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CEO's message: a holiday wish
On behalf of our Scotwork team, I wish you a wonderful holiday season. Thanks to all of you, we've had our best year ever, with a record number of courses and negotiation consultations and incredible customer results. I hope you find the tips in this newsletter helpful. We always appreciate suggestions for future issues and will try to incorporate them. Please visit our website and contact us with questions. May your 2011 be filled with powerful negotiation results!
Marty Finkle, CEO, Scotwork (NA) Inc. |
| Negotiation, step 2: argue |
The argue (discussion) step provides the foundation for the deal. Be sure to balance persuasion (e.g. convincing &
challenging) with negotiating (e.g. asking open-ended questions & testing assumptions). Other suggestions:
- Rehearse your opening statement to set the agenda and tone and to outline your position.
- Use only clearly supported facts, and don't defend the indefensible.
- Avoid interrupting, point scoring or being sarcastic.
- Summarize regularly and repeat the other party's opinions calmly to show that you understand but don't agree.
- Ask the right questions and share the right information to move the negotiation forward in the right direction.
- Move on when you're ready because arguments, principles and opinions can't be negotiated. Learn about trading opinions in the Tutor's Corner below.
Next issue, we'll discuss step 3, signal.
Eight Steps
1. Prepare, 2. Argue,
3. Signal, 4. Propose,
5. Package, 6. Bargain,
7. Close, 8. Agree |
| Tutor's Corner: bet on their opinion | |
Parties who disagree waste time trying to change each other's opinions, often with phrases like I believe. Instead, trade your opinions--and bet on them.
For example, a buyer may want to invoke a $1,000-per-day penalty clause for late delivery. At the same time, the seller may try to convince the buyer to drop this demand, ensuring that the delivery will be on time. The result: deadlock. But a seller who is reasonably sure of on-time delivery could add an inverse clause: a $1,000 bonus for each day the delivery time is shortened.
Trading opinions often leads to a deal or eliminating an unwanted clause. So when you hear I believe, I think or similar language, recognize it as an opinion, and ask yourself how you can bet on it. |
| Fox had power over Cablevision | |
Congratulations to Alan Paret, U.S. Army Contract Specialist, for his winning analysis of the Fox-Cablevision dispute (Oct. issue), which was finally settled on Oct. 30.
A summary of Alan's opinion:
"Fox has the right to sell its services at whatever price the market will bear, and Cablevision's only recourse is to pay for the service or procure programming elsewhere. If Cablevision wants the Fox channels, it can raise rates or allow subscribers to opt out." |
| Kraft vs. Starbucks: you decide | |
 On Dec. 6, Kraft asked a federal judge to stop Starbucks from breaking a 12-year partnership under which Kraft distributes Starbucks' packaged coffees to grocery stores. Starbucks plans to begin distributing its products directly to supermarkets on March 1. The key issues:
Conflict
Kraft: Starbucks unilaterally ended our agreement.
Starbucks: Kraft's court filing is a delay tactic, as we've repeatedly said that we're terminating the agreement.
Sales and marketing
Starbucks: Kraft failed to aggressively promote our brands, and its Yuban coffee unfairly competes with our coffees.
Kraft: During our partnership, Starbucks' supermarket sales rose from $50 million to $500 million.
Offers
Starbucks: Kraft turned down our $750 million offer to buy out its rights in the coffee distribution deal.
Kraft: $750 million is far below market value ($1 billion+, say analysts), under a contract that calls for fair market value plus a premium of up to 35% if Starbucks walks away.
Give us your opinion and win wine or coffee!
Who has the balance of power? Should the agreement be terminated as Starbucks wants, or should the matter go to arbitration as Kraft wants? What should the judge decide and why?
Email us ("coffee" in subject line) by Dec. 29 and we'll publish the best response in our next issue and send the author a bottle of fine wine or two pounds of Starbucks' Caffè Verona!
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Scotwork in the news: evaluating negotiation skills training | |
Marty Finkle's article on how to measure the impact of negotiation skills training was published in the October issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine. |
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Meet our
lead tutors
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Marty Finkle
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 Simon Letchford
Bio Email Simon Access Rich Waldrop's bio and email in the Tutor's Corner. |
Register for
open courses |
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| Start the year right! |
| Register here for |
| Advanced Negotiating Skills on Jan. 18-21 or on other dates. |
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Parsippany, NJ |
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-Jan. 18-21 |
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-Feb. 28-March 3
-March 28-31
-Apr. 25-28
-May 23-26 |
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-June 20-23 |
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Other sites |
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-Feb. 14-17 (CA) |
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-March 14-17 (IL) |
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-June 6-9 (IL) | |
| About Scotwork North America |
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Scotwork (NA) Inc. is the North American division of Scotwork Negotiating Skills, the world's largest independent provider of negotiation skills training and consulting with offices in 31 countries.
Its seasoned negotiators offer consulting and training in 17 languages to more than 9,000 executives and managers worldwide. Scotwork's clients receive an average return of 10 times the course fee within three months. |
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| Share your success! | | If you're a Scotwork client, email your negotiating success story. We may publish it in our next issue. |
| Contact us |
Scotwork (NA) Inc.
400 Lanidex Plaza
Parsippany, NJ 07054
973.428.1991
usa@scotwork.com
www.scotworkusa.com If you're not on our list, click here and enter your email. |
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