Negotiation and Persuasion Part 2
During episode six of the first season, the two groups had to use their negotiation skills to negotiate auction events with celebrities they were assigned. Each team was assigned a list of celebrities. They were responsible for negotiating with the celebrities an event that could be auctioned off at a charity auction. Versacorp, led by Bill, was assigned Regis Philbin, a TV personality; Rocco Dispiaito, a chef/restauranteur of NBC’s The Restaurant fame; Carson Daly, host of Last Call With Carson Daly; Tiki Barber, pro football player; and Ed Bernerd, Executive Producer of Third Watch. Protégé, with Omarosa at the helm, was assigned Russell Simmons, a hip hop mogul and producer and co-founder of Baby Phat; Kate White, Editor in Chief of Cosmopolitan magazine; Nicole Miller, fashion designer; the cast of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy; and Isaac Mizrahi, fashion designer.
Both teams did a great job, and Trump was quite pleased with the $75,000 that was raised for the charity. However, Versacorp’s $40,000 was greater than Protégé’s $35,000, and therefore someone from Protégé had to be fired. Jessie was the weakest negotiator on the team, and that, combined with her inability to stand up to Omarosa’s rudeness, led to her being fired.
This was a different kind of negotiation. Rather than negotiate for a price, the teams had to negotiate an event the celebrity was willing to donate to the charity auction. Persuasion was the key here, and we will look at four stages of persuasion and several other negotiation factors. In this section, we will look at:
· Four Stages of Persuasion
· Persuasion Strategies and Techniques
· Learn to Say No
· Negotiating Techniques
Four Stages of Persuasion and Negotiation
Author and professional speaker Roger Dawson sets forth four stages of persuasion in his book Secrets of Power Persuasion. Knowing and following these stages is like having a blue print or a planned course for the process of persuasion and will greatly increase the likelihood of successfully persuading and negotiating a deal.
The four stages are: 1. Establishing Objectives; 2. Finding Out What The Other Side Wants; 3. Identifying The Pressure Points; and 4. Looking For Compromise. By working through these four stages, you can more easily persuade the other person to see it your way and make the deal.
It seems obvious, but many people enter negotiations without knowing what they really want. You must establish clear objectives at the beginning. Having a clear goal and plan is the first step toward successfully negotiating your position. Do not start until you have established your objectives.
Equally important as knowing what you want, is knowing what the other person wants to get from the meeting. People do not do things unless they feel it is in their best interest to do so. Persuasion is not getting people to act contrary to their own goals. Persuasion is positioning people so they want to do what you want them to do. Persuasion and negotiation should be win-win. The other person wins by seeing the benefits of moving in a particular direction, and you win because the move also benefits you. Determining the other side’s needs enables you to focus on the motivating factors to get them to see things your way.
Identifying pressure points entails assessing how much power you have and looking at alternatives for each side. If you can not persuade someone to your point of view, you examine alternatives. This is much easier to do when you know your objectives and the other side.
Once you assess the power of the other side and examine alternatives, you can move to the last stage of persuasion, looking for areas where you can make concessions to the other side. Making concessions enables the other side to also concede on certain points moving the negotiation closer to a deal. You want to make concessions that lead to a win-win and an agreement that will last.
If you plan your negotiation
approach, including each of the
Persuasion Strategies and Techniques
One persuasion strategy is to ask for more than you expect to get. By asking for more, when you scale back your request, an obligation is created on the part of the other person to make a reciprocal concession. This comes about from the sense of fair play most people have, and creating an obligation can be a powerful persuasion technique. This technique seems simple, and it is. However, many people have difficulty in asking for what they feel they are entitled too, let alone more than what they expect to get. It is not enough to have the courage and confidence to request what you want. You must also be brave enough to ask for more than expected. When you then scale back the request, you will create the obligation in the mind of the other person and will be more apt to receive what you feel you are entitled to. By starting high, you can give more concessions and still achieve your negotiation goals.
Another strategy to create an obligation is to volunteer concessions that do not hurt your position. Rather than asking yourself, “what can I get from them, and how can I get it,” ask “What can I give that will not take away from my position?” When you give something the opposite side values, an obligation is created in their mind. Give them what they want and there is a good chance they will give you what you want. Never assume that the other side wants the same thing that you want. Quite often long negotiations become frustrating only to find out later both sides wanted entirely different things and they could have agreed on them much earlier.
Besides concessions, you can also create obligations by giving something
else. You can give a gift, flowers,
or simply a gift of thoughtfulness. This
does not mean bribes or other unethical and possibly illegal measures.
This strategy is used by certain salespeople, such as
Do not think of creating obligations just to be manipulative. Negotiation is always adversarial to some degree. Using these techniques is not unethical, even when you do not obtain the best result for both parties. Of course they can be used unethically, but if you use them in a manipulative unethical way you will not be doing deals for long, and word will get out and you will lose all of your persuasive power. There is nothing wrong with trying to get the best deal you can achieve; that is what negotiation is all about. You can use negotiation and persuasion techniques and still be ethical. Creating obligations is a persuasive strategy that can be used to work toward win-win solutions, or to work toward achieving the best possible outcome for your business or self. That in itself is not unethical. Do not feel bad about using such techniques, your competition uses them.
