Online Negotiation Platforms

I used to dread negotiations early in my career... Then I realized: Being a strong negotiator isn’t about confrontation. It’s about developing the right frameworks. Here are five game-changing approaches to  negotiate every deal more effectively: 🤝 The 4 Phases Framework (h/t: Roy Lewicki) Great negotiators don’t jump straight to bargaining.  They follow a structured process: • Preparation (lay the groundwork) • Information Exchange (build mutual understanding) • Bargaining (explore potential solutions) • Commitment (secure the agreement) 💪 The BATNA Strategy (h/t: Roger Fisher & William Ury) Your power in any negotiation comes from knowing  your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA). It’s your safety net, your source of confidence.  Always define it before you start. 🎯 The Negotiation Matrix (h/t: Lewicki & Hiam) Different situations call for different strategies: • High stakes? Compete. • Building a long-term relationship? Collaborate. • Minor issue? Avoidance might be best. • The relationship is too critical? Accommodate. • Both matter equally? Compromise. 🤔 The Harvard Principled Negotiation Method (h/t: Fisher, Ury & Patton) This is a game-changer: Focus on interests, not positions. Instead of asking what they want, ask why they want it. That’s where real value creation happens. 🎯 The ZOPA Framework (h/t: Fisher & Ury) The Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA) is where deals get made. Understanding both sides’ limits helps you identify common ground. Everything else? It's just noise. Key takeaway: The best deals happen when both sides feel heard. And the most successful negotiators aren’t the most aggressive. They’re simply the most prepared. ♻️ Find this valuable? Repost to your network. 💡 Follow Eric Partaker for more on business & leadership.

I've analyzed 10,000+ sales calls and discovered something shocking… Elite closers NEVER discount when asked, "Can I get a better price?" While most reps panic and immediately cave, the top 1% have a completely different playbook 👇 Instead, they have a systematic approach that PRESERVES margins while CLOSING more deals. When you're quick to discount, you communicate TWO things that DESTROY trust: 1️⃣ "YOU CAN'T TRUST ME". They'll think: "Why didn't they give me the best price initially?" This makes them suspicious of everything else you've said. 2️⃣ "MY PRODUCT ISN'T WORTH IT". You're telling them you don't believe in your own value. If YOU don't believe it, why should THEY? Before using any strategy, run the objection through my H.E.A.R.T. framework: - H-ear them: "Cari, I appreciate the ask." - E-laborate: "Help me understand why you're asking?" - A-side: “Aside from the pricing, is anything else giving you pause?" - R-eclarify value: "What did you like most about our solution?" - T-ransition: Now use one of these 5 strategies... ➡️STRATEGY #1. THE REDUCTION CLOSE "Let's review everything in your package and remove what's 'nice-to-have' versus 'must-have.' Then we'll recalculate." You're NOT giving a discount. You're reducing what they're buying. Most prospects realize they want everything and end up paying full price anyway. ➡️STRATEGY #2. THE SUBSTITUTE CLOSE "I know we discussed Option X. Another option is Y, it does things 1, 2, and 3 but doesn't have 4, 5, or 6. However, it's $XXX less." Again, NO discount. Just a lower-priced alternative that creates value comparison. When they see what they lose, they often stick with the premium solution. ➡️STRATEGY #3. THE UPSELL VALUE GIVE "I can't discount, but I CAN include Premium Support for 30 days. Normally reserved for our highest tier and costs 30% more." The magic? They often upgrade after experiencing the premium feature! This is my personal favorite with the highest conversion. ➡️STRATEGY #4. THE 3 OPTION CLOSE Present good/better/best options BEFORE the price objection happens. When they ask for a discount, guide them to the lower option. This makes THEM decide between features vs. price. Instead of YOU deciding between discount or no deal. ➡️STRATEGY #5. FLEXIBLE PAYMENT TERMS Instead of cutting price, adjust WHEN and HOW they pay: → Half now, half in 30 days → Payments over 3 months → Net-30 instead of Net-15 One Fortune 500 client increased close rates 32% with this approach alone. ➡️THE LAST RESORT: GIVE TO GET If you absolutely MUST discount, NEVER give without getting something in return: "I can do 10% off if we add 5 more licenses." OR "I can do 10% off if you introduce me to 5 other business owners who could use our solution." You're conditioning how you do business AND maximizing value. — Hey sales pros, want to handle objections better? Go here: https://lnkd.in/g-uJ7ECX

