Episode #443: Randy Kutz
Meet
Randy Kutz
Randy Kutz helps people change their behavior at the bargaining table, with the goal of saving time, money and relationships. As a Negotiation Consultant at Scotwork, Randy helps leaders achieve these goals by providing Skills Training, Deal Consulting, and documentation of their Negotiation Processes. Scotwork can perfect your team’s Dealmaking Ecosystem™ and make negotiation part of your DNA.
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Negotiation is an art, but it’s also a science—a skill that can be honed to achieve game-changing results. In this episode of Sales Reinvented, negotiation expert Randy Kutz reveals the core strategies and tactics that set top negotiators apart.
Whether you’re at the bargaining table with a major client or negotiating internal deals, Randy’s insights will help you unlock better outcomes, build stronger relationships, and save both time and money. Tune in for a deep dive into the key principles that drive success at the highest levels.
Outline of This Episode
- (0:00) Introduction to Randy Kutz and
- (0:56) The differences between negotiation strategy vs. tactics
- (2:18) Randy’s go-to negotiation strategy
- (4:35) Randy’s top three negotiation tactics
- (9:25) The role of planning strategy and tactics
- (12:21) Common negotiation strategies for complex sales
- (16:31) How to recognize and counter aggressive negotiation tactics
- (21:53) Randy’s top three negotiation strategy and tactics dos and don’ts
- (26:49) Why you shouldn’t just throw money at problems
Mastering Strategy vs. Tactics
When it comes to negotiation, understanding the distinction between strategy and tactics is crucial. Randy Kutz lays the foundation by explaining that strategy is the long-term plan—your blueprint for success—while tactics are the real-time decisions you make during the negotiation process.
- Strategy involves preparation: identifying priorities, setting goals, and aligning your team.
- Tactics, on the other hand, are about adapting on the fly to the nuances of the conversation.
What’s crucial is ensuring both elements work in harmony. Without a clear strategy, tactics can backfire, undermining your negotiation. Randy emphasizes the importance of preparing a solid strategy, but also remaining flexible enough to adapt when unexpected challenges arise.
Creating Collaborative Environments in High-Stakes Negotiations
A major theme in Randy’s approach is the importance of collaboration, even in high-stakes negotiations. He believes in fostering an environment of transparency, where information is exchanged openly. This mutual sharing of knowledge doesn’t just build trust—it creates opportunities for both sides to collaborate on solutions that are mutually beneficial.
Rather than viewing negotiations as a battle, Randy sees them as a human interaction where both parties seek the best outcome. By leading with transparency, you increase the chances of turning a tense negotiation into a productive partnership. Randy explains how a collaborative approach is especially important in complex deals, where emotions run high, and stakes are even higher.
Tactics for Every Phase of Negotiation
Negotiation doesn’t happen in one moment; it’s a process that unfolds over time, and each stage presents unique challenges. Randy offers his top three tactics that can be applied at different stages of a negotiation.
- At the start, it’s about setting the tone—establishing rapport and trust, while clearly laying out non-negotiable terms.
- In the middle of the process, Randy stresses the importance of not flinching when you hear the word “no.” Instead of being discouraged, use it as an opportunity to dive deeper into the discovery phase and reframe your offer.
- Finally, as you approach the conclusion, Randy recommends always having something to trade, ensuring that late-stage demands don’t catch you off guard.
By employing these tactics throughout the negotiation, you maintain control and keep the conversation on track.
Recognizing and Countering Aggressive Tactics
Negotiations can quickly turn contentious, especially when faced with aggressive tactics like “take it or leave it” offers or sudden last-minute demands. Randy discusses how recognizing these tactics early gives you an advantage.
Once you spot them, it’s crucial to remain calm and avoid reacting impulsively. Slowing down the conversation can be an effective way to regain control—asking questions to understand the other side’s position or requesting clarification allows you to create space between their demands and your response.
Randy also suggests using counter-proposals as a powerful off-ramp when emotions are running high. This not only buys you time but gives both parties something to think about before escalating. By strategically countering aggressive tactics, you maintain leverage and steer the negotiation toward a more balanced resolution.
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What was a pivotal moment in your career that shaped your approach to negotiation, and how did it influence your strategy and tactics?
Quite honestly, it was when I took a training course from Scotwork. Having been through multiple training events from highly rated academic institutions, non-profit governmental institutions as well as written my own training… when I took a Scotwork course it was the first time that I could clearly see my actual behavior change while negotiating. Everything else made me academically smarter but did not funnel down to doing something different – changing my behavior. This was of paramount importance because it tied together strategies and tactics that I used and placed them into an actual process. Now tactics had relevance. Strategies had focus. It all made sense. I found myself with greater confidence and as a result in greater control of my negotiation destiny. This paid off in how much time I was spending on negotiations, the quality of deals I was getting and the preservation of relationships as we left the bargaining table.
Can you share a specific negotiation tactic that has consistently helped you close deals more effectively? Please provide an example where it worked.