Learn to Say No
“You’ll be amazed how the terms of your deals will improve when you learn to say NO,” says Harvey Mackay in Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive. Mackay is right, saying “no” can be a great asset in the negotiation process. Besides using “no” as a means to improve the terms of the deal in your favor, saying “no” can keep you from jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
Often, people get so invested in the process of making a deal they fail to realize an agreement is something not only should they stop considering, but something they should be running from. It is easy to fall into this trap. After many hours and resources are poured into making a deal, one does not want to abandon the outcome and say no and walk away. Even when it is clear parties need to say no and walk away, they do not do it. It is clear to everyone but the person caught up in the middle of the process. You must be willing to say no and walk away when the deal is not right. Do not for a minute think it will all work out or you have too much invested to walk away.
Negotiating Techniques
There are numerous negotiating techniques. It is prudent to familiarize yourself with various negotiating strategies not only to know when to select strategies based on your goals, but to recognize when your opponent is using them against you.
Timing is one technique of negotiation. Time can be used to extend the negotiations until they are more favorable. This gives you more time to think and gives the other side time to think as well. Surprise is another timing technique. Surprise can be when a party suddenly shifts the negotiation method, argument, or approach. The change is usually drastic or dramatic to produce surprise. One of the biggest surprises is when a party presents a change in the facts. Another time oriented strategy is doing something and presenting the opponent with a, “now it is up to you,” demand. Sometimes this can backfire, but at other times it can help produce the desired result.
Other strategies are based on who. One such strategy is to enlist the aid of other parties on your behalf, either directly or indirectly. People with greater authority, recognition, or power can be important allies in the negotiation process.
And finally, the strategy or technique of using an agent in negotiations
should not be forgotten. Often it
can be expedient to let an agent conduct your negotiation for you.
It will be up to you to delegate the proper authority to your agent to
ensure they can accomplish what you desire.
While it can be desirable to have an agent in one’s own cause, it is
best to avoid dealing with the adversary’s agent if at all possible.
You should always do everything you can to deal with the principle.
Remember the Trump Time Out from the chapter Know
Your Client, “Making deals can be tough.
I learned at a young age that you have to deal with the boss.
It’s very simple, deal with the boss whenever possible.”
Important Lesson
from The Apprentice, Season Three.
During episode eight of the third season, the teams were assigned a similar negotiation task to episode six of the first season. The two teams used negotiation skills to raise money for The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation. This time, each team was assigned five music artists to negotiate a personal experience to be auctioned off during a live segment on FUSE TV. Net Worth, led by Chris, was assigned Barenaked Ladies, Gene Simmons, New Found Glory, Simple Plan, and Fat Joe. Magna, led by Kendra, was assigned Lil Kim, Lil Jon, Moby, Eve, and Jadakiss. Chris sent John, Erin, and Stephanie to negotiate the experiences, while he stayed to work on the production aspects of the task. Kendra set out with Tana and Craig to meet with the artists. After meeting the first couple, Kendra thought Tana and Craig could negotiate the remaining experiences without her, so she returned to work on production.
Right off the bat, a huge mistake of John’s was clearly evident. George said, “I think Net Worth made an error. I do a lot of negotiation. I teach a course in negotiation. It’s very hard when you start with certain ideas that they had already preconceived. It’s hard to get something greater than that.” John’s big mistake was outlining three experiences for each artist, with the number one experience being a house party where the artist would perform a gig at the winner’s house. While he was negotiating these, Tana and Craig were securing week long experiences with Lil Kim and Moby. It was not hard to guess which would bring more money, a couple hour gig at someone’s house, or the chance to spend a week traveling first class and playing a set with Moby while on stage.
What made this blaring mistake even more evident was that several of the
artists suggested to John,
Rather than take them up on it and brainstorm greater experiences, John stuck with the smaller events. This blaring mistake came back to haunt John in the boardroom after Net Worth raised $11,325 to Magna’s $21,654. The two week-long experiences raised over $19,000 of that total. Expert negotiator George led the discussion by stating, “You may have thought you did a great job, selling them what you sold them, but you didn’t sell them what you could have sold them. You didn’t push them. You didn’t appeal to their ego. All you had to do with someone like Fat Joe is, ‘look, you make a tremendous amount of money, why don’t you give it to a wonderful charity? Come up with something that’s going to knock them off their socks.”
John argued that before they went in, they had three possibilities of what they would ask for and what he thought was the top event. George replied, “Why didn’t you put on your list something they could back off of? Like stay with them for a month and teach everything they know. They wouldn’t accept that, but at least you’ve set the tone. Go in with a party, you are already down there. That they can live with. Gene Simmons gave you the opportunity, he said ‘I want to be number one.’ Gene, if you want to be number one, we need to do something spectacular.”
George’s comments were right on the money. In the end, Trump told John he did a terrible job negotiating. He told him, “Your concept was no good. You asked for the wrong thing. John, you’re fired.”
Trump
Time Out – Know What You’re Up Against
“Negotiation is a very, very delicate art. The big thing in negotiation is to try and figure out your opponent. Otherwise, you’re going to look like an idiot and lose big.” - Donald Trump from The Apprentice, season one, episode six.
Trump’s golden rule of negotiating is “He who has the gold makes the rules.” Gold here does not just refer to a person’s bank roll but to the knowledge he or she brings to the negotiation table. Knowledge is power, and the more you know about your opponent the better. Trump repeats this in his book How To Get Rich, “If you walk into a negotiation and know nothing about the other party, let them talk, listen to their tone, observe their body language, and determine whether they really want to make a deal or just show you how smart they are.”