The key moment in any payment is when the money actually moves from one account to another. That moment is called settlement. Settlement is the pivotal moment when financial transactions are finalised, and the corresponding obligations between parties are fulfilled. Though settlement may seem straightforward conceptually, its execution, especially regarding speed and format, has changed and continues to change with the advancement of technology. #didyouknow💡 ◼️ When a transaction occurs over a card network, the funds are not necessarily moving directly from the issuer account onto the acquirer account. ◼️ Instead, there are vital yet very often forgotten parties that ensure this role, known as 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 (𝐒𝐒𝐏) or 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬. ◼️ They work in the background to enable the movement of funds between the acquirers and the issuers through a bilateral interbank arrangement (i.e coordination and exchange of funds between the banks). The settlement agent serves as a mediator and can be: 🖇️an intermediary operator 🖇️a commercial bank 🖇️or in some cases, the Central Bank Each scheme may choose a Settlement Service Provider (SSP) for their network, but the settlement process occurs through the banking infrastructure, not the card network itself. Although bilateral settlement is prevalent in interbank arrangements, there are different settlement types: ◼️ Gross Settlement: Direct transfer of funds without offsetting fees for each party. ◼️ Net Settlement: Calculation of total owed between parties, with only the net amount transferred. ◼️ Deferred Settlement: Involves a delay between transaction initiation and final settlement, allowing for additional processing (e.g. securities trading). ◼️ Multilateral Settlement: All transactions are collectively netted and settled among all participating parties (e.g., centralised clearinghouses). #payment101 #authorisation #clearinge #merchantpayments #settlement -- 𝘗𝘢𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘱𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴! 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵, 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭, 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭. 👉 intro@paypr.work 👉 https://paypr.work #payprwork #paymentstrategy #card Merchant Hub: Merchant Voice, Amplified! Paypr.work [ˈpeɪpəwəːk] #PaymentLeadership

Most AEs think negotiation starts when procurement shows up. Wrong. Negotiation starts in discovery. The deals I won at the price I wanted? I set them up in the first 15 minutes of the first call. Here's how: I quantified the cost of inaction early. Not at the end when they're negotiating. At the beginning when they're sharing pain. Example: Customer: "Our sales cycle is 9 months. It should be 6." Most AEs: "Got it. We can help with that." Me: "Help me understand the math on that. How many deals are in flight right now?" Customer: "About 40." Me: "And what's your average deal size?" Customer: "$50K." Me: "So if I'm doing the math right, every month your sales cycle stays at 9 months instead of 6, you're delaying $2M in revenue. Is that accurate?" Customer: "Yeah, actually more like $2.5M when you factor in Q4." Now fast forward to negotiation: Procurement: "We need 20% off." Me: "I understand you want the best deal. We established that every month you don't solve this costs $2.5M in delayed revenue. My product is $200K. Even at full price, you're ROI positive in 3 weeks. Does it make sense to delay this over $40K?" See what happened? Anchor to value. Not price. By the time you get to negotiating, the business case should be bulletproof. The lesson: Stop thinking of discovery as "qualification." Start thinking of it as "value building and defense." Every question you ask in discovery either strengthens or weakens your negotiating position later. Ask better questions early. Negotiate less later. P.S. These 7 strategies will help you CLOSE more deals in a GTM crisis: https://lnkd.in/d_DkYTSH

In enterprise sales, multi-stakeholder deals can feel like herding cats. 6 people. 6 different priorities. 6 different calendars. The traditional playbook says: Book 12 meetings. Convince each one individually. Try to maintain momentum. The problem is, By the time you’ve spoken to everyone, the energy is gone. Urgency disappears. The deal stalls. This is how I do it differently: I build one page (a digital deal room) that works for me 24/7. On that page, every stakeholder gets exactly what they need to move forward: • Their ROI spelled out in plain numbers • The risks they care about addressed head-on • Their next steps clearly assigned • The context to see how it all ties to the company’s big objectives When they can see their wins and their risks in one place, they don’t need another meeting to “align internally.” They already have everything they need. The result: deals keep progressing while I’m working on the next one.

