This month I am sharing an article that Tom Murray has written on a key leadership skill, not simply for negotiating with customers but also with your teams and suppliers.
Tom is our Mediation and Negotiation expert and works in collaboration with Hyperion on our team engagement programme, he can be contacted through his site at http://www.mediationpractice.ie/
Simply put, no they are not. Every-one of us is a negotiator and a deal maker, whether you’re in the home, business or politics you are making deals every day. From getting your boy to tidy his room, arranging a night out with your friends, buying a car, running and empire or a country, we are always making deals, and the process is the same.
Problem Solve
Always think of a negotiation and a deal as two parties with a common problem they need to solve, it should not be one side trying to be the winner or beat down the other. You might do that once but it will be the last time you deal together. A good deal improves the relationship between the two parties. Good negotiators think long term, they think of repeat business.
Negotiations in a real life situation
Imagine making a deal to get to the pub to watch the game with your mates, being brave and bullish you get to the pub, but you forget home time and arrive late in a taxi drunk. It might just be the last game you get to see for a while. What if the deal was you went, had a few drinks, came home after the game and you took the kids for a while so your wife got a break too. You could get out for all the big games that way.
In business it’s the same
Consider the supplier whose is under pressure to reach sales targets, often the case in the current economic climate. He wants more of business, cheaper distribution costs and to reach his sales targets. The retailer needs stock consistency and better pricing. They have a shared problem, they both need each other and they both need to increase profitability and consistency from the deal. The solution, the supplier identifies what he need per month to make sales targets, this may mean he get some new products onto his order book, and he gets constant volume and value for 12 months. He can then approach his monthly targets with confidence. He is happy. The retailer gets consistent supply on a regularised basis, but more importantly can negotiate much better prices on existing lines because of the new lines, regular orders and monopoly on supply.
Importantly they both feel they do well out of the deal, they both make more money and they establish a preferential customer and supplier relationship. When they shake hands they do it with confidence knowing that they have both made a wise deal with long lasting potential.