What the best salespeople know, say and do

30 Questions You Should Ask Before You Negotiate

Preparation is critical to succeeding when you negotiate. Remember in the sales scenario you have already convinced the other party that what you have to offer is attractive. Now you need to agree terms and anything is possible. By asking and then answering these questions you are much more likely to begin the negotiation in a confident frame of mind. Here are 30 questions for starters. These are questions you would ask of yourself as part of the preparation process. What other questions would you add to this list? Email us and tell us what these and we will update this resource. 1. Who am I negotiating with? 2. What have we already agreed on? 3. What is the nature of our disagreement? (By definition you must be disagreeing about something, otherwise negotiation would not be necessary) 4. What do I want out of this negotiation specifically? 5. What do the other party(ies) want in this negotiation, specifically? 6. What is my intention for this meeting /conference call? 7. What resources do I need to succeed in this negotiation? (Eg. people, time, ideas, practice, knowledge) 8. What are my interests in this negotiation? (An interest is a goal, concern or issue you need to protect) 9. Can I assign a priority to my interests? 10. What are the interests of the other party(ies) in the negotiation?

30 Questions You Should Ask Before You Negotiate www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 1

What the best salespeople know, say and do

11. What are their priorities? 12. What evidence do I have to support my positions? 13. What sort of approach should I take? (Avoidance/accommodation/competitive/collaborative/compromise?) 14. What approach is the other party likely to be adopting? 15. What are my non-negotiables? 16. What will be the other partys non-negotiables? 17. What are my optimum and fallback positions? 18. What are the optimum and fallback positions of the other party? 19. What am I prepared to trade? 20. What questions will I ask? 21. What are the key questions the other party(ies) might ask? 22. How can I get creative in order to get to a solution? 23. What is the ZOPA (zone of possible agreement)? 24. How can I make it easy for my negotiation partner to say yes? 25. What might a solution look like? 26. What precedent can I think about which is similar to this negotiation? 27. What sort of tactics might I consider using in this negotiation?

30 Questions You Should Ask Before You Negotiate www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 2

What the best salespeople know, say and do

28. What is my BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement)? 29. What is their BATNA? 30. What do I want included in the agenda?

30 Questions You Should Ask Before You Negotiate www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 3