5 Negotiation Prep Steps to Win More Consulting Deals

We are live. Welcome to episode 117 of Black Belt Startup with Feras. Thank you for tuning in. What's new in the world of entrepreneurship? Well, I'm super excited about what I'll be covering today and in the next 2 live streams. New consultants and new business owners Struggle a lot in this area. Too many, 68% or so, start a consulting business without any marketing and sales background. So sales is difficult. Sales is challenging. Sales is uncomfortable. And then negotiation is even worse. So a lot of you out there reach out about negotiation, about what to do, when a client asks for a price reduction or an extended timeline or a shortened timeline or maybe an additional component to the scope and you're not sure what to do. You stumble, you hesitate, you give in, and that could cause— that giving in on timeline, on scope, on price will eat up your margin and will make the project very difficult to deliver. So for the next 3 live streams, this one and the 2 upcoming ones, I'm going to— I'm going to be going deep into professional win-win negotiation for consultants. So if you have any questions about negotiation, if you're uncomfortable in sales and in negotiation in general, These sessions are for you. I'll start with, in today's session, on what to do before the formal negotiation begins. In a lot of our minds, I meet the client or the prospect, I send a proposal, and then the client starts to negotiate. Negotiation starts way ahead of sending the proposal. So I will be covering things around your mindset, listening, positioning, and the expectations that you establish with the lead from that very first interaction you have with them. So that's today. Just so you have a preview of what will be happening in the next couple of weeks, in the second livestream, I'll walk through 7 practical negotiation practices that you can use when clients negotiate not just price, but clients negotiate scope, timeline, and also payment terms and risk. And then in the 3rd livestream, I'll be covering negotiation gimmicks to avoid. No gimmicks here. So you're professional. It is okay to negotiate. It's okay to engage in this song and dance, but no gimmicks. You want to establish a reputation. You want to establish a professional reputation, and also you might— you want to win on the long run, not just in this one specific transaction. And when I'll end, I'll conclude the series with the golden rule of negotiation: every concession should receive a concession. So that is the plan for today and for the next 3, for the next 2 weeks. But first, why spend an entire session today on what happens before the formal negotiation? See, many of you out there, many consultants, new and those who've started and maybe they're struggling now, and those who've been around for a while, you know, you've spent years becoming excellent X-drop engineers, analysts, operators, HR consultants. workflow AI process automation. Years becoming AI workflow automation specialist? No, months maybe, but you're good about, you're very strong and you have a lot of user experience in one specific area, and then you start a consulting business and suddenly many of you think that way, that because you're so good at what you do and because you're knowledgeable and you can solve problems, You expect sale, you expect people will come to you, expect people will buy from you, but that, that's not how it works. You are expected to market, to let the world know that you solve this specific problems for this specific audience, and then you're expected to sell, and part of selling is negotiating. So If sales feels— if sales already feels uncomfortable, negotiation can feel even worse because you're professional. You don't want to haggle. Most of us, some of us like to haggle. You don't want to pressure people. You don't want to become the salesperson that you've always disliked. So negotiation is not about haggling. It's not about pressuring. It's not about using sleazy techniques. Professional negotiation is about understanding what matters most to both sides, to the client and also sort of the red lines for you, and then structuring an agreement that works for both businesses. So I'm big on this win-win idea where, yes, I want to get a good deal. Yes, I want to Yes, I want to make a whole lot of money. At the same time, I want to make sure the client is benefiting from what I'm offering and they feel like they have a good deal. So professional negotiation isn't about manipulating the client or winning at their expense. So again, capitalist at heart here. You want to make a lot of money. Of course, my motto in life, work hard, play hard, give back. make a lot of money, reach your dreams, work really hard to achieve financial independence, build an amazing culture, build a company that you'll be proud of, help your community, all of that, whatever your goals are, my mission is to help you as an entrepreneur, as a new entrepreneur, or as a struggling entrepreneur to build and scale and reach 6 figures, 7 figures, and later, You can get to 8 figures like we did with our analytics consulting firm, Enoor, that we, we grew over, over— took us a lot of years to get to 7 figures. It took us a lot of years to get to 8 figures, but we did that with an amazing team and an amazing co-founder. And then we sold that business back in 2019 to global media giant Dentsu. So which brings me to, if you're new to this channel, thank you. My name is Feras. I appreciate you, you, you joining and watching this content and listening to this content. And I'm here after building, having built 7 businesses, mostly in consulting. I'm here to help you start, grow, and scale smarter and stronger. So if you have any questions about sales, about negotiation, the topic of this livestream, or any challenge you're facing in starting and building and growing a business, let me know. Leave me a comment on whichever platform you're on. You can visit my channel @StartupWithFeras and leave a comment there, or you can go to LinkedIn, or you can go on my website, www.startupwithferas.com, Feras spelled like my first name, F-E-R-A-S, and you can email me at info@startupwithferas.com. A