Power Negotiating
also called Title power
always negotiate in your surroundings if possible - your powerbase with the trappings of your office (wall plaques, secretary, etc)
eg. the Vice President of BofA (really not a big deal - there's hundreds)
the ability to reward you
eg. the boss that alludes to his ski chalet and country club membership with the premise being he has the ability to grant these things to you- being aware of this diffuses it
the postal worker peon who has control over your package - likes to exercise their petty powers. best to punt and move to realm where where you have more control
the typical corporate pecking order "joe- wait outside for a minute, we need to talk behind your back about a few things."
best way to disarm is to simply identify when this is happening
before you bought your home, how much did you know about the sellers?
must understand the importance of asking - forget about the prospect of rejection
eg. countries spend billions before going into negotiations to learn what the other side is planning to do
+ - Techniques for Probing (open-ended q's)
seek info from related companies in same space
move down the corporate ladder - talk w/ secretary
bring your engineer and have him mingle with theirs. sometimes profession allegiance transcends company allegiance
Cherry Picking: piece meal style of aggregating the bits you want from different players
COUNTER- know everything about your competition and spell it all out so they feel their time will be wasted in going around to each person
the analogy of the battleship game - other person's hidden agenda is like their battleship and you should probe around to see if you can unearth it
80/20 rule - 80% of concessions come down in last 20% of time
key is to tie up all details up front. under time pressure people become more flexible
eg. the Paris peace talks negotiation - the Koreans holed up in a villa and made it clear they weren't in a hurry and pushed Johnson up against November election deadline
eg. Alexander Hague in Falkland Islands crisis - would have had better result if he waited and used time crunch to his advantage
never reveal the fact you have a deadline if you do- imply that you're under no constraints
eg. the success rally where nobody could agree who was best speaker - realization that everyone identifies with certain styles better
the same approach with different people elicits completely different responses
be genuinely interested in a wise outcome for all participants
+ - Goals
+ - Faults
+ - Tendencies
+ - Methods
Key is to separate people from personality and focus on resolution
good negotiator is soft on people and hard on problems. Work to get people off their POSITIONS and focused on their common INTERESTS
don't get carried away with analyzing body language - you can misread the situation. gender and cultural differences mean movements can be misinterpreted
eg. first televised moon landing - throws the A-OK hand gesture which is a non-verbal explicative in japanese
+ - never negotiate over the phone if possible. two reasons:
best place to study is in airports
remember that only CHANGES in body language are significant. ie. person may have a habit of scratching his nose and not actually be lying...
another good place to study is newscasters
be wary of anything other than the traditional handshake
+ - awkward shakes
aware of cultural differences - in the south may be inappropriate for a male to initiate shake with female
don't sit between a couple - they can trade glances and body language and you're in the middle of a tennis match
if you're a member of smaller group negotiating with larger group- intermix to break up their dominant position
< 1.5' = intimate space - do not invade w/o permission
1.5' < 4' = personal space
4' < 7' = social space
< 7' = public space
you can get closer to japanese and europeans because they're used to being in crowds
if you're very tall and standing next to short person - back up or angle sideways so as not to tower and intimidate
Frankly...
Honestly...
To tell you the truth...
these words try to add a little more legitimacy to what he's about to say- question what follows carefully
I don't mean to be personal...
This is embarrasing but...
These words prepare you for something big but are generally followed by something smaller than anticiapted
eg. couple with the defective stove w/ smoke damage to their house- in reality just wanted a throw rug to cover the hole in their carpet
eg. a hostage situation- find out what terrorist group they represent. religion? possible to bring in minister or other leverage?
play to the psychological tendency people have of wanting to reaffirm a recent decision
eg. the racetrack experiment in canada where people were sketchy before betting and wanted to double-down immediately after
must wait for the moment of agreement - like pushing a large ball to the top of hill- momentum changes after crest is reached
eg. buying the car and while signing the check- "that does include a full tank doesn't it?"
tactic used to apply pressure without being confrontational
eg. owning a real estate company and creating a fictitious board you must run everything by
COUNTER- remove resort to higher auth before starting "if you like the car as much as i know you will is there any reason why you wouldn't be prepared to make a decision today?"
appeal to other person's ego - "aww c'mon, your boss always trusts your decision, right?"
get them to commit to recommending your position - "you will give a positive recommendation for me, won't you?"
get them to sign contract with clause "subject to no disapproval from xyz"
arbitrator route - bring in a perceived neutral 3rd party who makes small goal concession to other side (peace offering) to achieve common ground
first identify that it's happening and gently embarrass the perpetrator "aww c'mon don't play goodguy badguy w/ me ;-)"
go over their head - "your sales person is playing goodguy badguy w/ me- you don't approve of that do you?"
