Negotiating for success: "prepare" & other key tips

Negotiating for Success

Scotwork North America

October 2010

CEO's message:
Who doesn't negotiate?

This has been one of busiest years ever at Scotwork (NA), where we've taught professionals from a wide array of industries. To me, the surge in business is a clear indication of how critical negotiating skills are to any company, especially in this challenging economy. I invite you to use the suggestions below to enhance your negotiations. Please visit our website and call us with any questions. Good negotiating!

Marty Finkle, CEO, Scotwork (NA) Inc.

Negotiation, step 1: prepare

Start by preparing in advance for negotiating to make the biggest impact on outcomes for you and your team. Do this by:

Identifying objectives: identify issues, define intended outcomes and realistic expectations, and determine the limit to where you will move if you have flexibility.
Creating a wish list: if you are flexible in any of your issues and you move closer to your limit, determine what you'll ask for in return. If you come to conclusions quickly, determine what small thing you can ask for to enhance the deal.
Determining concessions: see where you can be flexible and what you can give to get what you want.
Researching information: analyze power balance and determine the degree to which the other party understands your priorities and you understand theirs.
Preparing questions: determine what you don't know and prepare questions you should ask ahead of time.
Developing a strategy: be flexible so you can quickly adjust. Make it fairly simple so you avoid dazzling them with you know what.
Assigning tasks ahead: identify leader, summarizer and observer to control the information flow and the shape of the negotiation.

Next issue, we'll address Step 2, Argue.

Eight Steps
1. Prepare, 2. Argue,
3. Signal, 4. Propose,
5. Package, 6. Bargain,
7. Close, 8. Agree

Don't haggle...negotiate

Sometimes we think we're negotiating when we're actually haggling. You know you're haggling when you're only discussing one variable like price or time. If you find you want to "split the difference," you're in a haggle. Negotiation adds other variables. You may gain other value to agree to a price difference. Leave the haggling to flea markets. Negotiate instead. To find out more, visit our website or call us.

Listen before you react

To achieve the best results from your negotiations, listen to the other party. Some tips:

Periodically summarize the person's words back to them.
Summarize things you have already agreed upon.
Pause before replying.
Don't think of your answer until the person finishes the question.
Avoid reacting emotionally.
Be curious: ask more questions to find out critical information.

Scotwork result: "either/or" proposals secure higher fees

Imagine convincing 400 customers to buy a more complex and expensive service that they don't need! One Scotwork client, a supplier, converted 70% of its customers to the more costly service by abandoning the idea of persuasion and driving the process with either/or proposals. With this approach, you offer only certain choices, none of which is the status quo, so the other party can't reject a single idea.

This is just one of the hundreds of tools from Scotwork's negotiating skills course. Learn about other tools.

Share your success

If you're a Scotwork client, email your negotiating success story and we may publish it in our next issue.

Fox vs. Cablevision: you decide

After News Corp., owner of Fox Network, pulled its programming from Cablevision on Oct. 15, 3 million East Coast viewers were without many of their favorite shows. See the positions below:

Cablevision

News Corp. demands $70 million more a year for programming, adding about $2 to $4 to the typical customer's monthly bill.
News Corp. wants more for Fox5 and My9 (in NY) than we pay for all other broadcast stations combined.
News Corp. rejected our request for binding arbitration.

News Corp. (Fox)

Cablevision was offered our stations for the same price that competitors pay, about 70% lower than its charge to other cable operators for MSG and MSG Plus.
Though it earned an average profit of about $800 per subscriber last year, Cablevision has offered to pay less than a penny a day for FOX5 and My9.
Cablevision doesn't allow arbitrators to set the rates for its other cable channels.

You rule...and win a bottle of wine! 1.0285714285714284

Which party holds the balance of power? How would you rule and why? Email us (put "wine" in subject line) and we'll publish the best response in our next newsletter and send the author a bottle of fine wine!