lot of you, or some of you, might not have told the world that you are starting a business or you're about to resign, you're just still having this internal debate about starting a business and you don't want to put your questions out there online, I get it. So you can email me at info@startupwithferg.com. I keep all this information, everything you send me confidential, and I do review the questions that come our way and reply back to those questions. So, so either leave me a comment or email me, and I'll be more than happy to help you address the challenge that you are facing. And also, if you are having some wins, small wins, big wins, something that has worked really well for you, let me know. I'd love to share it with the community. I'd love you to share it with the community so we all benefit and grow and learn. So let's step on the mat. Let's talk about negotiation, and let's talk about the, the, the why, why negotiation feels so uncomfortable. Let me ask you a question. When a client asks you for a discount, what is your immediate reaction? Or if they ask you for— you say this project I'll complete it in 4 weeks and the client says, can you do it in 2 weeks? So what is internally, before you answer, what is going on? What's going on in your mind? Are you Are you comfortable pushing back? I get nervous, but I still respond. I usually give them something. I have to give them something so I won't lose the deal. Or I stumble. I struggle. I hesitate. I have no idea what to say. So that's— think about it. Comfortable pushing back, nervous, but I still respond. I just give in as soon as they ask for something, or I have no idea what to say. And I think this is negotiation, sales, marketing. All of these are muscles you have to develop as as a business owner, as a founder, as a consultant. There are a lot of muscles you have to develop. Just like I always say, just like the first time you rode the bike, the first time you learned how to swim, it is a process. It's something you have to do. You have to do often. You have to build a rep. So, so if you're uncomfortable today, you're not— most likely you're not uncomfortable because you lack skill or you lack expertise. You're uncomfortable because you haven't practiced because negotiation is a skill that you haven't put the reps behind to develop it. And there are typically, there are 2 fears underneath all of that. One is the fear of conflict. So you're professional, you've been working in corporate for 5, 10, 20 years, 20-plus years. And you're used to working with people in a professional manner. And now negotiation feels like 2 people fighting over money. So that's one fear, fear of conflict. The other fear is fear of losing the deal. And that is particularly powerful if you have a thin pipeline or you don't have a pipeline at all. Yet if you're just starting out. So you met a lead, you presented yourself, your company, your services, you listened attentively to their issue, you can solve their problem, you presented a solution, and now they're asking you for something. They want again more guarantees, half the price, half the time. They want half the price, half the time. and they want double the scope, right? So you're fearful. The second fear is you're fearing, you have this fear of losing the deal. And you're thinking, if I push back, they'll hire someone else. So these are legitimate fears. I don't want to minimize or I don't want to be— I don't want to ignore this or just say, sort of brush this under the carpet and say, yeah, as an entrepreneur, you got to do it. Yes, you got to have the grit. You have to have the resilience, the persistence, how to handle objections, how to handle rejections. You want to have all of that, but at the same time, you want to be prepared ahead of all these negotiations so that you can answer confidently. You have parameters to work within. and then you can reach to a win-win solution. Let me give you an example from a consultant I recently coached, Sam. He has 8 years of operational experience in the healthcare space and very, very capable, very knowledgeable. They've worked hard and they've been thinking about starting their own business But they really haven't taken that seriously until one time a prospect, someone they knew, said, "Hey, you're so good at what you do. Do you? Can you help me out? Can you provide consulting in this area?" And they talked to them, and the client liked them. And then when it came to pricing, the fear took over, and they couldn't name a price. I'll get back to you. And and things dragged. Eventually, they ended up. winning the deal and they give the client a range. I always talk about, if you're not sure about quoting and if you're not, you haven't heard a budget from the client yet, you can give a range and work within that range, put some parameters, but the point here is that Sam was very capable, very knowledgeable, had an impeccable reputation, people came to him for business, they agreed on a scope, but then he had this fear of discussing pricing and then negotiating a price that works for them and for the client. Customer. So, so here, one thing to keep in mind is that your skills, your expertise may get you into the sales conversation, but you still need, you still need the skills to negotiate the agreement and overcome these 2 fears. And I'll walk you through specific, specific steps to overcome these fears and other fears that come with selling and speaking with Strangers asking strangers for money is not an easy thing. So, so, so, um, so if you're, if you're suffering from that, if you're struggling with that, it is just part of the journey, part of the entrepreneurial journey. So that was, that was the first point here is on, on why negotiation is uncomfortable. Now, the second thing here is I want you to I want you to reframe negotiation. Don't come into it as a fight. He or she, they're asking for this, and then I want to counter that, and I'm going to get my— what I'm looking for. No, I want you to think of it as not a war, not a fight. It's a professional win-win negotiation. It's a, it's a It's— I want you to think of it as professional win-win negotiation. The objective isn't how do I get