When to use your boss and when to ask for their boss

- I remember the first time I negotiated a seven-figure deal. I remember it exactly, it was $1.5 million, and it took a full year. Now, at this point in time, it was the biggest deal I had ever done. I was working for a small training and development company. Just to give you a perspective, at the time, our company was a $6 million company, our average deal size was $50,000, this was a $1.5 million deal. It would've been a game changer for the company and for me if I could close it. And one of the things that my boss told me during the process was, he said, "Use me wisely." This was great advice, because shortly before the deal was set to go into contracting, I was able to get my boss in front of my buyer's big boss. Now, my buyer was the VP of training and development, so he had the authority, but if he really wanted the program to be successful, he was going to need to get the COO's buy-in. And so, what I was able to do was I was able to arrange a situation where my buyer, myself, my boss, and his boss were all in the room, and we had a strategic conversation about the impact that this program was going to have on the organization. So we got bigger buy-in, and suddenly, this $1.5 million deal that might have gone under great scrutiny at a budget meeting now became crucial to the organization. So I wouldn't have been able to get to that COO if I hadn't been using my boss, my boss enabled me to make that happen. So let's talk about your boss and how to use them. Being a great negotiator, it's important to know when and how to leverage your boss, and there are two situations where your boss can be extremely helpful. One is as I just described, use your boss to get to your buyer's boss. If you're dealing with a true buyer, but you know that their boss will ultimately have to either sign off or have some buy-in, early in the process, say something like this, "My manager's going to be out with me next month, and he always likes to meet with key leaders of our best clients, so he'll probably set up an appointment with Mr or Ms X, the senior person. When he does, let's make sure you and I talk, so we're both on the same page." Now, what you've done here by framing it up this way is you've put it as a fact, this is just standard procedure, my boss always meets with the seniors. You've also told your buyer, "I want to be sure you and I are on the same page, and this is a win for us." So whenever you have someone from your company, your boss or someone higher level out in your territory, always make sure that they meet with someone at their level or above it. Your boss should help you get to people that you might not be able to see otherwise. Now, the other scenario where it's really helpful to use your boss is when you're in a stalemate, you're guiding your buyer into having that more strategic conversation with your boss. Now, you want to make sure your boss knows the situation in advance, brief him or her with what you believe the buyer's true objectives are, remember, not purchasing criteria, true objectives, and what you know about the competitive landscape. Tell your boss what you'd like to have happened as the result of this call. If you close most of your deals on your own, but you bring in your boss for the really important ones, that is an excellent use of resources, 'cause trust me, your boss wants you to win it just as much as you do.