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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 ‘Think before you speak’
There is no doubt that words are the tools that we use to build the right emotive tone for a negotiation. Words can inspire confidence, invoke a spirit of working together, emphasise benefits and develop rapport. Alternatively, words can chastise, needle, alienate and introduce personal animosity.It is not the meaning of the word that is important, it is the impression it creates. Imagine a situation where a salesman is trying to sell oil to a motorist. He dips the tank. Then he has a choice, he can say the tank is half-full, or he can say the tank is half-empty. Which is most likely to sell oil?
I remember asking a strict Jesuit priest while on a religious retreat as a boy if it was OK to smoke while I prayed. The answer I got was very short and very sharp. A friend of mine at a later stage in the day asked the priest if it was OK to pray while he smoked. The different answer he got convinced me of the power of words.
Words can have a very positive and powerful effect. They can also have a very negative effect. Most of us will not need to be told that it is counter-productive to insult the other party as part of a negotiation. Although we do not insult the other party, we will quite often create offence by using a group of words which are known as irritators. These words are not intended to insult, but they do. They include:
- Poor and inappropriate humour, often attacking minority groups in society.
- Expressions and phrases which are not well received, however well-intentioned they are meant, eg, phrases such as ‘dear’ or ‘love’ used to address women or other phrases which may be received as patronizing.
- Gratuitously favourable comments about us, our position, our intentions, such as ‘I am making you a very generous offer’ or ‘I am trying to be reasonable’ (and the implication is that the other party is not).
- Slang or swear words.
© 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
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‘Encourage your customers to be unreasonable’ - read more
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‘Give your customers the benefit of the doubt’
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‘Encourage your customers to complain’
- read more
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‘Being good enough, isn’t good enough – give customers a reason to be faithful’
- read more
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‘How to keep a customer for life – give them lots of reasons to stay’
- read more
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‘Close the customer service department’
- read more
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‘Customer satisfaction is everybody’s job’
- read more
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‘Customer satisfaction is not satisfactory’
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‘The answer is – yes!’
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‘What are others doing?’
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‘How can I take better care of my customers?’
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‘Every sales call is a free market research opportunity’
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‘The customer isn’t always right’
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- ‘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’
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- ‘Have a NIZ!’
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- ‘Dump trivia’
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- ‘Less is more’
- read more
- ‘Speed up routine tasks’
- read more
- ‘Stop doing other people’s work’
- read more
- ‘Ask questions’
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- ‘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.