the most money out of this client? It is how do I structure an agreement that creates value for the client and then remains good for my business, for me? Again, don't get me wrong. I want you to make a lot of money and I want you to take care of the client and I want you to take care of the client so much that they will pay you handsomely and they'll pay you more than they would pay others because you're such a good consultant, you know your stuff, and you bend over backwards to address their needs, all that good stuff. So I'm not saying that to compete on price, I'm not recommending you compete on price or you don't make a lot of money off selling, but you want to come into this engagement, you want to come into this relationship, and business is all about establishing trust and establishing Relationships, especially in consulting. If you're selling gadgets, it's one thing, but if you're selling services, if you're selling consulting, people buy from people. So the one to the way you want to reframe this situation of negotiation is: How do I structure an agreement that creates value for the client and remains good business for me? So this, so this is where. You know it's not a confrontation, it's not war, it's not a fight, and it's, you know, in a martial arts way, in Aikido, even in Judo and other martial arts, you don't meet force with force. You first, in Aikido definitely, you first understand, you see, you experience where the force is coming from, and then you pivot, you get out of the way. I always, I teach a youth class and I always tell the youth, Rule number one, rule number one in Aikido is to get out of the way. You don't, you don't meet force with force. You blend. You can, you can redirect the energy. You can understand where they're coming from. Are they coming in strong and fast? Are they coming slow and steady? Your reaction is going to depend on how they're moving, how they're flowing, how they're, how they're attacking. That's in martial arts. scenario. But in, in business, there's hopefully no fighting. But clients, some clients might come at you fast and, and, you know, swift and, and aggressive, and they want, give us this discount, otherwise we're moving on. So how do you, how do you deal with that? Reframe this. It's not a fight to win. It is, it's for me to understand more about the client. I want to understand where the client's objection Is coming from. This objection has information. If someone says, if you offer a project at $10,000 and they said, can we do it for $8,000? Don't assume it is— they're just trying to get a better deal. Understand why they're asking for this before you react to it. So let me walk you through some scenarios. And again, for those of you who are just joining or watching or listening, thank you for being with us here. And for those of you who are watching or listening later, feel free to add your comment, your question about sales, about negotiation, about the fear, the struggle, the fears, the struggles that you are going through, and I'll be more than happy to address them later on, even if you don't have a chance to comment now. So let me know, what is it that's stopping you from selling? What is it that Preventing you from starting that business and getting closer to your dream of having your own business and being your own boss and building a profitable business. So let me walk you through a scenario here about reframing this. Um, the client say they ask you for a 10% discount. So what I said earlier is that you want to understand why, and it happens. Some people, yes, some people just like to ask for a discount and get it, get a better deal. That's fine. But a lot of times there's, there's some hidden things that you're not aware of. What, what can I learn from this? Maybe, and this happened to me once, the client— this was a midsize B2B client, and they said— I was pitching a $20K audit. They asked for a $15,000— they asked for a $5,000 discount. So instead of saying yes or no, and I said, just out of curiosity, what's driving this request? And they were pretty straight up. He said, we only have approval for $15,000 this quarter. That was straight and simple, and the larger the company that you are pitching to and working with, the more of these guidelines and budgets and quarterly numbers that people have to meet. So with a small business, it's different. The business owner, they know their cash flow, they know the situation, they tell you. In bigger companies, there's more process, there's more formality, so, and the more the The more complex, the more sizable the project is, the more of this red tape that is required. So in that scenario, in that example, the client said, I can only get $15,000 approved. So I said, okay, thank you so much for letting me know. So how about we break this project into 2 phases? We do everything you're looking for this quarter. We'll do that. We'll prioritize what needs to be happening, what needs to be done, and it's done for $15,000. And then once we're done, And then we start another project, a phase 2 for $5,000 in the next quarter. And that solved this conflict. It wasn't really a conflict. It's just the client had reasons why they were asking for a discount. Sometimes it is, it could be politics. Sometimes the person, your champion, the person that you have been working with and you've established rapport with. They like you, they love you, they think you're the best thing since bread, since butter and sliced bread and butter. So they really want to work with you, but maybe one of their colleagues or maybe another department, maybe they're in marketing and there's an IT department and they want— the IT department has a vendor that came in at $16,000 and you, you, they want you to come in at $15,000 because that will make the CFO happier and will go with you. You never know. You never know what the reasons are, but you can, you as a consultant, you as a, a, a, a supplier, a vendor, you can ask these questions. Now they might not reveal everything to you, but they might say we have some internal constraints and we could only get $15,000 approved. So, so instead of just giving in. And instead of just not pushing back, you can