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Negotiating For Sales – A Review of Unlocking Yes by Patrick Tinney

Unlocking Yes By Patrick Tinney

I recently had a closing meeting where my client and I would be negotiating deal points. I had some lead time so I took the opportunity to pick up Patrick Tinney’s book on negotiating Unlocking Yes: Sales Negotiation Lessons & Strategy and I am very glad I did. What I found in Tinney’s book is 50 short and easily digestible lessons that I could easily put into action.

Unlocking Yes covers the entire spectrum of negotiation with alacrity. There is a complete framework here. I enjoy books that are high on actionable content and low on wordy exposition and Tinney’s book is both of these. Each lesson is concise and specific and the work throughout is loaded punchy lists that make the lessons easy to apply in real life.

Win-Win Philosophy

I always have a bit of trepidation when picking up a book such as this because there is a whole breed of sales and negotiation books that operate from a combative win-lose mindset. I am happy to report that such is not the case with Unlocking Yes. What you’ll find here is strategies firmly rooted in a win-win philosophy that is based on maintaining long-term relationships and trust. It’s not about winning at any cost and this resonated with me. There are no gimmicks, tricks or hacks. Instead there is preparation, trust and mindful strategy.

I very much enjoy Tinney’s writing style which is brief and to the point. It’s extremely accessible. The stories are short, illustrative and always make their point. (and they don’t always end happily for the negotiator) The density of information is quite high and I used up two highlighers reading it.

A Negotiation Book for Sales

Patrick Tinney Author of Unlocking Yes

Most books on negotiation focus exclusively on negotiating and can sometimes become abstract. In contrast, Tinney has accomplished something special in this book – he has combined sales and negotiating into a single work that makes it extremely valuable for those of us in the sales profession.

Many individuals have too few opportunities to negotiate to ever master their negotiation skills. Unlocking Yes allows us to draw on Tinney’s years of experience and synthesize our own. Unlocking Yes is such an easy read with such valuable implications that I would argue that for those that negotiate with clients (and especially for those in high-stakes negotiations), reading and applying Unlocking Yes may very well be the best use of their time.

You can find Unlocking Yes HERE on Amazon.

Until next time!

James

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