Negotiating Skills for the Healthcare Salesperson

Negotiation means "to confer with others in order to reach an agreement." It is a key skill for all healthcare salespeople, and for personnel in many other roles as well.

If you're a sales representative, you probably negotiate every day. Maybe it's a classic business negotiation over price and terms, or perhaps it's a conversation with a receptionist to get your foot in the door at a new account. In addition to customers, you must often negotiate with business colleagues – people at your company, manufacturers and others – for needed support or services.

Learning to negotiate effectively is challenging, because there is no list of what to do every time. Every situation is as unique as the people involved. However, skilled negotiating starts with a handful of basic skills and knowledge that anyone can learn. The people skills and selling skills of a professional salesperson are some of the same skills found in the best negotiators, so you already have a head start. With the information in this course – along with practice and experience – you will soon be able to control any negotiating situation with greater confidence and greater success.

Topics in this course include:

• "Win-win" – an overused term but critical to a successful negotiation
• Your "powers" – everything that you have that could be of value to your negotiating partner
• Probing and listening skills to get the information you need
• Negotiation tactics you can use – and that may be used against you
• The role of body language in negotiations
• "Non-customer" negotiations, and how to master them