Your Underdeveloped Commercial Negotiation Skills Capability Could Cause Critical Negotiations To Fail Due To Inappropriate Preparation
Two parties are engaged in a negotiation - one achieves his/her objective(s) and is delighted, whilst the other walks away unhappy with the outcome. Does this scenario sound familiar?
How often have you felt displeased with an agreement that you have reached? Have you sometimes entered into a settlement only to feel remorse soon after reaching a settlement?
SUCCESS VS FAILURE
What differentiates success vs failure in commercial negotiations?
Most of us recognise the importance of preparation to achieve positive results and it is therefore remarkable to note that the majority of business negotiators do not spend adequate time planning for negotiations, often due to insufficient negotiation training. Professional sports people spend notably more time preparing for a championship than they spend in competition; should it not be the same for business negotiators?
THE EVIDENCE
Business negotiators only spend around 1/3 as much time preparing for negotiation as they actually spend in negotiation. If you were a professional sports person, this would mean that you spent only 1/3 as much time training & planning as you do competing. The foremost contributor to profitable business negotiation results is the quality of your preparation for the negotiation.
As a matter of negotiation strategy, consider the following key 5 elements of preparation and at the same time you will simultaneously enhance your negotiation skills:
1. Understand Yourself
Before we even apply best- and leading practice negotiation, it is imperative that we first understand our own strengths & weaknesses and it is vital that we make use of personal profiling tools to emphasise our areas of preference within the context of business negotiations, which enables us to have a reference point from which to plot our skills development.
2. Vision
What is the fundamental aim behind the negotiation? Is the negotiation about price or is it about the value that can be added? What are the key motivating factors behind your counterparty's position? What common ground, if any, exists between your and your counterparty's vision? It is key to understand the drivers or silent motivations behind the positions of all parties to the negotiation and it is only by asking questions that we will discover these motivations.
3. Value
What are the key deal goals being targeted in this negotiation? What are the facts and figures supporting the negotiation environment? What alternatives does each party have, if any? Once again we should try to recognise, prioritise & weigh the goals of all parties to the negotiation and only then are we in a position to highlight those goals that are shared and at the same time deal with those objectives that are likely to trigger conflict.
4. Process
Have you spent time preparing an agenda for your forthcoming negotiation? Have you noted all the trades that you will give & receive? Do you have tools/templates at your disposal to support the efficiency of the negotiation process.?
5. Relationship
It is easy to forget that we deal with individuals who have goals & aspirations not unlike our own and it is not always just about the facts & figures. The research is clear that people are more likely to deal with those whom they trust & like, than with those with whom they little in common. Try to focus on those elements that you share with your negotiation counterparts, and do not forget to focus on the people.