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The Strategic Pushback: Why Saying ‘No’ Earns You the Right to Be There

By / / Communication, Emotional Intelligence, Negotiation, Sales Skills, Soft skills, Value Based Selling

In 30 seconds

The Problem: Clients routinely test sales professionals with compressed timelines, unjustified discounts, or requests to strip down the solution. Most salespeople fold, fearing the deal will walk.

The Shift: Saying yes to a bad request is a trap. It erodes margins, sets delivery teams up to fail, and quietly lowers the client’s respect for you. Order-takers please. Trusted advisors push back to protect the integrity of the outcome.

The Solution: Hold your ground on timelines, sell on value not price, and refuse to deliver fragmented solutions you know will not work. Saying no earns you the right to stay at the strategic table.

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winning-long-term

Trust Wins the Long Game: Why Game Theory Trumps Short-Term Tricks

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Negotiation, Value Based Selling

In 30 seconds

A national building supplies firm won a big account by slashing prices, only to lose it six months later to a pricier, more reliable competitor. In contrast, a tech-security BDM secured a $3M high-margin deal by listening, co-creating solutions, and building trust. Game theory proves cooperation outperforms deception: short-term wins erode trust, long-term partnerships drive success. The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer shows 75% of people value enduring relationships over quick gains. The winning formula? Emotional intelligence to navigate relationships, ethical guardrails to assess moral engagement, and business savviness to align strategy with long-term goals. In business, the smartest play is also the most human one.

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The Tricky Business of Discounts

By / / Blog, Negotiation, Sales Relationships, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Tips

In 30 seconds

Asking for a discount can be customary or a signal of needing expense justification. For businesses, avoiding unnecessary discounts is crucial. Discounting devalues offerings, sets poor examples, and erodes trust. The key here is to understand the reason behind the haggling. Then you can either consider meaningfully adjusting your solution to your customer’s budget if that is the issue or offering an add-on. However, any extra offering must align with the solution and add value to it. Transparently communicate value, tailor solutions, and provide meaningful add-ons. This not only builds trust but also enhances your reputation as a …

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Some key guidelines for Negotiations in Sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Negotiation, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Solution Selling

We are regularly asked by sales managers to provide negotiation skills training for their salespeople. However, after talking with them about their team’s situation and development priorities, it is quite clear, 90% of the time, that their people do not need negotiation skills training, what they really need is consultative solution selling skills training instead.

The reason many sales managers and sales teams find themselves in this situation is they think every time their salespeople hit an objection they must negotiate. Far from it. The easiest way to eliminate objections is by taking the time to understand your …

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Every Sales Person Starts as an Educator

By / / Communication, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Mindful selling, Negotiation, Sales Culture, Sales Skills

‘Educate and Facilitate’ was voted by our readers as the fourth most important sales trend in Barrett’s 2012 Sales Trends Report. With the 21st Century ‘selling’ not being about features and benefits anymore what has taken its place? Effective selling is a journey from education to opportunity. To sell something we need to educate in order to facilitate an opportunity. Our buyers determine where on that journey we must join them. Is it a well-informed buyer for whom we simply need facilitate the opportunity they seek? …

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Top 10 Tips when Negotiating

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Education in Sales, Life Skills, Negotiation, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Strategy, Sales Tips, Sales Training, Self Development

Everybody needs to negotiate from time to time; at work, at home, as a leader, as sales person, and as a consumer. For some it seems easy, but others view the process of negotiation as a source of conflict to be resisted and avoided if possible. Negotiation is a process and a skill that can be developed. Negotiation can be described as a process that involves two or more people dealing with each other with the intention of forming an agreement and a commitment to a course of action where compromise needs to be reached in order to move forward. …

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The Difference Between Selling and Negotiating

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Mindful selling, Negotiation, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Management, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Success

Many people, especially sales people, often share the mistaken belief that Negotiation forms part of every sale which is not true. We often hear ‘my people need to be able to negotiate’ when upon further inspection they first need to learn how to sell. The reason many rely so much on negotiating is that their initial sales job was a poor effort. They neglected to properly establish the clients’ real priorities and needs and didn’t demonstrate how they can help the customer achieve results; financially as well as via their products, services, knowledge or intellectual …

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4 rules to best validate yourself with buyers

By / / Communication, Negotiation, Sales Relationships, Sales Strategy, Self Promotion

Ever been asked straight up at the beginning of a prospective client meeting, “So what do you do?” despite your sincere intention to ask questions of your prospective buyer rather than talk about yourself?

I bet you have and I bet you found yourself on more than one occasion feeling somewhat uncomfortable because:

a) You didn’t know what to say quickly and succinctly thus making yourself feel and look a bit silly;

or

b) You ended up talking about your business, your products and yourself ad nauseam while watching your client or buyer’s eyes glaze over.

Hmm Awkward … why do …

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Is a climate of perpetual discounting limiting choice and eroding our quality of life?

By / / Negotiation, Strategy, Value Proposition & Value Add

Gerry Harvey, (Harvey Norman) was recently bemoaning the culture of discounting in our retail sector. He was saying that retailers had lost the plot and didn’t know how to sell real value anymore. He said they had fallen foul of a culture of constant discounting as the only way to attract customers, which was tantamount to business disaster and a degradation of the retail sector. I happen to agree with Gerry in this instance.

He went further by saying that retailers were failing to find out what customers really wanted and what they really valued. He said retailers weren’t offering choice …

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Why is ‘cheap’ a false economy?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Negotiation, Procurement, Sales Culture, Strategy

Understandably everyone wants to save money, especially in these times, however we need to be aware of falling victim to false economy. False Economy is an expression that refers to an action which saves money at the beginning but which, over a longer period of time, results in more money being wasted than being saved.

For instance, I have never understood why some people will drive half an hour across town to get their petrol two cents a litre cheaper, all the while using up what they may save by driving across town, notwithstanding the time it took to travel there …

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