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30 FEDA News & Views 800-651-2711 www.englishmfg.com "The Sneeze Guard With Curve Appeal" ™ continued on page 32 Negotiation Styles continued When to use? When you are pushed for time and you are dealing with someone you trust, or when you have nothing left to offer, and this is the only way to seal the deal. Both parties win and lose, but make sure you win the right things and lose the right things. What's the Danger? Using compromise as an excuse for not preparing properly can become a bad habit. Without quality negotiation training, most negotiators wing it and end up compromising. If the out- come of the negotiation is critical, then you should not com- promise on things that you absolutely must have. Remember, the negotiator who starts with the more ambitious opening position wins the compromise. So calculate early on who stands to gain if it comes down to compromises. Lastly, if you become known for being more accommodat- ing, be prepared for an onslaught. Your trading partners will wise up to your negotiation style and they will start to make more and more extreme opening positions. Bigger opening positions result in greater chances of deadlocks. Compromises cheat both sides out of innovative solutions. How to Defend Only retreat within your position when you have a solid rationale for doing so. Trade across goals and interest. All too often, negotiators try to resolve a single goal at a time before moving on to the next tabled agenda item. Stay with the prob- lem or opportunity for longer periods of time. Don't give in so easily to the temptation of splitting differences until you've explored other alternatives. If the other party starts with an extreme opening position, be sure to quickly bring them back to reality or counter with your own extreme position. Of course, extreme positions can lead to drawn out dog fights that result in more deadlocks. Collaborate (I Win - You Win) Most people confuse Win/Win or the collaboration style with the compromising style. This is most definitely not the case. Win/Win is about making sure both parties have their needs or goals met, while creating as much mutual value as time and resources allow. Collaborative profile negotiators are adamant that their needs must be met and they acknowledge that the other party has needs that must be met, too. Tragically, too many account managers are overly accommodating and compromising, leav- ing the door open for competitive-style buyers to get more than their fair share. On the other hand, when these same buyers come up against skilled collaborative negotiators, blunt coercion methods don't get rewarded with concessions. Too many buyers are stretched and under tremendous time pres- sure, so instead of investing time in collaboration, the tempta- tion to compromise wins out.