Negotiation

 

"A miser and a liar bargain quickly".

Introduction:-

            According to the American management to Guru, the key attributes of the successful negotiator are the willingness to take risks, the ability to think under stress and stamina and patience. Pierre Cases lists three key skills for international negotiator,

• See the world as others see it
• Deal with ambiguous situations
• Express yourself so that everyone can understand.

          It is very important for second language negotiator to express themselves so that everyone can understand. There is five steps to improve our ability to negotiate clearly in English.,

1. Be prepared
2. Funnel your questions
3. If... , Then...
4. Recognise hidden signals
5. Use silence

1. Be prepared:-

             For international negotiation, it is necessary to 'Be prepared'. The preparation might take you little time, but it will help you to discover linguistic shortcomings. That will give you time to correct them. It is vital to have clear goal. For that you need to ask yourself three basic questions.,

• What is the optimum result I want?
• What is my walk away point?
• What is my BANTA ? ( Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement)

                  In other words, we need to decide three key points.,

• What you hope to gain
• The level where agreement becomes impossible
• What alternative you have if the negotiation fails

          After preparation of these elements, you need to put yourself in other side's shoe and ask yourself the same questions. By this exercise, you will know the sticking points. Also you need not to forget to take into consideration the positive or negative history of the relationship and what do you know about the cultural background of your negotiation partner, and their level of thinking.

             

            It is said that "failing to plan is planning to fail". So, these preparations allow you to rehearse and practice the language. Without pre- prepared and clearly stated in the target, you can concentrate on the negotiation process itself, rather than be struggling to find right words and argument.

2. Funnel your questions:- 

         In international negotiation it's important to make sure that you check your preparation and assumptions before start the hard bargaining. The questioning funnel is a practical tool to help you in this process.

         According to the questioning funnel it is necessary to start with general open questions like, issues, attitudes, opinions, feelings, context, relationships, need, etc. In a second step it is amiable to ask framing questions like How do you intend to market this? or How do you normally approve suppliers? In a third step you need to ask the questions based on "What if..." structure and to ask for evidence. After that a negotiator needs to check or specify the questions of their partner what he wants to ask. Then pushing questions and blockbuster questions. The questioning funnel closed with facts, figures, statics, information and hard issues.

 

         In short, this process funnel your questions will help you to check your preparation and assumptions before start the hard bargaining. You can also help this process along tell me more at any stage along the funnel. Silence is also a way to encouraging someone to add information to something they have said.

3. If... , Then...  :-

       Successful negotiation depends on bargaining, with both sides making proposals and counter proposals link it clearly to certain conditions.

As a competent international negotiator we need to be able to deal with different kinds of conditional sentences in English to send correct message to or business partner. For that we need three things.,

1. Make your own offers clear
2. Understand what the other side is offering
3. Indicate your level of acceptance or rejection of the offers

        There are many different types of conditional sentences in English and most of that are not complicated. How to use conditionals in negotiation with only need three basic forms that covers most of what you need to say. Which are...,

(a) You want to make a proposal which is likely or possible:-

        To signal to your partner that you think agreement is near and likely, the most common and easy conditional is;

     "If you accept the new delivery terms, then we will give you a 4% discount."

But don't use the future 'will' in the 'if' part of the sentence.

(b)  You want to make a proposal which is less likely or improbable:-

               

"If you accepted the new delivery terms, then we would give you a 2% discount."

    

            This conditional gives the feelings that you think your partner will be more reluctant to accept your proposal for you are making a counter proposal to an offer of theirs that you are not happy about.

But don't use 'would' in the 'if' part of the sentence.

(c). You want to show clearly that your partner's terms are unacceptable:- 

"If you had agreed to the New delivery terms, then we would have given you a 3% discount." ( But you didn't and so we won't)

This conditional is used after the negotiation to show what might have happened. But don't put would have in both parts of the conditional.

   

        So these three conditionals will help you to to deal with your partner easily and clearly.

4. Recognise hidden signals:- 

          Giving and understanding signals are all part of the skills of negotiating. But this can be problem for a second language speaker. For that you have to learn to listen between the lines listen for the words that more definite statements more tentative and listened for statement which only rule out one of any possible alternatives. For example.,

#We never negotiate on price!

This sounds very definite, but the hidden signal is that they would discuss delivery quality and quantities.

#These are our standard contract terms.

The implication is that there are also non standard terms available.

#We could not produce those quantities in that time frame.

But they are prepared to negotiate either the quantities or the times.

#Our price for that quantity is $40,000.

Different quality, different price!

#These are extremely reasonable conditions which we propose.

This is the position their prefer, but it's negotiable

         There is another kind of hidden signal. Some cultures preferred to understate difficulties and differences of opinion for the sake of politeness and to maintaining harmonious business relationship because they want to imply that all problems can be solved.  There are quantifiers like, bit, some, slight, a little, a few, minor, etc. that mean the problem is actually a considerable one. But while using this quantifiers, you need to make sure that you ask for clarification:

For example.,

#"There is a short delay in production." Check the exact timing.

"#I have some doubts about the project"  How many are some?

#"There seems to be a slight misunderstanding"  This is often used as a serious warning of difficulties.

'#"We just need a little more time"  Try to get your business partner to specify exactly how much more time they need.

   

             These understatements are not usually deliberate attempts to hide the truth. But be aware that soft words can sometimes hide deep this agreement.

     

5. Use silence:-

            Silence is a more important tool in negotiation. We are surrounded by the sea of noise from people and machine in our modern international business lives. But on the other hand, we know that silence can be a powerful and effective tool in our communication. In most European business situations.,

# Upto five seconds of silence listening is perceived as allowing the other person to gather their thoughts.

# Up to twenty seconds of silence is seen as encouraging them to continue speaking and adding to what they have already said.

# Over twenty seconds is perceived as pressuring them to make a confidential confession - as used in police interrogation!

          So silence is key listening skill which shows the concentration on what our business partner is speaking, that gives them time to think and encourage them to continue. If we remain silent, the other person will often add that piece of information we need in order to judge whether a deal is possible.

   

          Saying nothing can be as powerful as saying something. If you made a clear proposal say, So what do you think? and then sit back and wait. This often has the effect of forcing a concession from the other side. Silence is also useful when presenting your ideas. If you pause before part of your message, your business partner automatically sharpen their attention. If you pause after a statement, this underlines the importance of what you have just said.

Conclusion:-

               In a nutshell, we need to take these 5 tips into consideration before the negotiation or during the negotiation to make it successful. These will help you to deal with your business partner clearly. 

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