politely, professionally offer a solution, and that is to break the project into 2 phases. So that is, that's, that's really important, is reframe this negotiation mentally, psychologically, inside of your mind. I'm not fighting with this person. I'm not— there's no conflict. It's just trying to figure out an agreement That is a win-win for me and for them. So the next point is on what Chris Voss, the famous FBI negotiator, he calls it tactical empathy. A lot of people don't necessarily want to— want you to agree with them. A lot of people want to feel heard and want to feel understood. Understood. So walk you through an example. Feras, I really like the proposal, but $20,000 is more than expected, right? So I mentioned it in one scenario earlier, like what would you say instead? Think about it. If someone— and you can drop in your price if you sell your service at $5,000. And someone says, oh, I love everything you do, I like the proposal, but $5,000 is way more than I expected. So instead of again defending the, the, the number, you can say, it sounds like the investment— remember, I didn't say cost, say price— investment. You're investing, they're investing. Uh, it sounds like the investment is giving you some pause. So can you help me understand what's driving this concern right now? If I'll give you a scenario from a small business. So the first example we mentioned was from a midsize or typically a large enterprise, uh, business. This one from a small business owner, and he says, hey, Feras, to be honest with you, this is about cash flow. Cash flow is tight. this month. So the person just told you what the issue is. Like, no matter what you do, no matter how much pressure you apply, or no matter what gimmicks you introduce, or no matter what creative ideas you can think of, they have a cash flow situation. So in this case, again, go back to the same approach I mentioned earlier. Work on the scope. Say, for this month, since cash flow is tight, how about we do this? Or we do half of the project, two-thirds of the project, and then and then we can complete that later. Now, of course, there you can do other things with payment terms, which I'll get to in a second. But the idea, what I want to emphasize here, is that you want to make sure the client is. They feel that they've been heard, they've been understood, they like your proposal, they like you, they've talked to other vendors, there's chemistry between you and them, they've seen the work you've done in the past, maybe you've showed them a case study that resonated with them, a lot of reasons why they have been— they still speak with you and they like you, And they want to work with you, but there's something else going on. So it's really important to pause politely, genuinely ask questions about what is it that is driving that concern. Sometimes it could be about pricing, like I said earlier. Sometimes it could be about timeline. So, so I remember One time we were negotiating and we were negotiating for an audit and implementation project, and that was for a customer, our first customer in the education space. It was an e-commerce customer, and again, when you work with a new industry, you don't know the dynamics of that vertical, and it was lost on me that That there's something called back to school. So we were speaking with this customer in the March, April timeframe, and here in the US, back to school starts in the summer, July, August timeframe, sometimes starts in June, and they wanted to have their e-commerce website and their analytics and their reports all well set up and established before the back to school campaigns start. So it was a very, very valid request. So when we presented our proposal and we had a typical timeline of, I think it was 8 to 12 weeks of implementation, they said, no, that just doesn't work for us. Can we do this in half the time? So the sales— I had a sales team by that time and the salesperson came to me and said, hey, Feras, they want this be done in 6 weeks, 4 to 6 weeks. And I checked with our director of implementation and they said, no, Feras, we've got a lot going on. We can't do that. It's just, this is a huge project. So I went back on the call with the salesperson and spoke with one of the executives. And it turned out that, and they assumed we knew that and we didn't, and we sort of hid that piece of information. Back to school, they had a code freeze. They couldn't add more code on their website. They couldn't add any enhancements to their online and their mobile environment beyond a certain date. So their IT department stopped allowing any vendor, any vendor to, to, to work on the website because they wanted to have a stable platform before their back-to-school campaign. And the same thing happens again in the US around the holidays. If you, if you sell especially around online, you know, digital services, anything to do with the holiday, like getting ready for Black Friday or, you know, getting ready for Christmas and the holidays, a lot of these vendors, a lot of these companies, they don't want to be doing work around their websites or their marketing assets and things of that nature before the holiday season. They want to— they have— there's a freeze there's a window where after which you can't touch any of, of those environments. So, so look into your own vertical, look into your own practice. Are there— is there seasonality? Is there something that, that you have to be aware of so that when you're pitching to clients and they're pushing back on the timeline, you understand what— why they— why is it that they're pushing for? So this is, this is tactical empathy, and it's not just a transactional thing. Empathy is a good thing In personal life, in relationships. Trust me, I've been married for a long time. And then also in business. So, so when you show that you understand the client, that they feel that they've been heard, and you come back with a scenario that maybe doesn't meet all of their requirements but key requirements, then they might be totally okay with it. So in that scenario, to, to close the, close the loop on that story, We ended up bringing my implementation director to meet with their IT people and agree on a