1095: Master Proposal and Negotiation Avoidance with Mike Bosworth

Mike Bosworth is the author of Solution Selling and co-author of CustomerCentric Selling. Buyers have resistance to sellers and today, Mike shares 2 kinds of avoidance known as proposal avoidance and negotiation avoidance.  He discusses why sellers must work towards a pre-proposal review instead of dropping all the details and decision-making at the moment of the actual proposal. He then talks about negotiation avoidance and what you as a seller can do to get in the mind of the buyer to reach an agreement without ever having to negotiate. HIGHLIGHTS Proposal avoidance: Confirm all details in the pre-proposal review Negotiation avoidance: The difference between cost and price justified Don't negotiate with procurement  QUOTES Proposals shouldn't have any new information in them so sell the pre-proposal review - Mike: "By selling them on the idea of a pre-proposal review a week before the proposal is due is when you do the surprise close. They haven't been thinking about risk. And if you leave, if I can, I'll probably say, 'see you next week with your proposal, Andy.' You're going to wake for the next 7 nights thinking about all the things that can go wrong. And so, we're avoiding that." Before negotiating, provide 2 to 3 polite, business-logical nos first - Mike: "If, on the rare occurrence that the 2 or 3 polite nos wouldn't work, okay now we have to transition to a real negotiation. And, again, this all has to be thought about in advance. Then the transition is, ‘Well, Andy, the only possible way I could do anything for you is if you can do something for me.’" Find out more about Mike in the link below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikebosworth/ More on Andy: Connect on LinkedIn Learn more at AndyPaul.com Sponsored by: Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.io Explore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe: Sales Enablement Podcast RevOps Podcast Selling with Purpose Podcast