negotiation is and must remain essentially adversarial and the other is that you can develop a win-win negotiation simply by being a win-win kind of a guy.

PSP: What’s the reality?

Randall Murphy: Well, the reality is that negotiation does not have to remain adversarial. The process can be elevated and win-win can be achieved…but only by the skillful salesperson.

PSP: What does the salesperson who finds himself or herself in a competitive negotiation do?

Randall Murphy: Well, the first thing is to be aware that it’s happening. In the Acclivus course, that’s part of recognizing tactics. But also you can sense when you are defensive, or aggressive by being aware of your own behavior and the signals you may be getting from the customer. Once you know where the power is, you can redirect it to raise the negotiation from the competitive to the cooperative level. That’s always the key in any negotiation -to try to get together in some way and work together for a solution.

PSP: Do you think that a competitive stance is almost natural in business?

Randall Murphy: Despite all that’s been published about win-win, the message still hasn’t gotten to many customers. Let’s face it, successful business people have been schooled better in competition than in cooperation. They got into a university on the basis of competition, they made the team on the basis of competition, and then became a team leader, or a manager on the basis of competition. For them, competition works well, it has proven benefits.

PSP: So what’s the benefit of cooperation for such a customer?

Randall Murphy: The benefit is increased mental flexibility to solve a problem. Competition will never solve a business problem and will often make a small problem into a large one. To elevate the negotiations away from the competitive level requires more than a win-win attitude. It requires some real skills to get away from the concept of how to get a better deal. You know sometimes the better deal will stare you straight in the eye when you least expect it, but only if you can get away from the competitive and move into the cooperative level with ease.

PSP: What have your concepts of negotiation done to improve the way you operate in business?

Randall Murphy: There have been times when I was involved in negotiations that I didn’t even recognize as such. I was the victim of tactics and ploys that slipped right by me. Even if I had recognized them for what they were, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. I didn’t have the skills then. Now, I am much more aware of the hooks and that I am making a greater investment in this than the customer (that’s a danger). I also realize that information provided by any customer is not necessarily perfect information (another danger). Also, is my customer reducing his options as we are talking thus reducing mine automatically as well? There are lots of others, but those are a few of the things I am aware of now, and traps that I don’t fall blindly into anymore. I’m also much more accepting of negotiation as an every day part of doing business and am less judgmental as well about the kinds of demands that customers make. I have more satisfying relationships, and I feel I get more accomplished. I know that for long term sales relationships, if I defeat the customer, I lose.

PSP: So now when a customer says, “Your price is too high,” you can condition yourself to say, “Let’s talk about this issue.”?

Randall Murphy: Yes. I explain that it is important to me to know customer’s price needs and problems. But I also let him know that the price we offer has a purpose and then I explain that to him.

PSP: Who are some of your major clients for the Acclivus course? By the way, what does Acclivus mean?

Randall Murphy: Acclivus is a Latin word that means inclined upward. It represents the process of negotiation – to elevate the negotiation from competition to cooperation to collaboration. That’s our concept in a nutshell.

PSP: And your major clients…

Randall Murphy: Digital Equipment was a vital part of our research, piloting, and validation of all the studies involved in creating the Acclivus course. Digital is currently implementing the program worldwide and they have had great success with it. They have about 3,000 salespeople in the U.S. alone. Other clients include Harris Corporation, UCCEL, Fleeguard, a division of Cummins Engine, and Butler Manufacturing.

PSP: Do you think 1986 is the year for sales negotiation training?

Randall Murphy: I do see the coming year as highlighting the need for sales negotiation training. There is much more talk about it within the marketplace than there was say, five years ago. Yes, you probably are right – sales negotiation training is just about to come into its own and major companies will be training their salespeople on how to use it effectively.

PSP: What do you think is important, if you had to choose one single thing, about sales negotiation?

Randall Murphy: We never want the customer to feel defeated. In our course, we have purposely given buyer tactics names that are comical and even ridiculous, that way we reduce the tension level and also make a tactic less threatening to the salesperson. If there’s less perceived threat, then the need to completely win at the client’s expense is diminished.

PSP: That brings us back to the issue of power.

Randall Murphy: Yes it does. We want to get participants to understand how to direct the flow of power away from them or the customer to the goal. We believe the needs can be basically interdependent as opposed to conflicting. We want to achieve sales objectives and strengthen sales relationships so they last over the long run. The more the sales representative applies what he learns in the course, the less he will ever feel forced to negotiate, and the better his negotiating position will be if he does choose that path.

PSP: When you look at the total range of skills that a salesperson has to master, how important is the ability to negotiate?

Randall Murphy: Very important. Negotiation is occurring constantly. Yet, negotiation, for most salespeople, is not something they look forward to or something they feel they understand. Up to this point, before Acclivus, there hasn’t been a program oriented toward business to business sales negotiation so there was no specific help for them.

PSP: What is the worst scenario for the start of a negotiation?

Randall Murphy: To enter into a negotiation with someone who feels that I need him and his solution more than he needs me and mine.

PSP: Thank you.

For more information, please contact Acclivus Corporation at 214/385-1277, or write: 13601 Preston Road, Dallas, TX 75240.

“Most negotiation courses are long on theory, but short on practical application.”

“…negotiation does not have to remain adversarial.”