reduced scope where we got the most fundamental, the most necessary elements added to the website in this 4 to 6 week time frame, and all the bells and whistles and all every— and everything is that, that can be done later as an enhancement. That will be added later. So again, we didn't reduce the scope, we didn't reduce the price, we just had a phased approach to handling that scenario. So just ask more questions, more meaningful questions, prepare for this meeting, understand things around the vertical you're selling to. Including again seasonality, including compliance. If you sell to healthcare, if you sell to companies in the financial vertical, they have a lot of compliance regulations that they're obligated to follow. So you as a vendor, you might have certain level of certifications or certain level of compliance that you have to also abide by. So understanding all of these will help you will help you make the client feel that they're, they're heard, they're understood, and then you help them solve the problem, the technical problem that you are very capable of, of solving, but you're also working within their constraints. So, so tactical apathy— tactical empathy, not apathy, oh my God— tactical empathy is really, really important. It's not just tactical, it's, it's just a good habit, it's a good skill to have, is that to show that you understand where people are coming from and what is really, really leading them to present a certain opinion or a certain directive or a certain negotiation point. Once you understand that, then it's really your imagination, your creativity to come back with a solution. And this would be a great way. If you're new as a new consultant, you're not sure how to deal with it with a specific situation, let me know. Email me or, or leave me a comment without obviously putting the client name, and I can give you some ideas. And you could also use your companion AI with your AI model of, of, of choice and give it some of the context. Say that this is the scenario I'm facing, what options do I have? So you can brainstorm ideas. Just make sure when you get Answers from AI, it's all flowery, it's all great. There's a lot of nuance with some of these answers, so especially if you're new to consulting, so just make sure it makes sense to you and you've addressed all the— you've crossed all the T's and dotted all the I's. All right, the next point here is ahead of a call or a meeting, including the very first meeting, you have to know, you have to know your boundaries, you have to set your boundaries. And this is not, you don't do this in a sort of a rude way, saying like, this is how I work. No, you present it in your conversations like, this is how I do business. So I'll walk you through this, a couple of scenarios here. You don't start off by saying, I only work with the clients who agree to my price and to my timeline and to the scope. Now you understand, you establish rapport, you establish trust, you establish credibility, you impress them with how you've solved similar problems for other clients. So all of that is good. But as you go into these sales discussions, what is your target fee? Like what is the outcome that you're aiming for? So ask these 4 questions. Ideally, I want to sell this audit for $5,000. What is the minimum acceptable term or terms? Okay, I can't go below $3,000. It'll just— I'll lose money. That's, that's for you, just knowing that boundary. Um, no matter how quickly the client is moving, I cannot deliver the service in less than 3 weeks. You know it, you're the expert, you know what it takes to deliver a quality service. So price, timeline, also acceptable, acceptable, acceptable terms in terms of payment terms. Uh, sometimes clients want to pay you the full amount once you complete the project. Now if cash flow is tight for you and you have a subcontractor or you have an employee that will be helping you deliver the service and you have to pay them for the next 4 weeks and you're getting paid a month or maybe a month and a half after the work is done, then you're basically financing this project for the client. And then it's going to— the revenue is going to look great, but, but the cash flow is going to be horrible because you have to pay yourself and those who are helping you deliver the service, and the cash is not flowing in from the customer. So make sure, again, target fees, minimum acceptable terms, and then a walkaway point. At one point, you got to have some red lines. You got to have some spine. It's difficult, especially initially, again, A lot of, a lot of you out who, who are part of our community here at Startup with Feras, you're new to consulting or you, you're about to start or you started and you're struggling and you, you're just dying to get this first client. I get it. And I have an exception when it's your first few clients. I have an exception, but I— let me just cover this, this foundational information first and then we'll talk about the exception. But there has to be a walkaway point, especially when the client is asking for a discount on pricing. They're asking you to squeeze the delivery timeframe. They're also asking you to add more to the scope, and they're asking you for guarantees. I mean, this will be the deadly trifecta. So make sure that if you give in on one thing, maybe the timeline, you're not also giving in on price, you're not adding to the scope, you're not offering some unreasonable guarantees. So there has to be a walkaway point where if the client is just not agreeing to your minimum fees and minimum acceptable terms, you'll be comfortable walking away. And then the 4th point here is tradeable items. So if, if the client is asking for a discount or they're asking for some additional scope, can I offer something instead? So instead of dropping the price by 10%, I say, well, keep the price as is, but I'll include and then drop in something that is of value, of high value to the client, and that doesn't take, take you a whole lot of time to deliver. So for example, you can offer 2 training sessions. You can offer some ongoing support for the next 3 months. You can offer access to some online portal that you have with some digital