Posts Tagged ‘concessions’

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Why A Missing Person May Be A Negotiator’s Best Friend

Friday, August 26th, 2011
Image Credit When Somebody Isn't There, They Control The Negotiations

When Somebody Isn't There, They Control The Negotiations

Is it possible that a person who is not present at a negotiation could be the one person who controls how the negotiation turns out? The answer, somewhat surprisingly, turns out to be an unequivocal yes! If you want to make this negotiating technique work for you (and learn how to defend against it), we’re going to have to have a talk…

What Is The Missing Person Authority Tactic?

In order for a sales negotiation to wrap up, you always need a person on your side of the table to approve the final deal. Once you’ve got all of the details worked out, the final step in the process is for the deal to be presented to this person in order to get their stamp of approval.

The missing person tactic occurs when after all of the negotiations have wrapped up, this very important person is nowhere to be found. If they can’t be found, they can’t sign off on the deal that has been reached. This means that things go into a weird sort of suspend animation while everyone waits for that person to reappear.

How Can You Use A Missing Person To Your Advantage?

The power associated with this tactic comes from the simple fact that all that waiting can play havoc with the other side of the table. As the days slip away, the simple fact that they are so tantalizingly close to having a completed deal starts to eat at them.

Soon they start to become desperate to close the deal. As they search for ways to move things to a close, they start to offer to make additional concessions. Perhaps small concessions in the beginning, but these can become much larger offers as time moves on. Although they are giving something up by making these offers, they view it as a last ditch effort to salvage a deal that seems to be slipping away.

The secret to the missing person tactic is that more often than not, the person with final approval authority really isn’t missing. Instead they just didn’t want to sign the deal as it originally stood. By making themselves “unavailable” they were able to ratchet up the pressure on the other side of the table and improve the quality of the deal that was finally presented to them.

How Can You Defend Against The Missing Person Tactic?

Hopefully you can see how powerful the missing person tactic can be. This does bring up the awkward question about what you should do if you find yourself in a situation where this tactic is being used against you.

Clearly you can’t stop someone from employing the missing person tactic against you; however, you can change how you and your firm react to it. The reason that this tactic is so successful is that it uses time to cause you to do things that you normally would not do.

When you find yourself being subjected to this tactic, the #1 thing that you need to do, and do quickly, is to let everyone at your company understand what is happening. You need to let them know that the negotiations have gone into a sort of “hold mode” and that they will remain there until the other side of the table decides to move things forward.

Your best defense is to do nothing. By not allowing the passage of time to get to you, you’ll take away the power that this tactic gives to the other side of the table. Eventually they’ll have to either make the missing person available to approve the deal or they’ll have to come back to the table and open up negotiations once again.

What All Of This Means For You

The world of negotiating is filled with different ways to bend the other side of the table to your way of thinking. The missing person tactic is a classic way of doing this.

By ensuring that a person who is required to approve any deal that is made becomes “unavailable”, you have the ability to put pressure on the other side of the table. As time drags on they’ll become more and more desperate to close the deal. This is when they will start to make more concessions just to wrap things up. You need to be careful to not fall into the same trap when this tactic is applied to you.

Time is a constant factor in any sales negotiation. Using the missing person tactic allows you to harness the power of time and make it work for you. As with all tactics, you need to be careful when and how you use this approach. Done wisely, and the missing person may turn out to be the most important member of your negotiating team!

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Negotiating Skills™

Question For You: What do you think would be the right “trigger” that would cause you to start to use the missing person tactic?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.

P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Negotiator Newsletter are now available. Learn what you need to know to do the job. Subscribe now: Click Here!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

I love to negotiate. Give me an objective, sit me down across the table from somebody who has what I want and let me at them. However, as gung-ho as I am, there are times that I run out of new things to say. I’ve said it all. What should I do next?

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Why It’s Ok For A Sales Negotiator To Be Wrong

Friday, August 5th, 2011
Image Credit You Will Be Wrong Sometime. It's Ok…

You Will Be Wrong Sometime. It's Ok…

When you become the best sales negotiator in the world you’ll be right all the time. However, since you’re not there yet, you should expect to be wrong – not all the time, but at least some of the time. There are a lot of different ways to handle this, what’s the right way?

Why You’ll Be Wrong

Wait a minute, if you are a good negotiator then why would you still be making mistakes? I mean, if you take the time to prepare for the negotiation, understand the other side of the table and what they are hoping to get out of the negotiation, and are up on your negotiating tactics, then there’s no way that you can end up making mistakes, right?

Wrong. At the end of the day we’re all human and that means that we’re going to end up making mistakes. Negotiations are high-pressure communication sessions in which a great deal of information can flow back and forth over the table in a very short time. Your position and the other side’s position can change in a heartbeat and keeping up with it all can be too much for even the best of us.

