Communication is the main power tool for successful negotiation and dealmaking. Every negotiator knows that verbal consciousness is paramount to effectively delivering one’s intent, message, and compromises. In a nutshell, semantics is crucial – from one’s tone of voice to choice of words. Mastering the precision of verbal communication enables dealmakers to gain control of the situation and earn the trust of the prospect. And for decades, this has been a chess game that sales teams constantly navigate through continuous practice and learning.
Beyond the scope of verbal messaging is unconscious communication, which includes emotions, dispositions, perspectives, attitudes, perceptions of social status, power struggles, and interpersonal conflicts. More often than not, these factors are swept under the rug as leaders emphasize oral and written language to the forefront of effective dealmaking. In reality, neglecting these indicators heavily influences whether sales convert or not.
In a study conducted by McKinsey, 73% of unsuccessful deals are a result of valuation disagreements, political headwinds, antitrust, or regulatory concerns – factors that require a more nuanced and layered approach in maneuvering through. To take one’s deal to the finish line, an open and transparent dialogue is key.
At the peak of digitalization and technological advancement, revolutionary tools, cutting-edge products, and major tech breakthroughs disrupt business processes and cycles worldwide. In fact, one of the most sought-after and widely accessible tech capabilities is AI, which reached $57.6 billion of global spending across multiple industries. These tech trends have made organizations re-assess their action plan and allocate budgets to source for superior tools to boost their operations. On top of overhauling their models and practices, leaders are now looking through the latest software and platforms to streamline and optimize their negotiations.
The Rise of Social Signal Processing Technology
One of the biggest tech developments in recent years is social signal processing technology (SSPT) – a brand-new field that leverages deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), linguistics, social science, cognitive science, and psychology to analyze digitally delivered social signals. SubStrata, a data-driven behavioral intelligence platform, pioneered this solution to help enterprise sales executives and top dealmakers improve performances and close more deals through science.
This state-of-the-art tool gathers and analyzes implicit behavioral cues, both verbal and nonverbal, to help sales teams uncover implied meaning, crack nuances, identify true prospect sentiment, and decipher co-assessments of relative competence, perceptions of value, relevance, and intentions. Its deep models are trained on big amounts of multimodal data to unlock nonverbal communication patterns.
Text-based exchange data is processed together with textual paralanguage (pragmatic analysis). From there, an intelligent context engine gathers and examines readily available exo-interaction data. Moreover, an Innovative Textless NLP architecture is utilized to examine and unlock vocalic social cues in raw audio (prosodic elements) to help dealmakers understand the subtext of the prospect’s speech. This enables them to gear up for their next move, comprehend the power dynamics at play, and avoid untimely follow-ups.
AI-Driven Dealmaking Simulation
One of SubStrata’s tech capabilities is to empower dealmakers to simulate their deals and see whether they have conveyed the right signals to push the deal forward. By reiterating the process, sales reps can learn from their errors and improve their game for future negotiations. What’s more, The Performance Q, an intelligent AI-driven platform, allows dealmakers to examine their existing communication patterns, see their strengths and weaknesses, and adjust them for better results.
Forward-thinking leaders know that the communication aspect of dealmaking doesn’t solely rely on human capacity. To achieve positive results, investing in advanced tools to push deals toward “closed-won” is key.
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