Episode #446: Shawn Karol Sandy
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Shawn Karol Sandy
For over 13 years, Shawn Karol Sandy has been coaching Humans how to sell to other Humans as the Chief Revenue Officer of The Selling Agency, and now builds the Chief Revenue Officer role for companies scaling up into their fast-growth stage.
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Unlocking the Secrets of Negotiation
Episode 446: Shawn Karol Sandy
Our Vision Is A World Where Selling Is A Profession To Be Proud Of
What if you could approach every negotiation with the confidence that you’re setting yourself up for success from the start? Shawn Karol Sandy, a sales expert with over 13 years of experience leading high-performing teams and driving revenue, shares her most effective strategies for navigating tough negotiations and closing high-stakes deals. Whether you’re looking to refine your approach or tackle negotiations with greater ease, Shawn’s insights will help you build the skills to engage with customers strategically and empathetically.
Outline of This Episode
- (00:01) The key differences between negotiation strategy and negotiation tactics
- (03:10) Shawn’s go-to negotiation strategy when entering a high-stakes deal
- (06:20) Shawn’s three favorite negotiation tactics
- (09:30) The role of planning in the development and use of negotiation strategy
- (12:10) The common negotiation strategies being used in complex sales
- (14:50) How should a salesperson handle aggressive negotiation tactics?
- (16:30) Shawn’s top three negotiation strategy and tactics do’s and don’ts
- (19:10) Can you share a real-world example where you successfully applied negotiation strategy and tactics?
Strategy Over Tactics: The Key to Smooth Negotiations
In the episode, Shawn emphasizes that a strong negotiation strategy is far more powerful than relying on quick tactics. He explains that by aligning early with the customer’s needs and expectations, salespeople can avoid the need for heavy negotiation altogether.
When the foundation of your sales process is built on transparency, understanding, and clear communication, the customer feels more aligned with your offering. As Shawn puts it, a great strategy minimizes surprises and reduces the need for tactics like discounts or value defense during the closing stages, ultimately leading to a smoother and more efficient sales process.
The Power of Preparation: Outshining Tactics with Knowledge
Shawn’s go-to negotiation strategy is built around thorough preparation. He believes that understanding your customer’s business, their challenges, and even their personal preferences makes all the difference when entering a negotiation.
Shawn advocates for utilizing AI tools, such as CrystalKnows, to assess personality traits and tailor communication accordingly. Preparation isn’t just about gathering facts—it’s about deeply understanding your customer’s world.
By doing this, you gain the confidence to engage in meaningful discussions that feel collaborative rather than confrontational, making negotiation a natural extension of your sales process.
The Art of Empathy and Listening in Negotiations
One of the most powerful negotiation tactics shared by Shawn is empathy. Understanding the motivations behind a customer’s objections and showing genuine concern for their position can significantly shift the dynamics of a negotiation.
Shawn explains that empathy goes beyond surface-level understanding; it’s about asking thoughtful questions and actively listening to your customer’s responses. By creating a space for the customer to share their concerns and being curious about their needs, you can navigate even the toughest negotiations with greater ease.
Shawn also highlights the importance of using silence strategically, giving the other party time to reflect and engage more thoughtfully.
Planning for Alignment: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Desperate Deals
Planning, Shawn asserts, is everything in successful negotiations. It’s not just about preparing for the moment of negotiation, but about ensuring alignment at every step of the buyer’s journey.
By addressing concerns early, setting expectations, and fostering transparency throughout the process, salespeople can eliminate the tension often associated with negotiation. Shawn’s philosophy is rooted in creating a strong relationship and mutual trust long before price discussions begin.
This approach not only reduces the likelihood of contentious negotiations but also helps prevent desperate deals that could harm the salesperson’s integrity or cause long-term damage to customer relationships.
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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?
This pivotal moment for me didn’t happen during a negotiation, it was something else altogether. I was delivering the final proposal to some VPs and Money guys at a large regional bank. We had come to a consensus, and I was there to get the signature. I arrived early and got the key for the Executive Washroom – one of those fancy high-rise office deals. When I went to dry my hands after washing them, I set my large bag with my laptop and contract on the side of the sink. As I walked away, my bag flopped over into the sink, setting off the motion sensor that turned on the water, FILLING my bag, just pouring into it. I ran over to it and it was jammed under the faucet so it took me a second to un-wedge it and retrieve it from the sink. There was probably at least a liter of water in there.
I emptied the bag and all the contents, and everything was soaked. The laptop was surely ruined.
I dried it as much as I could, but it had a cardboard padded bottom and that was just soaked and dripping.
I returned to the office and the admin was waiting for me with a “Right this way” wave of her hand.
I walked into the beautiful, luxury conference room and my important guys stood to greet me, and as I stood there, my bag was drip, drip, dripping onto the conference room carpet. We all looked down at my bag and I said, “So, fellas, let me ask has this ever happened to you?”
They laughed as I told them the story and we all had a great time talking about walking into important meetings with toilet paper on shoes, baby throw-up on ties, being attacked by a bee in the car with a client…
It was a very human and humbling moment for me that helped me realize that – no matter how impressive someone’s title is, they’re human. No matter how much budget they control, they still get the stomach flu, trip over their own feet, or walk into a glass door.
No one has ever made me nervous since that meeting and negotiation, well, if you get to do that, you’re doing that with a human too. There’s no power struggle, no arm wrestling match, just people and companies, trying to accomplish something, so let’s try to do together!
Can you share a specific negotiation tactic that has consistently helped you close deals more effectively? Please provide an example where it worked.