At any point in time during a negotiation you may find that you’ve made a concession that you should not have. Or perhaps you’ll discover that some of the information that you presented in order to support one of your points was flawed in some way that the other side was able to point out to you. No matter the cause, the end result is the same – you find yourself being wrong.

What You Can Do When You Are Wrong

Unless you’ve successfully built yourself a time machine that you can step into whenever something like this happens, once you’re wrong, you’re wrong. This means that you’re going to have to either ignore it or take some action.

The incorrect thing to do, in most cases, is to ignore it. If you’ve given something away, made a concession that you should not have, or if you’ve said something that you wish that you could take back, then you need to undo it. This means that you tell the other side that you’ve made a mistake. You own up to your error.

A negotiation is not like carving a stone – you can undo things that have already been done. What’s even better is that you have options: you can undo things or you can ask the other side of the table to help you undo it.

No matter what, a deal requires both sides to come to agreement. If you are not happy about something that you’ve done, than this is not going to happen. Therefore, if you need to change something that has already been done just go ahead and do it. Yes, the other side is not going to be happy about this because it is going to delay the negotiations, but that’s ok. Speaking up and correcting an error is how you are going to be able to reach an agreement that you’ll feel comfortable living with.

What All Of This Means For You

Nobody is perfect and negotiators are no different than everyone else. This means that we’re going to be wrong some of the time. It’s what we do when we discover that we’re wrong that separates the adequate negotiators from the great ones.

The reason that we make mistakes during a negotiation are many and varied. It’s a high-pressure, fast moving environment and so the possibility that we’ll do or say something that we don’t mean to is very real. When we make a mistake, the best thing for us to do is to speak up. Tell the other side that you you’ve done or said something that you didn’t mean and “take it back”. A negotiation is not set in stone, you can hit rewind at any time. The other side might not be pleased, but you will feel much better for doing it.

As with all such things in life, being wrong during a sales negotiation is going to happen to all of us at probably more times than we care to admit. Realizing that it has happened is the first step to fixing the situation. Having the courage to correct it is the key to ending up with a successful deal in the end.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Negotiating Skills™

Question For You: If you say something that you shouldn’t have, do you think that you should ever call attention to it later on?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.

P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Negotiator Newsletter are now available. Learn what you need to know to do the job. Subscribe now: Click Here!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

I hate to negotiate with people who don’t know how to negotiate. Knowing this you might think that I’m always expecting the other side to be on top of things, know what they want and have a plan on how they are going to get there. It turns out that you’d be wrong – sometimes not being able to make up your mind is more powerful than knowing where you are going.

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How Would You Negotiate If You Had No Authority…?

Friday, May 13th, 2011
Image Credit Sometimes Having No Authority Is The Most Powerful Position

Sometimes Having No Authority Is The Most Powerful Position

When we talk about what it takes to be successful in your next sales negotiation, we often talk about how much authority you can bring to your side of the table. Your basic goal needs to be to show up to the negotiation with as much authority as you can bring – you are “the man” as they say. You can make decisions, cut deals, and even make concessions. You can do whatever it takes to make a deal happen. It turns out that we may have gotten this all wrong – maybe what we should be doing is showing up with no authority…

Why Having No Authority Is A Good Thing (Sometimes)

I can’t tell you how refreshing it can be to have absolutely no authority whatsoever when you are involved in a negotiation. This is often a good situation to be in when you are negotiating on the behalf of others.

If you had authority, then the other side of the table would reasonably be able to expect you to negotiate with them. Part of this would involve you giving in to some of their demands. Since you have no authority, you really can’t do this.

We encounter negotiators who have no authority all the time. Think of the last time you went to the supermarket. If you decided that US$3.00 was too much to pay for bananas, then could you corner a supermarket employee and try to bargain with them? No way – they don’t have the authority to lower the price of bananas.

How To Use Your Lack Of Authority

Instead of thinking about your lack of authority as being a handicap, try to view it as what it is: a powerful negotiating tool. What’s going on here is that when you have no authority, you get to play a different role in the negotiation.

I would argue that most car salesmen play the “no authority” role. They are able to present you with the car and they can even add and remove standard option packages in order to help you configure the car of your dreams.

However, when it comes time to talk price, they are pretty much helpless. They can ask you all sorts of questions about why you don’t think that the stated price is a fair price for the car. They can work with you to understand how much you can pay for a car. However, what they can’t do is agree to lower the price of the car.

The only person who can do that is the car dealership manager. The car salesman who has no authority over the car’s price simply acts as a conduit to the manager. He’ll take your price request up the line and come back and tell you what the decision was.

By not having full authority to make decisions, the car salesman is able to collect the information that is needed by the car dealership. Although it may seem as though he doesn’t have any negotiating power, he might actually have all the power that he needs!