assets, something that you have that's pretty packaged, that's packaged, contained, something that's contained in terms of scope and price and time commitments from your part that is of value to the client. Having those tradable items become really, really handy when the client is negotiating. So yeah, so those are the 4 things. And again, under the— I guess if you want to summarize all of these 4 points under one thing, in my mind, it's like, what are the acceptable terms? Like, what are the parameters that I want to continue to work within. Like I said earlier, it's setting up those boundaries for yourself around price, the price point, the delivery time, the quality, and the scope of the deliverable, things you can trade, and then payment terms. And this is a pro tip: fight the urge of saying, yes, I will agree to what you're selling, I will agree to what you're proposing. You have to fight the urge of, of agreeing to what they're just proposing, especially if they want to have most of the money— of all the money they owe you, they want to deliver, they want to pay you at the end of the consulting engagement, and they have a net 30 policy. This is really important. When we started our business, I had no idea what net 10, net 20, net 30, net 60, net 90— I don't— I didn't know what any of this stuff meant. So basically, net 30 means they'll pay you 30 days after you invoice them, or net 90. And I had one soulless client, big Fortune 100, they asked for net 120. That means they will pay us 100 and, uh, they'll pay us the full amount of the engagement at the end of the project Net 120, that is 4 months, 120 days after we completed the work. So imagine as a small business, you have to pay yourself, pay your employees, you pay your contractors, you complete the work, you've, you paid all these expenses, and now you don't get the revenue until 4 months from that point. Now, if cash flow is not an issue, you have a lot of cash in the bank and other clients are paying you No problem. But if cash flow— I still negotiate that $120,000, by the way. But regardless, but if cash flow is tight, this deal, this revenue might look great, but it might kill your business. You might run out of cash. If you run out of cash, there's no business. Or you might have to go and have to borrow money and do all those sort of things that will again potentially weaken the business. Now, there are, as I said, there are exceptions to this rule. So setting the boundaries is really important, and that should be the standard mode of operation. And that's how you build a business, a sustainable, profitable business. The exception is— there are a couple exceptions. One is when you're starting out, when you're just starting out, you can just ignore everything I've said in this video about negotiation. Because when you're starting out, I want you to close the deal. I want you to close a few deals so that you practice how to engage prospects, how to pitch, how to send a proposal, how to negotiate, go through that process. You'll learn, you'll make a lot of mistakes. You will make a lot of mistakes. That's okay. Now don't commit to a $100,000 project initially. Start with smaller projects initially and give discounts. Okay, to give some aggressive timelines as long as you can deliver within those timelines, but initially I don't want you to establish these hard, these inflexible rules because there is a higher value The higher value of having conversations, of pitching, of sending proposals, of just learning how to deliver the service, how to capture requirements, how to develop documentation, how to make sure the client is happy that you've solved their problem. So there's just a whole lot of learning in this process from pitching, from meeting someone meeting a stranger and convincing them to buy from you and then delivering the service and then getting a testimonial and getting a case study. There's a lot of learning in there, and, and that the cost of that learning could be losing a little money on that first project or the first 2 or 3 projects. So I want you to learn all these negotiation skills and practices and the gimmicks to avoid That will just help you. That will make you a better business owner, a better salesperson, a better consultant. But initially, if you follow everything I'm saying here initially on the first few clients, you might lose this opportunity to practice and practicing and deliberately practicing is the number one goal for you initially. And as I said, just a reminder that there's just so many things you have to practice, so many things that you have to learn. So I'm in favor of getting those first few sales and struggling through them. And even if you're overcommitted, you've underpriced, the client is unreasonable, the client doesn't understand what it takes, you're just— this is the cost of learning. But once you've done a few of these clients and now you have some systems and some processes and things to avoid and how to package the service better and how to price better. Once you've done 2 or 3 or 4 projects, then you definitely want to be applying everything I'm mentioning in this series, in today's livestream and the next 2 about negotiation, because the goal here, the goal is after you've practiced, after you've stepped on the mat and you started to learn how to roll and how to get out of the way and how to experience the opponent or the client's energy now. The goal is to start building this business, building a strong foundation, and the sales process and understanding the sales process and understanding and applying these practices I'm covering about negotiation is going to be essential for you to establish and to scale that business. Okay. So that's one of the exceptions. The second exception is on a client, and this applies to you if you're just starting out or if you're very established. If there's a client that you really, really, really want to have, you can under-negotiate. You can give in on many things because of the potential value in the future. This could be sort of like a loss leader concept. So for example, let's say you're gearing up to get into healthcare and you have clients in other verticals, but you don't have any