Use Innovative Negotiation Techniques To Negotiate Successfully In Tough Economic Times
May 18th, 2008 |In tough economic times, you can still negotiate successfully. When economic times become tough, people and businesses attempt to stretch their resources. People may become more stringent with their resources, but that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve the goal of the negotiation. It only means you have to become more innovative and imaginative to reach the goals you seek.
When becoming innovative and imaginative, the preplanning process (the process of gathering background information on the subject of the negotiation) must become more intense and more pointed towards the goal the other person has for the negotiation. The reason that becomes more paramount is due to the fact that you’ll need more information from which to offer additional reasons, benefits, and purposes to convince your negotiation partner to ’see things your way’. In addition, if you can offer some specialty item, service, or product that you’ve uncovered in the wishes of the person you’re negotiating with, you stand a better chance of persuading that person to accept your offer over another. That being the case, what are some techniques you can use to become more innovative and imaginative when negotiating? The following are some suggestions to help you towards that end …
- After gathering your background information assess the perceived value your negotiation partner may have for what you’re offering.
- As a backup strategy, think of how you can ‘add value’ to how your offer is perceived.
- Think ‘outside of the box’. For the purposes of the negotiation, act like there is no box. What you’re attempting to achieve is a mindset that will lead you to thinking of creative, different, and what some may think are zany ideas. Don’t hold back. Sit down and write everything that comes to your mind, regardless of how ‘crazy’ it may sound.
- Bounce your ideas for counter offers and offerings off someone you respect as having an open mind and a flair for creativity. (Make sure that person/people is someone you trust. You don’t want your ideas floating back to the source with whom you’ll be negotiating.)
- After you’ve gathered and assembled your background information identify other entities you might be able to retrieve additional resources from to give you added leverage during the negotiation. The purpose of doing this is to have something ‘up your sleeve, in a good way,’ that you can use to enhance your negotiation position.
I recall a situation where two businesses were negotiating and the outcome hinged on price. Neither side was willing to budge until one of the participants realized, through the process of gathering background information that the other was in desperate need of wooden planks for a process in their operations. When the offer was made to have the parts that the first business was negotiating shipped in boxes, made up of wooden planks, both sides realized that this was an ingenious solution to their problem and the deal was consummated. Now that’s innovation!
There are all kinds of opportunities that abound when people perceive economic times as being tough. When you negotiate, I suggest you change your outlook by changing your perception. Opportunities to negotiate successfully are still out there, you just have to become more creative at uncovering them. Once you do, you’ll discover there are more opportunities than you ever could have imagined … and everything will be right with the world.
The negotiation lessons are …
- Tough times are a mindset. During tough times, become more creative to negotiate more successful outcomes.
- It’s always wise to gather what you might consider to be sufficient background information on the person/people with whom you’ll be negotiating. During tough times, allocate more time for that purpose. After gathering the information, let it rest for a period of time. Then, go back to it to determine how you can enhance that information to give you additional leverage during the negotiation.
- To become more creative when negotiating, don’t limit your imagination. Consult with close confidants to brainstorm in an ‘everything goes’ session. Reserve the ideas that have less merit for the negotiation at hand, for the possibility of later use, and expand upon the ones that have immediate usage.
Greg Williams - The Master Negotiator
http://www.TheMasterNegotiator.com
http://www.YourEmergingSmallBusiness.com
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