What All Of This Means For You

All too often, when we think about how we want to prepare for our next negotiation, we attempt to gather as much authority for ourselves as possible. However, sometimes showing up with no authority can work in your favor.

When you or someone that you send negotiates from a position of no authority, they can’t give in. When they can’t make concessions, then all they can do is provide information to the other side of the table. Additionally, they can act as information gatherers for you so that you’ll know what the other side is trying to get out of the negotiations.

Realizing that sometimes less is more means that you have a new negotiating tool. Every negotiation needs to be evaluated before you start discussions and if the situation calls for it, feel free to show up empty handed.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Negotiating Skills™

Question For You: How long do you think that you should spend negotiating when you don’t have any authority?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Power, power, power – sales negotiations are all about who has the most power, right? Well, no – sometimes it’s about who doesn’t have the power. A case in point is when you find yourself in a situation where you have limited authority – your hands are tied. It turns out that that there are four ways that you can both be limited in your authority while at the same time gaining more power in the negotiations. I’m going to tell you how to do this…

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The Secret To Dealing With Deadlines: What Negotiators Need To Know

Friday, April 8th, 2011
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Will You Know What To Do When Time Runs Out?

Will You Know What To Do When Time Runs Out?

Just how long do you think that your next sales negotiation is going to last? I’ve got news for you – it may not last as long as you may think that it’s going to last. The reason is that either side of the table may use deadlines to help hurry things along. If this happens, will you recognize that it’s happening and, more importantly, will you know what to do when it happens to you?

What’s The Big Deal With Deadlines?

Are we all clear here on just exactly what a deadline is? A deadline is a device that can be used by either side in a negotiation to move the discussion along. Basically it’s a way to get to the end of the discussions quicker.

Just because one side of the table presents the other side with a deadline does not mean that anything is going to change. Deadlines only work if the other side of the table believes that it’s real. Oh, and sometimes they aren’t – deadlines can be made up just to help the side that’s making it up.

As a negotiator you’ve got two skills that you need to develop. The first is that you’ve got to be able to realize when a deadline is being used to motivate you to agree to a deal quicker. The other skill that you are going to need is the ability to deal with deadlines when they are presented to you. The good news is that both of these skills can be learned.

How Buyers Use Deadlines

Buyers are generally willing to work with someone who is trying to sell them something for as long as they think that they are going to be able to get a good deal from them. The quicker that they can get to a deal, the faster they can move on to the next deal. Deadlines are a powerful tool for buyers to use to accomplish this.

Buyers can use a wide variety of methods to impose deadlines on the other side of the table. One such method is to say that funding for a purchase will be going away quickly and so a deal must be struck soon. Another is to say that an they will be making a purchase, but if a deal can’t be reached quickly then it will have to be made with another firm. Finally, stating that other parties will be involved in approving any deal and that they soon won’t be available for some period of time is another time-tested method for buyers to impose deadlines.

How Sellers Use Deadlines

The other side of the deadline coin has sellers on it who like to impose deadlines almost as much as buyers do. Sellers are often working with multiple buyers at different firms and so they need to determine if a deal is even possible as quickly as possible. Using a deadline can help to get to the end of a negotiation quickly and this will free up time to work with other parties on other deals.

Sellers also have a collection of classic deadline techniques that they like to use. These include stating that a price increase is coming soon and the current price may not be available for much longer. Tying the delivery date to the date that an agreement is struck is another way of establishing a deadline. Finally, stating that there is a limited supply of what is being negotiated for can provide the sense of urgency that comes with a deadline.

How You Can Defend Against Deadlines

Detecting that a deadline is being used against you is the first skill that you need to have as a sales negotiator. The next skill that you need to develop is the ability to defend against a deadline.

The first thing that you need to realize when you are presented with a deadline is that it may not be real. A deadline is just another negotiating tactic and you need to view it as being such. Do not allow a deadline to force you into rushing to make decisions that really require more time.

Instead, what you need to do is to be skeptical about any deadline that is presented to you. After having been presented with a deadline, your next step has to be to start to test it. Ask questions and dive deeper to find out what the implications of missing the deadline are and why they are tied to the deadline.

More often than not, you are going to discover that a deadline is not a fixed thing. Instead, a deadline just like everything else in a negotiation is up for debate and can be changed.

What All Of This Means For You

Deadlines are a powerful tool that can be used by either side in a negotiation. Instead of allowing the other side to believe that they have unlimited time to complete a negotiation, the use of a deadline causes the discussions to move more quickly with a sense of urgency.

Buyers use deadlines to move a deadline forward so that they can either reach a deal with a seller or move on and start negotiations with another seller. Sellers use deadlines in an attempt to close a deal quicker. No matter who is using a deadline, when you are presented with one you need to spend some time questioning if it is a real deadline.

