Herman School of Business
Negotiating...what's the secret?
All of commerce is a negotiation. Every advertisement is a negotiation. Ordering food at a restaurant is a negotiation. Even how much sex you are getting is a negotiation. If you want to succeed in business, have someone respond to your ad, get the breakfast you really want or have a little more fun in bed….then you better be a good negotiator.
Some people have taught that negotiation is the art of war. That somehow your opponent is out to get you. Hell, I don’t ever think the person I am negotiating with is my opponent. He or she is just another person looking for a product or service, watching an ad, and I assume from the get-go they are just like me. And I don’t want a war. I just want what I want. Without the war, please.
So, right off the bat I think your stance in negotiation is all wrong if you simply fail to understand that the other side just plain wants something. And no, that’s not the only secret to negotiating. Just that the other side is not some monster out to destroy you, although some people think you have to win some war to get what you want. So, maybe one “part” of the secret to negotiation, is simply knowing that the other side wants something.
Next is probably the most obvious part of the secret. Listen. How can you give the other side what they want if you aren’t listening to them so you know what they want. Salesman leave the office and head out to pitch a prospect knowing that the inventory is overloaded with chocolate ice cream…they barge into a speech about how the guy across from them can get a great deal on chocolate ice cream…hell why isn’t this guy writing an order for the discounted chocolate ice cream you are trying to shove down his throat…because when you walked in you didn’t let him tell you what he wants…which is vanilla ice cream. Remember, we sell that too. So quit selling him the chocolate he doesn’t want and write the order for the vanilla ice cream he does want. Listen.
The third piece to the secret of negotiating is to give him more of what he wants than he can get anywhere else. Stop worrying about your side of the deal. How much of what he wants can you give him right away to close a deal. If your partner doesn’t want sex arguing and trying to make your point could result in no sex tomorrow. Shut up stupid and negotiate your way to something before you end off worse off than when you started. Turn off a buyer because you aren’t listening to him or her and they don’t ever want to see you again. The more you can give the other side what they want…the more you will get what you want. Try it. I believe I have closed more deals and made more money over time because people I have negotiated with always felt they got something and didn’t have to kill or be killed for it.
And my thanks to Katelyn Wieners, a student at University of Wisconsin Whitewater for inspiring me to write about this topic as a result of her interview with me.
- Posted: 9 December 2007
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business success
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