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NEGOTIATION
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CHAPTER 7
Try to think carefully about when you will make concessions, and be stingy
with what you offer. In this way you will lower your counterpart’s expectations
of a quick and easy victory. Don’t concede too much too fast. Optimally, you
should aim at getting your counterpart to make the first concession. Further,
your preparation should have told you what issues are important to you and
which are likely to be important to your counterpart. If you can concentrate on
generating a concession from your counterpart on an issue of high importance
to them while only conceding on something peripheral to you, you will appear
conciliatory and co-operative while gaining an edge.
We know some things about concessions. To make the negotiating process work,
all parties must be willing to demonstrate flexibility. Failing to do so often leads
to deadlocked agreements (failing to reach an agreement). Regardless of your
opening position leave room to manoeuvre. If you take a flexible position make
sure your counterpart is also taking a flexible position or you will be offering most
of the concessions. And, as the negotiation progresses, make sure the frequency
and value of concessions diminishes. Smaller and smaller concessions indicate a
likely resistance to further concessions. Finally, remove the audience, especially
managers, during a negotiation. The larger the audience the more difficult it
becomes to offer concessions. The possibility exists that offering concessions
will come across as weakness when others are present. In the final analysis it
is important to offer concessions during negotiations but not too many.
7.7.1 HOW TO MAKE CONCESSIONS
Concessions are what you are prepared to give away, and must be carefully
prepared. Never attempt to improvise your concessions. In doing so, you run
the greatest possible risk of giving away something that may later bear a heavy
cost. If you are faced with an experienced counterpart, he/she will attempt to
leverage the tension in the room and your nervousness to grab more than you
are able to give. So, maintaining your calm in this part of the process is essential.
A good idea is to make liberal use of your summariser and note-taker to slow
things down and buy yourself time to think. Always present a concession as: ‘If
you will... then I can/will...’ In this way you achieve a number of things:
• You send a message that you are not prepared to give things away for nothing.
• You make your counterpart work harder.
• You create the opportunity for your counterpart to revise his demands, having
realised that his power is limited.
Give yourself room to negotiate. Start high if you are selling and low if you are
buying. Have a reason for starting where you do. Don’t start at such an extreme
position that hostility will be created. Encourage the other party to open up first
or to put all his demands on the table. Keep yours hidden, if possible. Let the
other person make the first concession on major issues. You can be first on
minor points if you wish. Make the other person work for everything he gains.
People don’t appreciate things that come too easily.