The Pro

Name: Lisa Gapen
Title: Owner
Company: Generate Sales & Marketing LLC (asi/444517) in Crown Point, IN

“I was horrible at negotiating at first,” admits Gapen. “I found it intimidating, I would get frazzled, I’d cut my margins. We were a new company and we needed every sale. It’s different now, of course.” Over the 11 years since she opened her own distributorship, Gapen has positioned her company as a consultant and a resource, providing what’s on trend and in demand. “They know they’re getting better sales and service from us than they would from other companies,” she says. “We rarely find ourselves in a situation where clients are asking for bargains.” Here are Gapen’s top tips for negotiating a promotional products deal.

Work With the Right Clients
“They’re probably not the right company to work with us if they’re asking us to meet the price of something that’s a couple pennies less. We hope they value us enough not to do that. We also try to build up the client relationship by offering them EQP, sales and specials. But we don’t jump through as many hoops as we used to. We let the problem clients go when we have to, especially those who are difficult to deal with, always have long sales processes, don’t want to pay what it’s going to cost and always ask a lot of us. But we find that letting them go frees up our time to find clients we want to have business from.”

Know What Questions to Ask
“Asking the right questions in the beginning helps you avoid difficult negotiation situations. It can feel like you’re pestering them, but this is a detail-oriented industry. You need to know quantity, price, color, imprint, who’s getting them, where they’re being distributed. It also helps to have great relationships with vendors. That’s the ace up our sleeves when it comes to negotiating. We’ll say, ‘Hey, we need it within this budget and we’re really close but we’re just not there yet.’”

Don’t Cheap Out
“When you only present the cheapest items to clients because you’re intimidated, there’s no opportunity for upselling. Our job is to find products that will work for them. The focus should be to believe in these products because they work, and deliver that message instead. Often, in a price-match situation, you’re not comparing apples to apples. Make sure you point that out. A 20-cent pen isn’t an 80-cent pen. Build trust so they know you know what you’re talking about. They know we’re offering the best price we can. They know we invest in them.”

Keep Your Emotion in Check
“If a client demand comes out of left field, especially if it’s been a long sales process and it might jeopardize the sale, most of us feel that pit in our stomach, no matter how good a negotiator we are. You feel like you’re going to lose everything you’ve put into it. You just have to respond as logically as possible, which is hard because we’re emotional about it. This is our bread and butter. But take the emotion out and go back to honesty. If they’re ‘just asking,’ look at the numbers. We try to give them something so they know we hear them and their concerns, though we might not be able to give them everything they ask for.”

Don’t Let Them Disrespect You
“We consider ourselves part of their marketing and success team, and we expect them to help and protect us as well. So when they don’t, we tell them they’re welcome to go to someone else. And that frees up time to focus on clients we actually want to do business with. That’s hard for new people, because they’re hungry and want every sale, but it’s better not to waste time on someone who doesn’t respect you. Educate them on why things are the way they are. We want to make them feel special, and we do try to give them things, such as free artwork proofs. But you still have to look at the bottom line and avoid spending more hours on them than they’re worth. Put value on your time. Take the risk and say, ‘We’ll have to charge you for that.’”

Read This

In this accessible guide to sales negotiation, sales expert Brian Tracy lays out the steps for becoming a master negotiator, including preparation, entering from a position of strength, developing win-win outcomes and more. Find it here.