Everyone negotiates. Even deciding not to negotiate is a positioning statement from a negotiator. In our Vistage meetings this month, Bob Gibson, a professional negotiator, taught our CEO members about negotiation strategy, tactics, and perceptions. The following outline our takeaways.
The 7 P's of negotiation:
Perception
Position
Power
Planning
Practice
Performance
Persistence
Some of my personal takeaways from the training on negotiations included the following. Every negotiation involves people. All people are human. As people, emotion and other drivers impact the negotiation process. Examples of drivers that impact an individual's position in negotiation include, but are not limited to the following; a person's...
Drive to be right
Drive for fairness
Drive for making a difference
Drive for safety
Drive for avoiding making a mistake
Drive for avoiding work effort
Drive for power or control
Drive for being liked
Drive for looking good
Drive for respect or acceptance
Drive for greed or affluence
Drive for fame
Often times in negotiation, the driving factor of the players involved is key to the outcome of the negotiation. A win-win typically involves understanding the drivers of others, and meeting them in a way that makes both achieve what they want.
In preparation for my Vistage Group Meetings this week, I prepared some quotes on negotiation that included the following.
Quotes on negotiation:
“If you can persuade your customer to tattoo your name on their chest, they probably will not ever switch brands.” - Attributed to a Harvard Business School Professor
“If you have a reputation for always making all the money there is in a deal, you won’t make many deals.” - J. Paul Getty, on quoting his father
“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” John F. Kennedy
“A negotiator should observe everything. You must be part Sherlock Holmes, part Sigmund Freud.” - Victor Kiam
“Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way.” - Sir David Frost
“Anger can be an effective negotiating tool, but only as a calculated act, never as a reaction.” - Mark McCormack
“It’s a well-known proposition that you know who’s going to win a negotiation; it’s he who pauses the longest.” - Robert Court
“Everything is negotiable. Whether or not the negotiation is easy is another thing.” - Carrie Fisher
“You have to persuade yourself that you absolutely don't care what happens. If you don't care, you've won. I absolutely promise you, in every serious negotiation, the man or woman who doesn't care is going to win.” - Felix Dennis
“For me, relationship is very important. I can lose money, but I cannot lose a relationship. The test is, at the end of a conversation or a negotiation, both must smile.” - Sunil Mittal
“The greatest sale I ever made in my life was the day I finally bought what I was doing – the day I saw the big picture, the day I had a the great concept, the great passion – yes, when I truly began believing in what I was doing.” - Cavett Robert