AE’s: “My pipeline is slipping through my fingers” But then they will: — send endless PDFs via email — spend only 5% of selling time with them — stop engaging after their first demo Then they wonder: — why they get ghosted — why they get the classic “I’ll come back to you.” — are not closing that ONE DEAL that is totally ready to buy 😅 Gartner says that by 2025 80% of B2B interactions will take place in digital spaces. That means: If your sales process still lives in email threads and lost attachments— You’re already behind. What’s working for me? Digital Sales Rooms, like Aligned, and here’s what makes it a game-changer: 1. Personalization → The room is branded to your buyer. It feels like their space, not your sales deck. 2. Intent data that actually helps → I see who’s clicking what, when—and I call right then. 3. Collaboration in one space → Proposals, mutual action plans, Q&A, signatures—everything lives in one spot. → And I can jump on a call from inside the room. Here’s how I see it: [Digital sales rooms] + [real-time collaboration] + [deal intent signals] = more control, faster closes. → Buyers don’t want more follow-up emails. → They want fewer reasons to stall. Make it easy to buy—and they will. Happy Wednesday y’all. Have you tried digital sales rooms yet? 👇 Try here: https://lnkd.in/dn8c-VTr #sdr #ae

Your money moves in seconds. But do you get paid in one day or thirty? Every card transaction is authorized in under a millisecond. But settlement, the moment funds actually land in your merchant account, is a different story. Here’s how it works: 🔹 Card networks (Visa, Mastercard): Typically settle with acquiring banks in T+1 or T+2. 🔹 Payment providers (Stripe, PayPal, Adyen): Won market share by offering faster merchant payouts (sometimes same-day or instant). 🔹 High-risk industries (travel, gaming, adult, crypto): Acquirers often impose T+7, T+14, or even T+30 holds to cover potential chargebacks and fraud exposure. With T+1, cash can be reinvested into payroll, suppliers, or marketing almost instantly. With T+14 or T+30, many businesses rely on costly credit lines just to keep operations running. Funds held longer mean merchants bear the financial risk of chargebacks, fraud, or FX swings before they ever see their own money. Example: A merchant processing $1.5 million per month on T+3 settlement has approximately $150,000 locked up at all times. With instant payout, that same cash is available immediately to reinvest into growth instead of sitting idle with the acquirer. In other words: Settlement speed isn’t just a back-office detail; it’s cashflow power. Have you ever measured how much settlement delays cost your business in working capital and financing fees? #Cashflow #WorkingCapital #Visa #Mastercard #Stripe #PayPal #Adyen #HighRiskBusiness #Settlement #PaymentProcessing #RoanDollmann

Ok, I have a small confession to make. After my recent post on the importance of using Mutual Action Plans in deals, I got hundreds of requests for the MAP template… But the truth is that we eventually stopped using it. Why? Because while the template was a solid starting point, we realized it was time to evolve. We needed a more modern, collaborative and buyer-friendly way to manage the deal process. That’s when everything changed. When I was CRO at Intel Granulate, we started using Aligned  to create a shared digital workspace for each deal and it transformed how we worked with buyers. Yes, it helped us manage MAPs more effectively. But it went way beyond that. Instead of scattered emails, lost attachments and champions struggling to sell us internally, everything our buyers needed was right there in one place: →Timelines → Decks → Business cases → Call recordings → Pricing → Onboarding plans and contracts. One link. One deal room. Total alignment. But what really got us hooked was the buyer engagement signals. It’s like getting X-ray vision into your pipeline. You see exactly: - Who’s engaging - What they’re viewing - How long they’re spending - Who they’re looping in Warning: it’s addictive. And not just for AE’s.. buyers love it too. We had execs from Fortune 500 companies literally thank us for using it, saying it made the buying experience smoother, clearer and easier to navigate. Here’s the truth: In today’s environment, how you sell matters just as much as what you sell. And the best sellers aren’t just managing deals.. They’re enabling buyers to buy. I only recommend tools I’ve used with my own teams and seen deliver real impact. Aligned is one of them. If you're managing complex sales and want to reduce friction, gain visibility and deliver a standout buyer experience - you should definitely explore further.. https://shorturl.at/O2jF0

How does 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 actually work? — by Ecommpay 👇 Behind every tap, swipe, or click lies a coordinated exchange of trust between banks, networks, processors, and merchants. When a customer pays, it looks instant — but the actual movement of funds happens after a sequence of authorization and verification messages. The “settlement” is the final step that moves money from the customer’s bank to the merchant, ensuring accuracy, security, and compliance. —— 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩-𝐛𝐲-𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰 1️⃣ Customer (Payer) initiates a purchase at checkout. 2️⃣ The Merchant Checkout System forwards the transaction data to the Payment Gateway / Processor — for example, Ecommpay. 3️⃣ The Payment Processor sends the authorization request to the Acquiring Bank, such as Getnet, Stripe, Adyen, or PayPal operating in an acquiring role. 4️⃣ The Acquirer passes the request to the Card Network (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover). 5️⃣ The Card Network routes the request to the Issuer Bank (e.g., Santander, Citi, Chase, Fiserv). 6️⃣ The Issuer checks: → Card validity → Funds or credit availability → Risk and authentication (3DS, OTP where required) — then approves or declines the transaction. 7️⃣ The authorization decision travels back through the chain: Issuer → Card Network → Acquirer → Processor → Merchant → Customer. 8️⃣ Once approved, Settlement occurs later: → The issuer transfers funds to the acquirer, → The acquirer deposits funds into the merchant’s account, → Typically T+1 to T+3 days, depending on region and setup. —— This workflow ensures that merchants are paid reliably, customers are protected, and every party in the chain is aligned. It’s less about moving money instantly, and more about moving trust, safely and verifiably, at scale. And while this system took decades to build, it is now evolving again — with real-time payment rails, tokenization, optimized routing, and intelligent acquiring strategies reshaping how settlement is managed globally. The tap takes a second. The infrastructure behind it is the result of millions of transactions proving trust, every day. — Source: Ecommpay ► 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐬 ☕: https://lnkd.in/g5cDhnjC ► Connecting the dots in Payments... | Marcel van Oost

3 years ago, we started running every deal with a digital sales room, and it changed everything about how buyers engaged, decided, and ultimately bought. At first, it felt like a tactical experiment. Today, it feels like the only way to compete. Because here’s the reality: • 85% of buyers already have a shortlist before they speak to sales • Buying groups now involve 10+ stakeholders, and in many cases the CFO or CEO hold final approval • 73% expect a tailored, consumer-grade experience from the first touch • 71% of buyers are Millennials and Gen Z, and most would rather self-serve than jump on another call • 80% of buying decisions stall, not because of product, but because the process is too complex That’s why “more calls” doesn’t solve the problem. In fact, it makes it worse. When we shifted to digital sales rooms, everything changed: • Buyers engaged on their own terms, at their own pace • Champions finally had the tools to sell internally with confidence • Our team could see signals of internal traction we had never spotted before The difference was not small. Trumpet’s data shows deals that include mutual action plans inside DSRs can reach up to a 92% win rate. For us, it’s no longer optional. Every deal, no matter the size, gets a digital sales room. Not to make us better sellers, but to make it easier for buyers to buy. I’ll share trumpet 🎺's  Definitive Guide to Buyer Enablement in the comments for anyone who wants to go deeper. What is your take on digital sales rooms?