Easy Negotiation Techniques

Best Practices in Negotiation – When a Ploy Seems Like a Ploy, it Fails

Some negotiators are a little too “cute” in how they play the game.

They decide that a deal is an opportunity to assert their power, to preen, and to create confusion.

They like being the center of attention, and while ostensibly striving for agreement, they’re simply cruel kids pulling the wings off of bugs.

I’m here to tell them that their ploys however derived, from the purported gurus in the negotiation field who nibble for free nachos and neckties, or hatched in the reptilian swamps of their own minds, these tactics, if obvious to one’s bargaining counterparts, fail.

When normal folks spot slithering snakes and gaping gators, we run the other way.

Instead of creating consensus, obvious manipulators produce the opposite, distance and dissention.

“Strategy” is one of the six messages that cause people to feel defensive. That “on guard” reflex, suspecting one is under attack or being taken advantage of, that we’re a critter being poked in a petri dish, is exactly NOT helpful to generating an agreement that will be amiably upheld by the parties.

Above all, it provokes payback.

When we’re made to feel defensive we tend to strike back with precisely the same tactic, once it is uncovered.

Strategy begets strategy.

If they want to give us the silent treatment, we won’t utter a peep, no matter what. If they criticize, we criticize back.

If this sounds utterly childish and self-defeating, it is.

Tell everyone you know, especially those that like to play their negotiations “cute.”

Dr. Gary S. Goodman teaches his original seminar, “Best Practices in Negotiation” at a number of universities, corporations, non-profit organizations, and governmental agencies. A top-rated keynote speaker at conventions and conferences around the world, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, and more than 1,500 articles, which appear in approximately 25,000 publications. An attorney and communications professional, his expert commentary is featured on CNBC television and on numerous radio stations. Additionally, Dr. Goodman is the creator of Nightingale-Conant’s successful audio seminar: THE LAW OF LARGE NUMBERS: HOW TO MAKE SUCCESS INEVITABLE.

See: http://www.nightingale.com/prod_detail~product~Law_Large_Numbers.aspx His web site is http://www.customersatisfaction.com and he can be reached at gary@customersatisfaction.com