Andrew Fogg from http://import.io discusses how to get a stranger to agree to something. You negotiate every single day and it is the most important thing that you do. Using scenario-based examples of persuasion and negotiation he covers: getting a meeting, getting a contract, getting an upgrade.

1. How to get a stranger to
agree to something

2. Andrew Fogg

3. Andrew Fogg
Co-Founder

4. if you have not heard of us already

5. you can use import.io to
turn any website…

6. …into a spreadsheet or an API

7. in minutes

8. without writing any code

9. without writing any code

11. anyway. enough about that

13. How to get a stranger to
agree to something

14. this is about negotiation

15. which can go well

16. or badly (slap!)

17. you. negotiate. every. single. day.

18. you are in the business of
motivating people to do things

19. motivating your team to work together

20. motivating your customers to buy from
you

21. motivating your investors to give you
money

22. speaking of money - money is a pretty
good motivator

23. but in a startup there ain’t much around

24. you have to use other means (soft skills)

25. negotiation is probably
the most important thing that you do

26. what makes me qualified to talk about
this?

27. i am certainly not an expert

28. i had to learn
how to do it

29. 8 years ago i was an academic (neuroscience)

30. i thought networking, sales and
negotiation were easy skills

31. that these were the only people who cared
about getting better at those skills

32. i started out being arrogant and
uninterested

33. and was therefore bad

34. i have good news

35. negotiation can be learnt

36. there are credible experts

37. how to network

38. how to sell

39. how to negotiate

40. you won’t believe how many times i have
recommended this book (everyone should read it)

41. three quick startup scenarios

42. comes from my experience
so comes with a health warning

43. 1. getting a meeting (networking)
★ Clearly articulate (to yourself) the profile of the people you need to meet - their job title, their role in an
organisation
★ If you are targeting specific people / organisations go online and on LinkedIn. Is there someone who can
give you an introduction? If not, then who is in that direction?
★ Introductions are key. They are also karma: give them away and you will get them back. Be generous - it
works!
★ If you are targeting lots of people then ask yourself where those people go: online and IRL (online
communities, meet up groups)
★ Go to those places just join the conversation. When networking just walk up to people and stick out your
hand (might sound obvious).
★ Drink but don’t get drunk when networking.
★ When actually scheduling a meeting, send a calendar invite putting time straight into people’s diary’s.
Then send an email saying you have done this. 90% of time you get straight acceptance, saves a bunch of
time. I do this so often I have a Streak shortcut.

44. 2. getting a deal (sales)
★ Selling to businesses you either help them save money or make money. It is preferable to
help them make money.
★ There are two ways of then helping the organisation actually buy from you:
★ Identify a budget that is being spent elsewhere and claim it as your own. Rather than
having to find new budget customer just redirects existing budget.
★ Insert your product into the customer acquisition process. It then just becomes a
formula. More money spent with you = more customers for them.
★ Avoid: workings with big SIs (Accenture, CapGemini etc). They will talk forever and they
always think they can build it themselves. Hard sell and ultimately fruitless.
★ Also joint ventures with prospective customers never happen just get them to pay for the
product. You may encounter them because your product allows the customer to do
something genuinely new.
★ Be confident when it comes to payment terms. Ask for a ton and come down, ask for all
cash up front, or half now half on delivery. Get creative and avoid positional bargaining
(e.g. don’t get fixated on the price - there are other terms). When pricing remember that
you are selling value to the customer not cost to you.

45. 3. getting a contract (negotiating)
★ Not got any contracts? Then get online and search for examples, reword as necessary.
Some of my earliest contracts came courtesy of Microsoft, Salesforce, Apple, Oracle,
Adobe. So thank you!
★ Everyone wants to sign on their own paperwork including you. So get your paperwork
issued first.
★ Avoid redlines. Put a master agreement online as a PDF and issue an order form, the order
form references the online master agreement. It supports single-call-resolution for you
or your sales guys. If you send a Word document you WILL get changes back.
★ If you get into negotiating on a redline fight EVERYTHING on the first draft including
things that you don’t really care about. You can then gift back the ones that you don’t
care about later. By the time you are at this stage, the fundamentals of the deal have
already been agreed - legal need to show that they have won their pound of flesh. So they
don't care but some of those clauses (e.g. IP) are critical to you.
★ When negotiating clauses if something seems unfair then insist on symmetry. Drives out
things that are clearly unfair. “ I’ll let you F me in the A, but only if you’re also willing.”
★ Keep the momentum of the deal going.

46. ok, hope that was helpful

47. finally for fun

48. 4. getting an upgrade (upgrade)
★ Smile
★ Build rapport as quickly as possible: plans after work, plans for
weekend, children etc - get a proper conversation going quickly.
★ Use their first name (classic)
★ LTL - latency to laugh (or at least smile). You have 60 seconds.
★ Enjoy it. It is natural to be sincerely interested in others.
★ Once you have built a good relationship with them…
★ Killer question - “is it a good room / seat / car etc?”

49. Andrew Fogg
Co-Founder
★ Visit our website http://import.io
★ Watch a presentation of these slides
http://youtu.be/oT1qMyu6LUc