Subject areas
- Commercial, contracts and procurement
- Director development
- Facilities management
- Finance
- Health, safety and environmental
- HR and employment law
- Learning and development
- Management and personal skills
- Project management
- Retail, hospitality and leisure
- Sales and customer service
Thought for the day...
Free daily management tips from our team of trainers - courtesy of the In-House Training Company
Thought for the day
The full archive of free daily management tips from our team of trainers.
Download ‘Be receptive’
Frequently, we approach a negotiation having considered all the issues and developed a solution that satisfies our concerns. We then see the negotiation as about convincing our opponent of the value of our solution. The problem is that our opponent has also considered all the issues and developed a solution that suits them, and the chances of both parties finding the same solution are pretty remote.Both therefore start the negotiation with their own solution which they wish to ‘sell’ to the other party. Each is resistant to the ideas of the other. Each solution may solve the problems of one party, but is unlikely to solve both sets of problems. As the negotiation proceeds, people tend to dig in to these positions, their solutions and their ideas.
It is relatively easy to break this spiral. The first step is to recognise that you are negotiating ‘with’ the other party, rather than against them. This involves being receptive to their ideas and their proposals, and indeed encouraging them. It is relatively easy to ask, at an appropriate point in a negotiation, how the other party recommends that you resolve the problem you are negotiating. The skill is then to develop, enhance and build on their proposal, to the point where it is an acceptable solution to both of you. Unfortunately, what most of us do is propose our own solution, rather than invite theirs. If we don’t like theirs, we then counter-propose.
Breaking the spiral starts from the basic premise that the other party will be more receptive to a solution based on their proposal than on yours. Even outrageous proposals from the other party can be modified, developed and enhanced.
© The author
This thought has been taken from Eric’s book ‘Mastering Negotiations’. A master negotiator himself, he is our expert trainer on the subject – click here for details of one of his most popular courses.
Previous Thoughts for the day
-
‘Encourage your customers to be unreasonable’ - read more
-
‘Give your customers the benefit of the doubt’
- read more
-
‘Encourage your customers to complain’
- read more
-
‘Being good enough, isn’t good enough – give customers a reason to be faithful’
- read more
-
‘How to keep a customer for life – give them lots of reasons to stay’
- read more
-
‘Close the customer service department’
- read more
-
‘Customer satisfaction is everybody’s job’
- read more
-
‘Customer satisfaction is not satisfactory’
- read more
-
‘The answer is – yes!’
- read more
-
‘What are others doing?’
- read more
-
‘How can I take better care of my customers?’
- read more
-
‘Every sales call is a free market research opportunity’
- read more
-
‘The customer isn’t always right’
- read more
- ‘Give your customers more than they pay for’
- read more
- ‘Wash your dirty laundry in private’
- read more
- ‘It’s OK to spend money’
- read more
- ‘Expect the unexpected’
- read more
- ‘Have a NIZ!’
- read more
- ‘Dump trivia’
- read more
- ‘Less is more’
- read more
- ‘Speed up routine tasks’
- read more
- ‘Stop doing other people’s work’
- read more
- ‘Ask questions’
- read more
- ‘Take control!’
- read more
- ‘Listen!’
- read more
- ‘You don’t have to answer the question’
- read more
- ‘Shut up!’
- read more
- ‘Be receptive’
- read more
- ‘Go to the balcony’
- read more
- ‘Think before you speak’
- read more
- ‘You can’t stare – but you must watch!’
- read more
- ‘Don’t be predictable’
- read more
- ‘KISS’
- read more
- ‘Aim high’
- read more
- ‘Say “No.” ’
- read more
© The In-House Training Company.