clients in healthcare. And you know that to get to these Fortune 1000 or Fortune 500, they'll ask you about work you've done in their vertical. So the very first client in healthcare doesn't have to be the most profitable client. So that would be an exception then. So agree maybe to aggressive timelines, agree to a discounted price, agree to a larger than usual scope, that's okay. Do all of that deliberately, do all of that consciously, but you know that you're doing this, you're investing in getting into that vertical, the healthcare vertical. Again, apply— I'm using healthcare as an example, but apply that same concept to whatever you're trying to get in. If you're If you've never done any work for a Fortune 500 and this is the first Fortune 500 client, the same thing. If you haven't done any work in someone, let's say in the government or in the nonprofit sector, so anything that is sort of the first or maybe a logo that's really important for you because it will just set the tone, set the stage for you to do all greater and bigger things, then it is okay to, to give in on many of the things that I'm cautioning you against, uh, giving in. So, so keep that in mind. And this is, this is the art of sales. This is the art of business. In business and entrepreneurship, there's the science of it. All the steps, all the systems, all the, the operating system, the frameworks, the checklist, the processes, all of that, they exist. That's the science of it. And then some of these nuanced points that this is the art of business, and you have to develop proficiency and mastery in an art. You have to put in the reps, and you have to learn the nuances, and you have to learn how to handle different situations, just like in martial arts, just like in playing music, just like in sports. it does, you can learn so much, you can only learn so much by reading, by learning, you have to practice, you have to step on the mat, you have to understand the things that will go, I think it was Mike Tyson who said, the fight plan disappears after the first punch, like you have a plan, you have a system, you have processes, but once you start engaging with the customer, things will change, so that's That's the art part that requires time. You can't do it. You cannot develop this sort of proficiency or mastery over time. So I'm highlighting things I wished I had learned when I started my first business because that would have saved us a lot of time. Instead of getting to 7 figures in 8 years, I probably could have done it in 3. In half the time, which actually happened in our second business. It took us half the time. It took us 4 years to get to 7 figures because you learn from the mistakes, you learn from others, you learn from, you know, this art of doing things efficiently and effectively. All right, so moving back to these preparation steps, so we talked about this last point was about setting boundaries, about reframing the negotiation from a fight to reaching to a mutual agreement. I covered earlier the concept of understanding why negotiation feels uncomfortable, the fears behind it, the fear of losing the deal. You feel uncomfortable. You feel like this sleazy salesperson that you've always avoided to be like. So those are all Things you can prepare ahead of the meeting, ahead of the call. You set your own terms. So now the next point is on the importance of building trust before you negotiate. So a lot of times when we go into a sales conversation, we're thinking of ourselves as a vendor, as a supplier. Now for you as a consultant, as an expert, you have, you have 5 years of experience, 10 years, 20, 20+ years of experience. You know your domain really well. That's my assumption. If you want to call yourself a consultant, you have expertise, you have specialized knowledge. And for those of you who don't, that's okay. We can start from now building some expertise, building some Specialized knowledge that you can then package and sell as a service. So when you come into a sales conversation, don't think of yourself as a vendor, as a supplier. You are a trusted advisor. So you're there. Think about it. You're not there. To sell a gadget or to make a sale. You're there to solve a problem. Clients sense that. The way you talk, the way you present yourself, the way you speak about other clients tells a lot about you. So I want you to think of yourself as a trusted advisor. I want you to build that trust. There's There's a fine line between showing off and sounding or being professorial and also building rapport and establishing trust. So you want to be listening to their issues, you want to make sure the clients feel heard, and then you want to show how you've solved similar problems. You're focusing on the business outcomes. You're not listing features. You're not getting in the technical weeds. You're talking about what is it that is of benefit to the client. So, so once you've established that— and I have videos on this topic about trust and authority and empathy, you can check, I have a few sales playlists on the channel, check those out— but once you've established that You can comfortably say, hey, we're not the cheapest option, but when things become difficult, when there are issues in the projects, or you need us to address something outside of business hours, we're there for you. We take care of our clients. We don't compete on price. So I'm not saying there's anything wrong with competing on price. That's, that's one strategy. That's one business model. You can compete on price and you can scale and be very, very efficient in how you deliver your services. That's totally fine. I know some consultants that I've coached and people, friends in the industry, they've built their model on competing on price. Totally okay with that. Historically, and in all the businesses that we've built, we didn't choose that path. We chose the path of competing on service, competing on taking care of the clients, competing on being really, really good at what we do. So that's once you've established, again, once you've established that rapport and that trust, you can state that and you say that genuinely, not to show off, say, I know you could be speaking with other