Negotiating well is key to starting business in any country

[cta]

Executive Summary:

A Courtship, a dance –that paints a picture of what negotiations is all about here in North American corporate and business culture. The key to this great dance is to drive an outcome or moment that makes both party feel that they enjoyed it and looked good.  In other words, your technique to becoming a successful negotiator in North America can take all forms but the ones that build relationship, rapport and use the soft skills wins the day.

          Here are simple techniques that several successful negotiators have pointed out especially for those planning technology companies to do business here in North America.

1 – Deploy emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the capability by both parties to understand each other perspective better and manage emotions well.  Rule # 1 in ay relationship is having some emotional intelligence and understanding the other person’s perspective.

2 – Fine balance between being nice and tough at the same time

It is not all about being nice but being politely tough at the same time because one needs to focus on the objectives of the negotiations.

3 – Build trust

Take time to build trust by being locally present and putting value to face to face interaction.

4 – Push back in professional and respectful way

You don’t have to always agree with other person’s point of view – infact in this culture it is fine to push back but in a respectful way by saying things like – I totally get your point but respectfully I have a slightly different point of view.

5 – Focus on a Win – Win Solution

The key to negotiation is trying to win the situation where one focuses on a win-win for both parties. This might mean retracting back from one’s POV by understanding the other person’s perspective and also trying to make the other person understand your own perspective.

6 – Focus on “We” and Not “I”

I have seen so many people use the word “I” and getting burned. It is the difference being a great leader who use the word “We” vs. a manager who uses the word “I”. In negotiation, one should always think collective good of not only each other but other stakeholders involved.

7 – Pause to Inquire – listen and ask questions

This is the key which brings together most of the above points – negotiation is a like dance whereby one needs to be patient, see and hear the other parties perspective and only then bring about their perspective.

8 – Let the experts do their job and not try and do everything yourself

The analogy I use is like building a custom house – absolutely anyone can do this and you can save a lot of money. But ask yourself whether the time you will spend, the mistakes you will make and the time to market that will be lost is worth doing it yourself.

            Outsourcing of the entire sales and marketing of a technology product or service is indeed a new concept (there have been several players like Ad Agencies, Digital Marketing, Market Research companies etc.,) but outsourcing the entire end to end sales / marketing strategy to implementation with focused KPIs and sharing in success should be the focus for companies looking to grow to the next level.

Conclusion:

Like several cultures, North American culture is subtly different from others and has its own nuisances. This article takes a stab at some of the key “negotiating” differences when one has to come and negotiate in North American culture – there are differences even between East and West Coast, North And South – a new prospect wishing to enter this market needs to be aware of these differences.

[cta]

You need help commercialize your technology product or service in North America – we can help you as we have solutions for growing business

At MarkiTech, we can help you commercialize your technology products from providing end to end sales and marketing solutions. An example of that is digital marketing where we can help you increase your web traffic and inbound leads with focus on digital marketing strategy to implementation, using marketing automation to convert leads into to sales, retaining and growing the customer base through our trademark ® MarkiTech CERP (Client Engagement and Retention Process).

             In summary, we are experts in commercializing your technology product or service here in North America such that we save you time and maximize your return on investment (ROI). We can do this as we are the end to end sales and marketing one stop shop (from consulting to implementation) besides laser focus on product led by marketing experts with over 50 years of partner experience developing, launching and managing over 30 technology products and services in 7 different verticals and 3 start-ups here in North American markets.

We, at MarkiTech, know the key success factors of product success better that anyone with focus on marketing. You cannot afford not to spend money on marketing.

You can start with “limited time” free consultation offer with no obligation by going to our

Website (www.markitech.ca),

Email to info@markitech.ca

Call toll free @ 1-844 – 4MARKIT.

[cta]

Written by

Nauman Jaffar

(CEO, MarkiTech) on May 19^th 2015.