Two People Look At The Same Cup. But What They're Measuring May Be Completely Different. One checks whether you have enough. The other checks whether they have more. That tends to reveal how someone shows up. A direct report running on fumes, a colleague who's overloaded, a business associate in a rough quarter. The people worth being around are the ones who notice. Not because it's in the job description. That's not what this is. It's smaller than that. A check-in not tied to a deadline. A moment where someone actually listens, not just hears. Where they acknowledge what you're carrying. People need to feel seen. Not complimented. Just acknowledged. "I hear you" is underrated. It changes the temperature of a room, a negotiation, a working relationship. Caring beyond the role is how you build something that lasts. #Leadership #Management #People

How to negotiate better than 90% of the rest of the business world in 3 easy steps: 1. Anchor correctly Your anchor is the first number you share with your counterpart. That first number has disproportionate weight in the deal because it moves the entire conversation toward it. Only rarely should you offer your anchor first. And when you do, it should be a range (not a single number) AND that range should be favorable to your actual target. Example: you want your salary to be $120k, so you give a range of $115k to $145k. But where possible, make sure your counterpart anchors first. When they do, you should bracket your actual target. Bracketing takes advantage of the natural human tendency to "meet in the middle". If your target salary is $120k, and they offer you $100k, then you bracket at $140k. When you "meet in the middle", you'll land closer to your target. (But don't go crazy with your bracketed number, either, or you'll lose the deal completely). 2. Move your counterpart's anchor as many times in your favor as possible before you anchor. The first and easiest step to do this is by flinching. Flinching is expressing surprise at your counterpart's offer, as though you're mildly offended or surprised that they were so far off. Often, in order to save face, a counterpart will concede immediately. If they offer you $100k, you visibly "flinch", or say, "huh...", or "oh...", and let it hang. They will often just come right out and say, "But I can probably get you to $110k if you can give me a day or 2." You can then respond with, "Well, $110k is a bit closer, but still lower than I expected." You still haven't anchored. You've now put the responsibility on your counterpart for meeting a number you haven't expressed yet. The goal here is to get your counterpart to move their anchor as many times as possible until you must finally offer your number. Even if they come back at $125k (above your target), then you finally anchor and say, "Well, I was really to land around $130k-$140k." If you "settle" at $128k, then you just got $8k more than your target and they feel like they got a deal because they "saved" $2k from your range. 3. Move their anchor by asking questions. Well-thought questions put you in the driver's seat. And it's a lot easier to get the negotiated outcome you want when you're the one driving. When you ask questions, it can cause your counterpart to feel the need to justify their position. If they aren't completely confident in their position, this can cause them to move their anchor to cover the insecurity. If they offer you $100k, you can ask, "Can you tell me how this compares with the local market for similar roles? Where I've been looking it's quite a bit higher." Or "Is this considered a more junior role? I'm looking for a next step in my career, and I want to make sure we're on the same page." All of this said... You must adequately demonstrate the proper leverage in the conversation to be able to negotiate like this. But when you do, it's VERY effective. I'm not exaggerating when I say I negotiated a 90% discount on used gym equipment when my local gym closed down and he was looking for a home for the gym equipment he wanted to sell. So to recap, anchor correctly, and move your counterpart's anchor as many times as possible by asking well-crafted questions. That's it - good luck!

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I used to joke with my vendors about the "game" at Amazon. When I was managing the Action Figures, Collectibles, and Boy Toys category for Amazon's Toys Retail business group, we had certain tried-and-true methods for growing accounts. Fortunately for me (unfortunately for my vendors), many of these methods were a sort of pay-to-win type of arrangement. But they also worked. An example of this was the Deal of the Day promotions. Vendors could pay a fee to participate in the Deal of the Day promotions for a given day. And they would also have to pay for the discount to the end customer so that Amazon's margins remained whole. So if a product was discounted by $20, the vendor had to cover that $20 gap AND pay to promote the item on Amazon's page. At first glance, this seems absurd. At least it did to me. And it did to many of my vendors, as well. However, there was a subsequent "halo effect", as we called it. The sudden increase in sales when the Deal of the Day promotion launched caused Amazon's algorithm to recognize a surge of popularity for the product. That surge in popularity improved the product's organic sales rank for their category, and it would rank better in searches because Amazon thought more people wanted it. So for several weeks or even months after the Deal of the Day, the vendor might see substantially more sales at full margins. And the math was pretty straightforward on this. Let's say a product was selling at $100 and moving 100 units per day (for $10,000 per day). For the deal of the day, they discount it by $20 and they sell 1000 units that day. That means they would have to fund $20,000 for the promotion, plus something like $10,000 just to participate in the deal. So they're in it for $30,000. But after the Deal of the Day, their daily unit sales bumps up to 200 units at full margins (for simplicity, we'll say it's $20 profit per unit at full margin). That means every day they're selling an extra 100 units at $20 profit, which is driving an extra $2,000 per day in profit. Which would take 15 whole days to pay for the costs associated with the Deal of the Day promotion. And then they would enjoy that halo effect for several more weeks, or even months, earning them tens, or hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional profits for "playing the game". Now not every deal was this clean, but the majority of them were well worth it to the vendor in the long run. Sometimes, I would have a vendor push back on my recommendations for these kinds of growth activities because it felt like Amazon was just making a cash grab with the vendor. (They're not 100% wrong...but there were real benefits to playing the game as well.) And I would have to help them understand the game, then convince them to play the game. One vendor in particular - Schleich Toys, the maker of the small animal figurines - was exceptional at "playing the game". They took every opportunity to lean in on the promotions and growth initiatives I recommended. And the end result was that their account was consistently growing 60%+ year-over-year for more than a year while I was managing the account. This goes two ways: sometimes you're the one setting the rules for the game. And sometimes you're the one who has to play the game. When you're setting the rules for the game in a negotiation, you must make the benefits clear (a tactic I refer to as Picture Painting in the Complete B2B Mastery course), and then you need to execute well. And when you're the one playing the game, you need to make sure you understand the rules so you know what you're getting yourself into. But when everything comes together, and both sides cooperate, it can lead to some incredibly profitable deals for both parties.

Coaches/Sales teams: I'm going to run a (free) 8-week pilot to help you improve your close rates and margins through better negotiations. All I ask is for your honest results and a review if I've helped. If interested, please like/comment so I can connect with you.

Fun fact: I used to sell collectible toys when I worked at Amazon. My mother always told people that I sold "adult toys". I never had the heart to correct her...

The best negotiation strategy I've used for consistent results is to anchor correctly right out of the gate. I wrote an ebook called STOP Negotiating Against Yourself, where I explain how to do it right. You can download it for free here: anchor.negotiationsacademy.c…