Whilst browsing the internet I came across a number of articles on negotiating and having read several began to wonder who these people were negotiating with and why were they bothering to negotiate at all. I was amazed at the language used in the articles and the suggestion that you would want to negotiate with someone you know is going to con you, stitch you up or rip you off. What does the person or organisation you distrust have that is worth the effort of negotiation, it can only be a crook or assassin you want to bump of the spouse or burn the business down for the insurance money.
Why would you want to negotiate with a business or person you know will not stick to any agreement reached and you will be forever employing lawyers to check the small print every time you order or sell to them and you know there will be a dispute over something or other and you may never or you will have to wait ages to get paid or recover your money.
There are only two reasons why you need to negotiate: You are in dispute or you want to do a deal. If you are in dispute there are a number of steps you have to take before you can begin negotiations, the first is reconciliation, the second is communication, the third is negotiation — sounds very much like being married.
The majority of us negotiate because we want to do a deal that is beneficial to all the parties involved. Negotiation is about compromise not setting up barriers that need defending, if you do not want to compromise then don’t bother negotiating, tell the other party you have no interest in doing business with them.
If you are interested in doing deals and deals is what makes your business profitable then you have to negotiate but, before you pick up the telephone to arrange a meeting make sure you are talking to the right party for this deal. Research is imperative, make sure you understand why your business needs this deal and what affect the deal will have on your business, is there another supplier/customer you could do a better deal with? Make sure you understand what you can negotiate away and what cannot be negotiated.
Once you understand why you want or need the deal go and find out everything you can about the target, ask around, check the newspapers, magazines, contacts in other businesses you know that have dealings with the target, your bank manager, is the target under money or time pressure, do they pay their bills etc. You would be surprised what little snippet of information may clinch a deal.
When negotiations begin never ever give away what you know about your target and never impart your business problems to the target. During the negotiations and if you have done your research you will hear the fear you can exploit that will clinch the deal and nine times out of ten it has nothing to do with price. It may be delivery times, stocking levels, storage, expertise, marketing, something that may be small and insignificant to you but extremely important to your target.
How do you find the fear? You ask questions and let the target talk and talk, never interrupt, never answer for the target, never show how clever you are by pre-empting, make notes and listen, do not be afraid to rephrase a question to dig further, leave a little space between the target ending their answer and you starting the next question, you never know what they might add. Next time you watch a news programme listen to the reporter, if they are any good their questions will find the answers and if they know there is a little more to come listen for the silence.
In summary make sure you know why you want to negotiating, carry out in-depth research, prepare, ask questions and don’t be afraid to say No. Never confuse Negotiation for Selling they are two different skills.