The Other Side of Sales<\/a>,\u201d where he shares his perspective after 15 years in procurement. Here he is with today\u2019s tip:<\/p>\nMark Schenkius: Imagine a traditional negotiation. You are sitting on a chair and a buyer is sitting opposite of you on a chair. Right in between the both of you is a table. This should probably sound familiar to you.<\/p>\n
When talking about negotiation, I often use 2 different colours for the chairs you are sitting on: blue and red.<\/p>\n
A blue chair means that the focus of that person is mainly on price. The result will be win-lose, the one with the highest perceived power wins the negotiation and the other one loses. These negotiations are cold, short-term and relationship is unimportant. An example of this is when you buy or sell a car. You want the best possible price for it.<\/p>\n
A red chair means that there is a high focus on a long-term relationship. There are many important variables to consider besides price such as contract length, joint innovation, service levels etc. Typically, both parties gain something from these negotiations since they are warm and based on equality and trust. An example of this is a negotiation with a strategic partner.<\/p>\n
At the risk of generalisation here, buyers are typically blue since they are mainly focused on obtaining a good price and sellers are typically red since they are interested in a long-term relationship with their customers.<\/p>\n
Now, the colour of the negotiation table is determined by the colour of the chairs.<\/p>\n
2 blue chairs equal a blue table. You can expect tough negotiations here.
\n2 red chairs equal a red table. This is the foundation of a warm and fruitful relationship for both parties<\/p>\n
The interesting scenario is when one chair is blue and the other one is red. What colour do you think the table has then?<\/p>\n
The correct answer is blue. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n
When one party shows \u201dred\u201d behaviour by focusing on establishing a relationship and the other party shows \u201cblue\u201d behaviour by focusing on price alone, the result will often be that red will be giving and blue will be taking.<\/p>\n
In other words, blue wins and red lose.<\/p>\n
So, what can you do if you\u2019re sitting on a red chair and the buyer opposite of you is sitting on a blue chair? Well, there are only 2 options here:<\/p>\n
Option 1:<\/p>\n
You decide to sit on a blue chair as well, acknowledging the blue table. This is easier to do since you can control that yourself. If you want to win these types of negotiations, make sure you have more perceived power than the other party. It\u2019s important to note that deciding to sit on a blue chair impacts the relationship with the other party.<\/p>\n
Or you can go for option 2:<\/p>\n
You get the other party to sit on a red chair, turning the table red. Even though this might be your preference, it is harder to do since you need to persuade the other party to change the colour of their chair. The best way to do this is to step into the buyer\u2019s mind and understand why it would be beneficial for the buyer to establish a long-term relationship with you. Don\u2019t assume too quickly here.<\/p>\n
A small piece of advice, the best way to make the buyer \u201cred\u201d is by making sure you have something truly unique to sell. The more options buyers have, the more they can afford to be blue.<\/p>\n
Happy negotiations everyone!<\/p>\n
Scott Ingram: I am so glad Mark has agreed to become a regular contributor and share tips like these about once a month. For more about Mark, links to his other tips, and of course to his book \u201cThe Other Side of Sales<\/a>” just click over to DailySales.Tips\/457<\/a> and a quick pro tip. If you go to DailySales.Tips\/all<\/a> you\u2019ll find a convenient line by line list of all 457 tips so far. It\u2019s an easy way to quickly skim through previous tips.<\/p>\nOnce you\u2019ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip from Josh Desha. Thanks for listening!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“The best way to make the buyer \u201cred\u201d is by making sure you have something truly unique to sell. The more options buyers have, the more they can afford to be blue.” – Mark Schenkius in today’s Tip 457 What do you do if you\u2019re sitting on a red chair and the buyer opposite of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"content-sidebar","footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-daily-sales-tips","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n
Sales Tip 457: Red Chair & Blue Chair Negotiations - Mark Schenkius - Daily Sales Tips<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-457-red-chair-blue-chair-negotiations-mark-schenkius\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sales Tip 457: Red Chair & Blue Chair Negotiations - Mark Schenkius - Daily Sales Tips\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“The best way to make the buyer \u201cred\u201d is by making sure you have something truly unique to sell. 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“The best way to make the buyer \u201cred\u201d is by making sure you have something truly unique to sell. The more options buyers have, the more they can afford to be blue.” – Mark Schenkius in today’s Tip 457<\/p>\n