The Negotiation
By Ryan Berry
You walk into the boardroom and immediately see that you are outnumbered. You have been preparing for this meeting for weeks and the final decision will be made today. If they award you the business, the rest of the year looks like a cake-walk for you. If they decide to go with another firm then all the hours of work you have put into this potential deal has been all for not. It is a stressful situation for you (to put it mildly) but you have a service that they need and you are super prepared for the final sales call. Knowing that keeping your composure could be the key to everything, you revert back to your instincts that have been sharpened by Marcello Monteiro at the Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu Coach, BJJ Academy…
The meeting kicks off and you bow to your opponent with some brief rapport. Not a lot of pleasantries exchanged, however, as you are immediately taken down and pull them into your closed guard. You can tell that you have some enemies in the room at this point, and that they have some concerns. The way that you address those concerns will determine the future of the relationship, the future of the business. They waste no time in going for the submission, bringing up competitors of yours, their pricing and locality and value provided. You know they have put the business out for bid, who in their right mind wouldn’t? You also know that your organization and theirs is a great fit, that you can add value to the bottom line of their business, and that these concerns would be coming. You just had no idea that they would come so quickly and so harshly.
You keep your composure at all times, and defend. After all, you are prepared for this. Countless hours of preparation have been invested in this. You field their concerns accurately, adequately, and concisely, and you don’t say anything more than you have to at this point. You are regulating your energy. The onslaught of attacks keeps coming, and you defend…defend…keep your arms in close, play tight, allow no gaps, protect your neck and protect your back. You know that eventually they will have to gas out, hopefully by that time you will still have something left in the tank. Mentally you are in a better place while all of this is occurring, far away from the mats under this mahogany table…
Finally, their attacks subside. You reverse the position by emphasizing what makes your firm unique. You accent the value proposition that you bring to the table that your competitors don’t. You see in their faces the realization that they have made a costly mistake, one that could cost them the entire match. They talked the whole time, today and throughout this entire process, while all you did was listen. They finally realize that you wouldn’t have even shown up to this tournament had you not been prepared and fully expecting your hand to be raised in the end. Silently, politely, and with a sincere smile of appreciation on your face, you reach your hand across and get a deep grip on their cross-collar and pull, they tap out almost immediately, unable to breathe with their energy completely exhausted. You won the business, and got it at the pricing and profit margin you needed to make this partnership a win-win scenario for both companies, yours as well.
There’s still three hours left in the business day. Plenty of time to replace this win with four more potential prospects and hopefully start training for an eventual fight with one or more of them. After work and a quick meal you’ll head to see Marcello and your teammates at the Indianapolis BJJ Coach Academy on South Emerson in Indianapolis for a few hours where you will fight again, this time for fun, however. There won’t be nearly as much on the line, there. That activity is just for recreation, yet the way it enhances your thinking and way of life makes it so much more…
By Ryan Berry
You walk into the boardroom and immediately see that you are outnumbered. You have been preparing for this meeting for weeks and the final decision will be made today. If they award you the business, the rest of the year looks like a cake-walk for you. If they decide to go with another firm then all the hours of work you have put into this potential deal has been all for not. It is a stressful situation for you (to put it mildly) but you have a service that they need and you are super prepared for the final sales call. Knowing that keeping your composure could be the key to everything, you revert back to your instincts that have been sharpened by Marcello Monteiro at the Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu Coach, BJJ Academy…
The meeting kicks off and you bow to your opponent with some brief rapport. Not a lot of pleasantries exchanged, however, as you are immediately taken down and pull them into your closed guard. You can tell that you have some enemies in the room at this point, and that they have some concerns. The way that you address those concerns will determine the future of the relationship, the future of the business. They waste no time in going for the submission, bringing up competitors of yours, their pricing and locality and value provided. You know they have put the business out for bid, who in their right mind wouldn’t? You also know that your organization and theirs is a great fit, that you can add value to the bottom line of their business, and that these concerns would be coming. You just had no idea that they would come so quickly and so harshly.
You keep your composure at all times, and defend. After all, you are prepared for this. Countless hours of preparation have been invested in this. You field their concerns accurately, adequately, and concisely, and you don’t say anything more than you have to at this point. You are regulating your energy. The onslaught of attacks keeps coming, and you defend…defend…keep your arms in close, play tight, allow no gaps, protect your neck and protect your back. You know that eventually they will have to gas out, hopefully by that time you will still have something left in the tank. Mentally you are in a better place while all of this is occurring, far away from the mats under this mahogany table…
Finally, their attacks subside. You reverse the position by emphasizing what makes your firm unique. You accent the value proposition that you bring to the table that your competitors don’t. You see in their faces the realization that they have made a costly mistake, one that could cost them the entire match. They talked the whole time, today and throughout this entire process, while all you did was listen. They finally realize that you wouldn’t have even shown up to this tournament had you not been prepared and fully expecting your hand to be raised in the end. Silently, politely, and with a sincere smile of appreciation on your face, you reach your hand across and get a deep grip on their cross-collar and pull, they tap out almost immediately, unable to breathe with their energy completely exhausted. You won the business, and got it at the pricing and profit margin you needed to make this partnership a win-win scenario for both companies, yours as well.
There’s still three hours left in the business day. Plenty of time to replace this win with four more potential prospects and hopefully start training for an eventual fight with one or more of them. After work and a quick meal you’ll head to see Marcello and your teammates at the Indianapolis BJJ Coach Academy on South Emerson in Indianapolis for a few hours where you will fight again, this time for fun, however. There won’t be nearly as much on the line, there. That activity is just for recreation, yet the way it enhances your thinking and way of life makes it so much more…