lump the good and bad roles together and tell person #1 you will attribute everything person #2 says to them as well
always agree with the other person's objection and slowly turn it around with the formula:
I know how you FEEL about xyz, many other people have FELT that way but we've typically FOUND that with abc most people change their minds.
the "Call-go" principle - realtors keenly aware of this effect that once their service of finding buyer is rendered their commission seems extraordinarily high
always negotiate the price before rendering service. eg. the plummer that says can fix sink but will be $50 - takes 5min to do... wtf? "I didn't earn that hourly rate as a professional speaker either ;-)"
stores in Mexico are prototypical example of this - if you're willing to walk away you have much better position
no matter how reasonable the proposal, always visually react with surprise
people are waiting for your reaction to gauge whether they can go for more
eg. the charicature artist who says that'll be $15 for the painting... and another $5 for the color... and another $5 for shipping carton...
Squeeze them with simple phrase "you'll have to do better than that..."
eg. school teachers w/ homework when they don't have time to grade papers.
or Henry Kissenger and Vietnam report - 3rd time "sir, this is the very best i can do!" - "good, now i'll read it"
Write up the contract and overreach on some things. Deliver notarized with a signed check so the inclination is just for the other person to avoid the hassle of re-doing everything
issues brought up to distract from the real issue
the "Red Herring" is a permutation of the Decoy when an issue is created to mask real issue and used as a tradeoff
eg. the Peachtree hotel exercise where Dawson complains about bed and negotiates half price and ultimately secures same-size bed
a tactic for getting the other person emotionally-committed to the outcome
eg. the Realtor that takes a polaroid of you and your spouse on the door steps of the home your looking at with the hope you'll pass it around to friends and family and become emotionally invested
people generally give away most of their negotiating range by jumping at the offer- always play reluctant buyer/seller and conceal interest
eg. the car shopper - "it's nice but i'm not really prepared to do that today" --walk away-- "you invested your time- just to be fair to you what would be the lowest price you would be willing to sell the car?"
Leave room for the other person to feel like they won- it's not a successful negotiation if the other person feels cheated
eg. the Union/Company labor dispute where both make ridiculous initial demands so they gravitate back to center and can both do press release and claim victory
like in Tennis, only thing that matters is the movement of the ball over the net. do not become distracted by the movements of the other player
eg. the real estate deal where the constituency storms out of the room flinching as if they're insulted by offer. on the way out last guy says they wouldn't go a penny below x." still successful manuever in spite of perceived insult
don't get greedy with all these gambits- keep big picture in mind and realize you could blow a deal by reaching too far
eg. the building negotiation where Dawson tried to get seller to leave furniture and lost whole deal because it turned out to be family heirloom furniture and guy was already ground down
some people are oriented towards different senses (painters, musicians, emotional) - always mirror expressions back in the form they use
a crossed response is when he says "That sounds good to me" and you say "that looks good to me too."
USA has weird style where negotiating is only expected on cars. other countries the sticker price is assumed to be the highest price seller will take. USA sticker price is assumed to be the price
+ - Who is the perfect customer for that used car sales person?
+ - what you want to be
informed: do research on internet and bring print outs
unemotional: test drive the vehicle on another day or at another dealership. can also claim to be buing for somebody else
non-pressured: or if you are don't let them know
+ - Gambits they will use on you
Price of the car
Amount of your trade
Amount of down payment
Amount of monthly payment
Key= detatch yourself from other variables. Do pre-arranged financing so they can't juggle that and muddy the water. focus on net price of vehicle
+ - Gambits you can use on them
if you're target price is $16k and their price is $18k - offer $14 to "bracket" the target price so splitting the diff brings you to that price
1. you can go over their head which is dangerous and not advised
2. you can bring your supervisor to the big boss and have a 3-way meeting
3. most advisable is to work with your supervisor and convince them to go to bat with the big cheese for you
+ - 1. preclude objections up front
"oh the company isn't doing well enough to give you a raise" - BS, chit-chat about how company is doing first
"your performance isn't good enough" - BS, talk about your performance and the things you've achieved and the goals you've satisfied that were previously-set
+ - 2. Have courage to ask for more than you want (Bracketing Tactic)
this puts pressure on the other side
more importantly, creates a climate where you can retreate to your desired pos and they can feel victorious
3. learn to concentrate on the issues
4. Hot Potato - don't take other people's problems. "It's not in the budget" - who's fault is it that the budget doesn't account for my improved performance? The response should be "who has teh authority to extend the budget?"
5. avoid the good guy / bad guy tactic if you are using an agent
6. Nibbling - broach a concession as a nibble once you have them feeling good like the negotiation is over