I learned to work harder in the earlier stages of planning and strategy so that negotiation wasn’t necessary when we reached the point of moving from prospect to customer.
There have been several instances, however, where preparation has closed the deal when a prospect “thought” it was time to negotiate.
I’ve used this strategy in my life from selling commercial TV advertising, commercial office space, and strategic consulting services. Having worked to align needs with the value of a new television customer that spent big bucks with bigger, better, TV stations, and who thought of himself as a master negotiator, I knew this local furniture company owner loved our town’s college basketball team. Our TV Station exclusively carried those games and had front-row season tickets as well as a cushy suite. I had that in my back pocket when I presented him the quarterly package. He started the “OK, now let’s see if you can do better” conversation and I paused and asked him if he would like to just sign the agreement now so I could reserve tickets for him in our suite for all the home games this year – before anyone else got to them. He laughed and signed.
Usually, that’s the only reason I’ve reached a negotiation stage is that the buyer thinks that’s what’s supposed to happen – and they’ve been successful at it because other sellers weren’t prepared and didn’t work at alignment throughout the process.
The, “or, we could just get started with XYZ” carrot is very powerful because it subtly shows you understand what’s truly important to them and have packaged the appropriate value and cost all along the process so let’s just do the deal and move forward together. With a little back pocket carrot of information, you might not have to give anything away and the buyer also feels like they’ve won something in the process.
What is the most challenging negotiation you’ve ever faced, and what strategy or tactic helped you turn it into a win?
While working with a regional bank for their entire letterhead business, it was the right fit, the right customer, the right solution, but the Sr. VP guy was a completely arrogant poophead (to say it nicely). I put up with far more than I should – he would use $100 words to try to throw me off and razzle-dazzle me with his knowledge of ancient printing technologies, the chemical makeup of paper – all in an effort to flex his position. It was so obnoxious, I even caught the VP under him rolling his eyes in embarrassment a few times.
When I presented the solution and pricing, this guy started yelling and throwing his hands up about how terrible this pricing is and how ridiculous I was to put this in front of him, “Why would I think of embarrassing myself with this waste of time”…the dramatics were theatre worthy.
Rather than trying to defend my pricing or solution, I sat back and listened. I calmly closed my laptop and started packing up. I paused and looked at him and said, “Well, clearly you’re getting a great deal from your current vendor so you should just stick with them.” And I stood up and left.
Here’s where the preparation comes in. I knew their current/previous vendor had shut the doors and left them with orders hanging and this guy was getting chewed up and spit out to get a new solution in place quickly.
I knew this because I asked the 10 other internal clients I printed training solutions for (yes, this IS aging me). I listened to the complaints about the previous printer and heard someone mention the thought they were out of business. My office products counterpart drove by their business and saw a sign on the door that they were permenently closed.
I knew he was without a vendor.
The VP called me as I was driving out of the parking lot and said he’d signed the deal and I never had to deal with him again.
What are your top three must-have tools, frameworks, or resources that sales professionals should use to improve their negotiation skills?
Mindset work is critical here. There are so many things that can impact our ability to see our prospects as humans, to be empathetic, to truly listen, to stay curious, and to be present in a conversation to collaborate and work towards alignment. Fear, imposter syndrome, scarcity, desperation…any and all of these things can knock us off course to reaching an agreement with our customers. It’s truly important that we do the work on ourselves to show up ready to partner with our customers and not let those gremlins muck up our efforts.
Preparation is everything. Prepare and know everything you can about your prospect’s business – from their place in the competitive market to their tech stack, to their culture – and then know everything you can about the person you’re courting – I love artificial intelligence tools like Crystal Knows to predict their DISC personality profile and learn the best way to communicate in a way that connects deeply with them. The negotiation preparation starts WAY before we get to negotiation – and can eliminate the need to enter that arm wrestling match. As I mentioned, it should be part of your G2M strategy and carry through every part of the buyer’s experience.
The next part, very few people ever do – is to PRACTICE how you will work through challenging situations. We click into fight or flight when we perceive conflict – which is how most of us view negotiation – whether you’re conscious of it or not. Fight or flight is our sympathetic nervous system’s response to danger – it involves an increase in heart rate, faster breathing, and sweating…all things that remove our focus from engaging and aligning in conversation to being focused on EXITING a conflict.
Practicing and preparing for the different scenarios to create PATHS of ALIGNMENT can help us SLOW down and exit fight or flight, engage our parasympathetic nervous system, to create an opportunity to have a conversation that is present and productive.
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?
There are so many helpful AI Tools out there – hundreds I’ve never heard of are probably waiting in my inbox with some pithy outreach, asking for a few minutes to show me a demo.
AI has incredible implications to improve sales outcomes but this statement comes with a caveat, as does all things that have EVER seemed like “a silver bullet” (remember how Social Selling was going to remove the need for all other sales methodologies???).
AI is an aggregator and creates or generates from what is already created. It’s a phenomenal tool to help you stylize communication, do research, create shortcuts, outline campaigns, assist with tasks…
Use AI to help you become a better salesperson, not a lazier one. One who can be more personal, more empathetic, more knowledgeable. A seller who provides more value, deeper customization, stronger connection. A service provider that anticipates needs more quickly, responds faster, and makes our customer’s lives better.
Be conscious and conscientious about how we use AI – never forgetting the end goal is to seve our customers righ from the start of our Go to Market strategy.
What are some simple but powerful negotiation tactics that most salespeople overlook?
- Prepare to partner and collaborate.
- Listen. Ask questions and be genuinely curious.
- Zip it. Pause. Slow things down so no one wants to exit the conversation because we fear negotiation as a “conflict.”
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