Yes. And it happens on the front end. It is in the realm of anchoring, of which most should easily understand. However, this tactic is about anchoring on what is a non-negotiable – a position you need to take and protect. It is very effective, especially in the face of a power imbalance where you are in the weaker position. Taking something off the table early on to structure the other side’s expectations about what is not going to happen in this negotiation. The twist in this tactic, and what makes it so effective, is to surround that non-negotiable with several areas where you can be flexible. The more the better. This turns a hardline position into a new negotiation conversation around the other areas, while keeping the non-negotiable in a lockbox. In effect, you are enlisting the other side to join you in resolving the differences in a mutually beneficial and collaborative manner because they get to help shape the deal.
An example of this tactic played out well for a client I was consulting on a negotiation. They were faced with a sizeable price increase from large supplier who had more power. They were working on improving their walkaway options, but switching suppliers could not happen without great risk and major disruption to their supply chain. The specific language sounded something like this… “under no circumstances am I able to agree to that price increase (non-negotiable- off the table), however, it does not mean that I can’t be flexible in other areas. We can explore volume guarantees, payment terms, standing P.O.s and other areas, but the price needs to be $X.
This tactic allowed them to anchor their position, protect against the price and refocus the negotiations into other areas of the contract that moved the relationship into more of a strategic partnership rather than a transactional one.
What is the most challenging negotiation you’ve ever faced, and what strategy or tactic helped you turn it into a win?
I’d have to say negotiating settlements with big banks on behalf of homeowners facing foreclosure during the financial collapse of 2008.
These negotiations were very complex because they involved multiple parties (Buyer, Seller and Lender(s)) and all with heightened emotions by the Buyer/Seller and lean modes of communication by the Banks who only negotiated via email.
The strategic approach I took on these deals was refined over time and the increase in success was tied to one key strategy- structuring expectations early and often.
Deals often fall apart when the one side makes unrealistic or late demands or take actions that change the value of the deal causing the other side to react and walk. I would get the sellers and the buyers to agree to a willingness to make possible concessions and to make them incrementally as we negotiated with the Banks. The bank demands were going to come, and they would come in rounds. By properly structuring the expectations of both Buyer/Seller parties I was able to ask for concessions when I needed them, and they were already conditioned to oblige. This is called commitment bias, and it made the deals stickier in the face of unknown demands from the banks.
Relating this to a traditional sales negotiation, it is very strategic to get your internal stakeholder buy-in and to ask your counter part to get their internal stakeholder buy-in. Both sides are going to ask for something, and it will likely be at the 11th hour. Be ready for the demand and be ready for a trade.
What are your top three must-have tools, frameworks, or resources that sales professionals should use to improve their negotiation skills?
Generally speaking, I would first and foremost urge that sales professionals get good at asking questions to understand the real business issues their clients face. What gaps are they trying to close? Solution selling is key, but it requires information. And negotiation is an information game. Nobody ever wants less. We always want more information. And the negotiation begins when the sales pitch comes up short and the client/prospect demands something more. It is essential to understand what the business problem is and then negotiate in such a way that you can creatively solve the problem and close the gap without it necessarily costing you more money.
Additionally, create a system for preparation that allows you to prepare consistently and then use this document and return to this document frequently throughout the negotiation process. It is not a one-and-done event.
Finally, I have to use a bit of license here and encourage your audience to get training. Books are not enough and not a good substitute for practical, hands-on negotiation skills training. At Scotwork we provide the tools, frameworks and resources to help change negotiation behavior.
With buyer behaviors evolving and AI playing a larger role in sales, how do you see negotiation strategies and tactics changing in the future? What should sales professionals do to stay ahead?
I think AI is going to increasingly help negotiators take the information they have to help run scenarios and inform the strategic play or negotiation tactics to deploy. This is all key to and part of effective preparation. There is no substitute, however, for the work the human component must do. Garbage in = Garbage out. It is still going to require negotiators to have a pulse on the issue at hand. They need to understand who the players are, what each side wants, what the walk away points are, where the bargaining zone is (issue, by issue) and then leverage the power of AI to their advantage.
AI is not going away. It is getting incorporated into everything we do. Scotwork has made cutting edge changes to help negotiators prepare more effectively with the use of AI embedded tools in our online preparation platform for alumni of our training.
What’s are some simple but powerful negotiation tactics that most salespeople overlook?
In my years as a negotiation coach and consultant, I see salespeople overwhelmingly agree to late demands unconditionally in order to close the deal. Sometimes these ‘freebies” are costly.
A simple but powerful negotiation tactic for a salesperson is a variation to ABC- “always be closing”. For negotiators it is ABT… “always be trading”.
In other words, make sure you are getting something for the concessions you are offering. Keep things linked- nothing is settled until everything is settled. And if you have nothing left to trade, then trade for the signature on the deal (date specific). This will keep you from giving and not getting and will prevent setting bad precedence on future deals.
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