Deadlines will always be a part of modern negotiations. Your responsibility as a skilled negotiator is to be able to recognize when a deadline is being used and to then know how best to deal with it.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Negotiating Skills™

P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Negotiator Newsletter are now available. Learn how to close more deals — faster. Subscribe now: Click Here!

Question For You: At what point in a negotiation do you think that you should start to use a deadline?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Have you ever changed something about your appearance that made you look dramatically different? How did that go over with your family, friends, and coworkers? I’m willing to bet that right off the bat there was some shock when they first encountered your new look. However, over time that faded and things got back to normal. What happened is that they eventually came around to seeing you the way that you see yourself. When you are negotiating a deal, this same concept can be a powerful factor in helping you to wrap up a negotiation…

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The Most Important Word In Negotiating Begins With A “P”

Friday, April 1st, 2011
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Negotiators Need To Remember Who Won The Race

Negotiators Need To Remember Who Won The Race

All too often when we see negotiators in the movies, they are portrayed as slick, fast talking folks who always seem to effortlessly get their way. The first thing that we need to realize that this is the movies and so it in no way represents real life. The second thing that we need to realize is that when we see negotiators portrayed this way, we’re being taught the wrong lesson. For you see, in negotiations, speed kills…

The Most Important Word In Negotiating

The art of negotiating is truly that – an art. Sure there are a lot of skills and tactics that help one get what they want to get out of a negotiation that much quicker; however, in the end, reaching a deal with the other side takes creativity.

In this day and age of immediate gratification, the single most important word that a negotiator needs to remember is the one that it is the hardest to hear – patience. Just as the Grand Canyon was not created overnight, so to are the best negotiations not completed quickly.

If you want to have any hope of ever being a successful negotiator, then you are going to have to learn to be patient – more patient than you are today. Patience is the one thing that allows both sides of the table to work through those things that are preventing a deal from happening. It’s also how the time is found to search for more creative solution to impasses, the ones that we all like to call “win-win” solutions.

If you can slow down your natural desire to rush through a negotiation, you’ll be able to take the time to fully understand what the other side of the table is trying to accomplish. Patience is something that will also give you time to adjust to the offer that the other side of the table is making to you. What seemed unacceptable awhile ago, upon further reflection may become something that you can live with.

Why Patience Works So Well

Nobody wants to hear that having patience is the key to being a successful negotiator. We are all looking for that secret “black belt” negotiating tactic that will cause the other side of the table to roll over and give us anything that we ask them for. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way.

Instead, you have this powerful, but difficult to use strategy called patience. Patience works for you in the end not because of any magical qualities that it has, but rather because of what it allows to happen when you use it.

When you have the strength to be patient, you’ll allow the other side of the table’s expectations for what they’re going to get out of the negotiation to change. We all enter a negotiation thinking that we’re going to get everything that we want. If you can be patient, then the other side will start to understand that they’re not going to get everything that they want, but (if you’ll excuse the Rolling Stones song reference) they are going to get everything that they need.

Every negotiation is a stressful situation. Not only are the different sides exerting stress on each other, but they are also struggling with stress internally. If you have the ability to remain patient and wait them out, those internal stresses will continue to grow. If you are willing to wait long enough, those forces will cause enough stress and confusion for the other side that they’ll be more willing to reach a deal with you just to end the negotiations.

Finally, as much as you hate to be patient, the other side will hate to have you being so patient. When you are patient, things move more slowly and nobody can stand that – can’t we just get this thing done? As a direct result of your patience, the other side will start to do things in order to hurry the process up. More often than not this includes making some concessions just to get things to hurry along. Not a bad payoff for just being patient!

What All Of This Means For You

Far more important than any clever negotiating tactic, the ability to be patient is the one skill that will always serve a negotiator well. By taking the time to allow a negotiating session to unfold, a negotiator will allow more facts and realities to be revealed and by doing so it will become that much easier to eventually reach a deal with the other side.

Patience is such a powerful tool because of what it does to the other side of the table. It has the ability to transform them from an unstoppable force into a mild mannered partner.

It’s not easy to be patient during a negotiation, especially when the stakes are high. However, negotiators who can learn to be patient will find that they are the ones who are able to strike better deals quicker.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Negotiating Skills™

Question For You: Do you think that there are situations in which you need to become impatient in order to strike a deal with the other side of the table?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Negotiator Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Just how long do you think that your next sales negotiation is going to last? I’ve got news for you – it may not last as long as you may think that it’s going to last. The reason is that either side of the table may use deadlines to help hurry things along. If this happens, will you recognize that it’s happening and, more importantly, will you know what to do when it happens to you?

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