You work on a deal for months.
You know it’s gotta close by the end of the month.
They know they can get a discount out of you.
You give the discount and you try to lock it in.
And they say the dreaded words:
“I’ll take the discount and we’ll ‘do our best’ to close by the end of the month.”
That “do our best” is codeword for: I’m gonna make sure you honor this discount even if this deal slips past the 31st.
Most people know the Give-Get strategy in sales: where you need to get something (like timeline) in return for everything that you give (like a discount).
The problem with the “Give-Get” Strategy?
Most people give before they get.
The best sellers flip this on its head. They “Get” before they "Give" so that a deal never slips.
So today, we’re breaking down the “Get-Give” Paradigm to prevent deal slips forever:
- GET vendor of choice
- GET timeline
- Execute the GET-GIVE paradigm
Let’s get right into it.
Step 1: GET Vendor of Choice
If you don’t confirm that you’re the vendor of choice upfront, you get whittled down in a negotiation and at the end they still go in another direction.
So always confirm that you are the vendor of choice to avoid the pointless negotiation forever:
“Hey Jane, I totally get it, I know you want to talk about price. Before we get to the economics, I want to make sure this isn’t a waste of time and you want to work with us.
Let’s pretend us and everyone else you were looking at are the same price.
Independent of price, would we be your vendor of choice?”
Here’s why this works:
- You acknowledged their need to negotiate. This gives you the space to ask your questions first because they know you’ll come back to them in the negotiation.
- You know you’re not entering a pointless negotiation. You’re not going into three negotiation calls only to have them pick the vendor they actually wanted.
9/10 times they’ll say: “Yes, but we’re not willing to pay 3x for you.” So worst case scenario, you can match the competitor’s price to win the deal.
Now, you gotta lock down one more thing.
Step 2: GET Timeline
If you don’t lock down your timeline, you can win the deal… but still have it slip.
Before you give any kind of discount, let them know the consequences of missing:
"For any commercial asks, the first question my CFO will ask me is:
'Armand, has this customer committed to sign by August 20th?'
I only get one shot because we don’t do the used car back and forth here.
So let’s just pretend we get to the number you need, are you in a position to sign by August 20th?"
Here’s why this works:
- You create a consequence upfront for if they don’t sign by x date instead of taking the discount away from them after the slip (which might kill the deal entirely).
- You preserve goodwill and prevent an endless negotiation by making your CFO the bad guy who needs timeline to release a discount (and you only get one shot).
If the client can’t agree to your date, that’s when you have to dig into their paper process. Make them map out IT, procurement, legal, and other approvals to come up with a good-faith commitment on both sides (for example, a 4-week legal process means you won’t aim for final signature in 2-3 weeks, but maybe 5 weeks).
And only now, can you begin to give.
Step 3: Execute the GET-GIVE paradigm
The final mistake made here is giving a discount only to have them ask for more seats, billing terms, and 17 other things after the discount as well.
So always get the full ask from your prospect before giving them any one ask:
"You’ve seen the billing terms, etc., but are there other commercial terms you’re going to ask for? Because again, I have to put the full proposal in front of my CFO."
And then from there you can create tradeoffs across negotiation terms:
"Okay, so you want 70k instead of 100k, but also monthly payments instead of upfront?
I can maybe get you closer to 80k, but the monthly payments won’t happen because we care about cash upfront.”
Now you can get all the cards on the table and finish the negotiation in one cut (on time).
And that’s a wrap, folks!
If you liked this, I broke down my full Get-Give negotiation strategy in this Youtube video where you can really hear the talk tracks and tone.
Check it out and feel free to comment on the video with anything else we should cover 👊
