Attributed to Harvey Mackay in his pithy book “Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive”, I like this adage because it is, like many other aspects of negotiation, so counter-intuitive.In his view (and ours), you’ll be amazed how much the terms of your deals will improve when you learn to say ‘No’.
However, there is a heck of a lot more to this expression than first meets the eye.
We live in a world of noise where silence has almost ceased to exist. A significant majority of people are uncomfortable with it and seek to fill it even with mundane background noise. We regularly see this manifest itself in countless businesses where we see people in meetings and negotiations talking too much, tripping over themselves to ‘lead the conversation’ or to interject as soon as the other person pauses so that they can post their arguments. It is as though silence is to be avoided and immediately filled...
There is nothing quite so empowering to a negotiator that knowing that they can walk away from the deal if necessary. This hugely important factor enables them to be assertive on their goals, confident that if an acceptable deal is not reached, they have an alternative option. Similarly, the other party will sense this too and will be commensurately wary of pushing too hard. Unfortunately, the opposite is true too! Having no alternative, such as in a monopoly situation, can leave you in a very vulnerable position.
When negotiating, a good mindset to adopt is the one that says everything has a value and that nothing should be given away for free.Yet, far too often well-intentioned or naïve negotiators give away items to the other party when they need not.The irony being that by giving it away too easily, its value becomes much diminished for the recipient.
To negotiate people must have the ability to exchange ideas, concerns, proposals and arguments – in short, communicate effectively.
In negotiation, and in life, everything that you do has repercussions – actions have consequences. It comes back to you one way or another.
Absolutely fundamental to negotiation is our ability to persuade others to accept our view.
“There are, of course, many ways by which sellers can categorise or segment their customers. By far the most common is size or revenue, but this is simply not adequate if you want to determine how to manage a relationship or how to negotiate with a customer. ”
“Value is the extent to which a product or service is perceived by the other party to meet his or her needs or desires, measured by their willingness to pay for it. It commonly depends more on their perception of the worth of the product than its intrinsic value.”
There was no greater war leader and strategist than Chinese military general Sun Tzu. His philosophy on how to be a great leader and ensure you win in work, management, and life is often quoted – for good reason. Sun Tzu also states the “Every battle is won before it is fought” – a point we picked up in our Rule No2.
In our experience, only one third of the delegates attending our programmes spend more than one hour planning, preparing and rehearsing for a negotiation. Often this is done in a café, taxi or train en-route to a customer, or in a rushed pre-meeting, which is prone to regular interruptions, just prior to a key meeting with a supplier!
This is our “Rule Number 1 for Negotiation”. Although it may sound like a statement of ‘the blindingly obvious’, we are still struck by the number of people who fail to ask for what they want in a negotiation. In our view, ‘Asking’ is the most important discipline in negotiation. Have you ever wondered just how much money you may have left on the negotiating table because ‘you did not ask for more’? Perhaps you do not want to know, but importantly you should not want to leave any more in the future! If so, read on...
NewDawn led a module on Category Market Positioning for Sales Leaders in the Consalia Sales Leadership Masters Programme. The module helps the cohort delegates to understand how purchasers think and operate in order to help them manage relationships with the procurement world more effectively.
A unique skills development programme, developed in 2014 for a global manufacturer in the milking industry for the Global Sourcing teams, continued to run again in both 2018 and 2019. The latter programme was at the specific request of one of the main board who had seen significant ROI, and wanted to extend it to a number of very senior managers in other functions who have an impact on the overall value improvement programme.
Working with a Private Equity client to upskill their Business Development Team in Complex Relationship based negotiations, with regard to the acquisition, and then improvement, of private schools. Subtle but effective processes have been successfully implemented and client is ahead of target.
Working with a Pan-European PR and Communications Group to provide detailed Consultancy support and co-facilitation for both the EMEA and UK businesses specifically supporting launch programmes at New Business Development days to improve revenue and margin growth plans
The partnership led 2 substantial long-term consultancy and training projects during the year focused at improving Procurement Performance:
We are privileged to have worked with some of the best global, regional and national companies. Here is a snap shot of some of those companies:
