Once Upon a Deal…: Stories about life, work and negotiation

By Scotwork Blog Group

Negotiation is everywhere. Even though we use it all the time - at work, at home, with family and friends – many of us are negotiating without realising it. Negotiation can be described as the process of getting what we want, from people who want something from us and is an art built around the science of a defined process, the Scotwork 8-Step Framework.

For a number of years, our negotiation experts have written about the issues of the day and have compiled a selection of negotiation stories for this book. Once Upon a Deal… brings colour to our framework to help you think differently about negotiation and help you be more in control and confident to enable you to get what you want and contribute to enhanced collaborative interactions.

Get ready…

SCOTWORK has been in the business of developing capability in commercial negotiation for nearly 50 years: these entertaining stories are drawn from the team’s extensive and rich experience across many sectors and situations

• Language: English
• Publisher: Practical Inspiration Publishing
• Release date: May 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9781788604130

Scotwork Blog Group

The team of negotiation experts at Scotwork regularly post short stories on the company’s blog illustrating the way in which this essential skill for life and business plays out in companies around the world every day. Scotwork has been in the business of developing capability in commercial negotiation for nearly 50 years, and continues to lead the way in helping people not just negotiate better, but enjoy the process more.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

EFFECTIVE PREPARATION

Preparation is vital in negotiation; many would argue that it’s the most important of the 8-Steps. The more complex the negotiation, the greater the need for preparation; however, this process needs to be gone through for even the most basic negotiations. To maximise its effectiveness, herewith is a checklist of the key components.

•What are my objectives ? What do I want or need to achieve?

•What are my must-haves ? The things you must get to do a deal – this requires rigour.

•What are my intends ? What are the things that I realistically would like to have?

•What is my strategy (often confused with objectives)? How will I get there? Also, you need to consider alternative strategies.

•What is my wish list ? What else can I ask for? Develop this list, ignoring any constraints.

•What is my concession list ? What can I offer the other party to get my wish list items?

Give yourself sufficient time to go through this process; it will serve you well. It is also important to repeat the exercise, looking at the negotiation from the other party’s perspective, essentially to walk in their shoes.

If you’re working in a team, take the time beforehand to run this process together. It will always be time very well spent. You put yourself at a major disadvantage if you go into a negotiation unprepared, particularly if the other party has prepared, which should always be your going-in assumption, not to mention the advantage you get if the converse is true!

In the bubble – How preparation gives you a shot at the title…

Alan Smith

(Published 13th July 2017)

For two weeks of the year, I become a bit of a tennis fan. These weeks coincide with the Wimbledon fortnight, possibly one of the most eagerly awaited tennis tournaments in the world.

When I was much younger, it was the time of year that my friends and I rushed off to the local tennis courts that were usually empty, but now thronged with queues of similarly inspired youths fancying a hit. I thought I was pretty good until I actually played someone who played regularly, and then realised I was pretty useless. Lacked the skills to be honest, but probably didn’t have the mindset either. McEnroe-esque in my attitude and verbiage.

Some years ago, Johanna Konta reached the semi-finals of the Wimbledon event, which represented a fantastic display of skill, grit, determination and effort.

Johanna Konta said that she was ‘tremendously proud of being part of a little bit of history’ after becoming Britain’s first women’s Wimbledon semi-finalist for 39 years. ‘Ever since I was nine years old, I’ve believed in my own ability and dreamed big,’ Konta told BBC Sport. ‘I don’t give myself too much time to dream and focus on the work.’

What really interests me about professional sports people is their ability to control the situations that they find themselves in and channel their abilities in times of huge stress. Watching Konta at Wimbledon, or Owen Farrell kicking the penalty to tie the series between the British Lions and the All Blacks at Eden Park, they seem to be able to rise above the moment and find the zone. Or, as Tracy Austin described it, ‘being in the bubble’.

Being in the bubble requires us to be in control of our own behaviour. The chief thing we need to be able to do in dealing with a difficult or challenging situation, or person, is to control ourselves. That requires preparation. There is a direct relationship between preparation and anxiety: the more prepared you are, the fewer situations you have to deal with on the fly.

Many negotiators turn up to the challenging negotiations they face with little structured planning or forethought. The equivalent to rocking up at Wimbledon in Dunlop Green Flash and expecting to be able to handle the Centre Court.

They simply can’t. Or should I say shouldn’t.

Fundamental to preparation is to imagine what do I do if things do not go to plan? How do I flex? How do I get out of the way of myself? How can I create time if I need it?

Get that right and you will have a much better shot at the title.

On the ropes – If data is at play, make sure you’ve mastered it…

Stephen White

(Published 18th May 2017)

For as long as politicians are poorly briefed and manifesto promises incorrectly costed with policies not properly thought through, they will struggle in the face of good interviewers, whose goal is to catch them out on data issues and produce cringe-making sound bites for the entertainment of the public. Laura Kuenssberg’s seven-time question to Jeremy Corbyn about his commitment to take the UK out of the EU whatever the deal achieved at the end of the two years (the data-answer to which was a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’) left Corbyn looking unsure of his own policy and was the segment of the interview that led the news, at the expense of a focus on Labour Party policy announcements.

The syndrome is common not just in political interviewing but also in commercial negotiating. Data has become an increasingly important element of the negotiating process; many negotiations don’t move forward until conflicts in data and its interpretation are resolved and often these data conflicts become negotiations in themselves. Most salespeople can tell stories of being unprepared for an onslaught of data requests from a buyer for which they had no answers, sometimes because they were ill prepared, or because no one had thought to collect the data in the first place. In the face of these demands the inexperienced mumble and fumble, mis-speak, get confused, lose confidence and end up looking, sounding and feeling stupid, which from the buying side of the table is exactly the objective because a despondent seller does poorer deals.

Of course, the preventative to this embarrassment is good preparation particularly in terms of exploring the negotiating counterparties’ likely behaviour, which in this case will include an analysis of the data they might demand, rehearsing the responses which will be most effective and thinking about the unintended consequences that might result. If the then Labour Shadow Home Secretary had revealed that the true cost of adding 10,000 extra police was £300 million not £300,000, the obvious question would become ‘where will that money come from?’

But I would argue that the attacking behaviour of the questioner/interviewer is actually often counterproductive. It might make good TV, or shift the power balance in a negotiation, but it is not revelatory of the facts and in a commercial environment will possibly close down any previous plan to engage collaboratively. The spat between Theresa May and the EU bureaucrats about what was said at a dinner at Downing Street is a case in point. Lack of data (the facts) simply sours the relationship and makes future negotiations that bit more difficult. Yes, of course we all know this is just posturing by both sides, but it has pernicious side effects and is better avoided unless there is a specific thought-through