Episode 186: How To Have A Deal-Maker Mindset with Corey Kupfer

Being a good entrepreneur or successful business owner doesn’t exactly mean you’re a dealmaker. If you want to expand your business possibilities, you need to have the right mindset to avoid getting into poor deals. I am fascinated by the concept of getting into the right mindset to make good negotiations. In this solocast, I will explain some principles for you to shift your mindset to build a deal-related skill set.

Know Your Potential Deals

A good indicator that you have the dealmaker mindset is that you have the habit of thinking about the potential deals that you can already do; is simple, but extremely important. A dealmaker is constantly mapping out all the possibilities for new business. Don’t hold yourself back and always leave open the possibility of partnering with all types of people.

When launching into a new market or niche with a product and service, my number one advice is to consider who the people that already have access to that industry are—probably the first group of people who come to mind are your competitors. Consider teaming up with them. Never eliminate the possibility of doing business with competitors. Even on the DealQues podcast, we had several professionals who shared their successful deals with competing companies.

Consider reaching out to complementary businesses—businesses that sell into that client base, industry, or that demographic region you want to enter; those are the companies that sell complementary products. Approach them with some kind of proposal- it can be a partnership, a strategic alliance, a distribution deal, or a sales commission deal.

First, don’t focus on how these alliances will be structured. This can derail the negotiation and limit your business opportunities. Focus on how this negotiation can be helpful for your company. The structure can be worked out together later, or you can also ask your attorney for advice.

Specialize In Deal-Making

One of the important aspects of this mind shift of becoming a dealmaker is scheduling time to look for new deals, meeting professionals to tutor you, and educating yourself about businesses in your field.

I started this podcast so that more people could hear from other professionals and their deal processes. Always take other's experiences as lessons for your career. When you hear a professional talking about their deals, take note:

• How was the deal made?
• What was the deal process?
• How do these professionals look for new opportunities?
• What are the opportunities they seek?
• How do they assess risk?
• When do they leave a deal?

This can all be learned through videos, books, or podcasts on the deal side. This has to be a priority in your routine, as well as your other administrative tasks in your business, so you will be better prepared to do what is most beneficial for your company.

Get Used To Taking Risks

Yes, every entrepreneur is a risk-taker on some level, but for a deal-maker mindset, you need to constantly watch yourself to make sure you’re not in your comfort zone. With the day-to-day of the company, having to do the payroll weekly, and with some ups and downs in the market, it can seem intimidating to take a risk on a deal that there is no guarantee will work. The shift to becoming a dealmaker is being able to calculate and take those risks.

Practice The Deal-Maker Mindset

Train your mind to look out for opportunities and understand the risk that’s involved with deals. Gradually, you will be more and more confident about making good negotiations. In  the DealQuest podcast, there are thousands of examples of successful deals that you can apply to your career as a way to start.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator, and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author, and professional speaker. He is deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal-Ready Assessment today!