vendors, I can let you know ahead of time that we won't be the least expensive vendor, but when it comes to knowing this stuff and being there for you, you can count on us. And if you look someone in the eyes and you can look someone in the eye and say that, it connects, it resonates, especially if you really mean it. If you don't mean it, I think people sense it. So, so, so that's you know, you're explaining your authority, uh, not by announcing that, hey, I'm the smartest guy in the room and I've won all these awards and I have these Fortune 50 clients. I mean, of course you can mention those, but you mention them, um, in the right time, the right— in the right place, maybe on your presentation deck, or maybe you bring them— bring those concepts, you drop in those names as they relate, as the situations that you've solved for in the past relate to the client. So you want the client to trust you and you want the client to think of you as a trusted advisor and as an authority. You have to think of the questions that you ask, of the problems you've identified, of your understanding of their own challenges and their own environment, and also how clearly you communicate, as well as potential issues and risks that they haven't considered. So think about it from that very first conversation that you've had. Not after you send the proposal, not after the proposal is now distributed to 5 stakeholders within the company to vote on, way earlier by doing all the preparation, by being an active listener, by sharing from the wealth of knowledge that you have that is relevant to the client, by doing all of the above, You have, by that time, you've established this trust and this strong foundation that, yeah, this person knows what they're talking about. This person is a trusted advisor. They're easy to work with. They're nice. They're professional. They're polite. They value responsiveness. And it's something that I'm going to go inside my company and within the stakeholders, I will champion, I will get their process, their proposal through our process. So that's really important. And then if you're, and I'll show you this video at the end here, but if you're, I cover this concept with a lot of detail in the Ultimate Guide to Winning Proposals. It's an hour and 4-minute video. It's a long video, but I, This concept, a lot of people think of sales and proposals as a transaction. You're leaving an impression on the lead from the very, very, very first interaction you've had with them, whether it was a meeting at a networking event, whether it was an email, a phone call, a Zoom call, what you say and what you ask and the way you interact does leave an impression on clients, on leads. And it's really important to be very prepared and have the questions ready, understand their environment and showing them that you understand their environments and communicate clearly, drop in the case studies and the testimonials and the logos at the right time in a genuine way, not to show off. So all of that, I cover a lot of that, most of it and more In this Ultimate Guide to Winning Proposals. I'll show you that link here after, before, before we wrap it up, but that is really important. So you don't wait to negotiate till you send the proposal. You establish trust and, and, and you lead the sales process from, from day one, from that very, very first interaction. So that is it for today. This is all before you start negotiating. So next week I'll talk about the 7 negotiation practices once that formal negotiation starts. But if you do everything I said today, you are in a very strong position to, to have meaningful discussions with the clients, to reframe this tense period from a war or conflict to a, to reaching a mutual agreement that's a win-win for both. So keep that in mind. It does— sales, there's a lot of science to sales. So initially when you haven't become proficient or you haven't mastered sales, that's okay. That takes time. You can at least follow the science and these steps so that you can increase your chances and your likelihood of closing deals. So that is— oh, I want to show you actually. Let me share with you the videos I mentioned earlier. Give me one second right here. So if you go to the channel and it is @StartupWithFeras, F-E-R-A-S that is, and you go to the channel here, you see this is actually— I summarized, I just published this video, Negotiating Like a Pro: The Ultimate Consulting Business Sales Negotiation Guide, right there. Uh, but the video I mentioned earlier about the proposals— where is it? Right here. Uh, why most, uh, why most consultants lose deals at the proposal stage. Again, it's an hour and 4-minute video with a lot of notes, a lot of worksheets. Just like most of my videos, I give you the tools, the templates, the processes to use right away. So, um, that is super helpful. And if you're still thinking of starting a business, you're not sure how to start, how to take the leap, how to identify your offer, then check out the Ultimate Guide, The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Consulting Business. This video has received, has been very, very well received by the community, so check it out if you're still at the thinking stage and you're not sure what to offer and how to package it and how to price it and how to reach out to people. I go— it's a long video, 51 minutes. These ultimate guides are long, but they go step— I go step by step on how to do a certain function of the business. So I have a number of these ultimate guides, including the ultimate guide on pricing, the ultimate guide on proposals, and the most recent one that I just published is the ultimate guide on negotiation for consultants, on sales negotiation. So check those out, and again, don't hesitate to reach out and let me know if you have any questions, any comments, share your wins, small or big wins, love to— love for the community to learn from your wins, and if you're having challenges, don't hesitate to reach out, leave me a comment at Startup with Feras, and if you're liking this content, if you are benefiting from this, subscribe, click the like button, and share it with others. I would really appreciate it. See you next time. Bye.