Next Monday, May 28, 2012, I face either the end of my negotiations world or I get an atta boy. I face off in negotiations with my mentor, Paul Wineman, over the phone. Here's the story.
Last week I saw that Paul Wineman was listed as a person I might know in LinkedIn so I sent an invite to Paul. He called me at the office a couple of hours later and he engaged me in old times chatter and then asked the question that you expect Paul to ask. "Do you still use outside speakers?" "Nope", I responded but I started thinking while he continued to try and engage me in that thought. So I went through the list of employees in my mind that need that negotiation style training and that we don't get that training from anyone from the outside anymore.
So, I told Paul that we have a need and we discussed who and where and I asked if he can call me back on Monday with a proposal fee. Naturally, he said yes and in keeping with what he preaches he summed it up again at the end of the conversation. So know I wait, but no I don't wait, I plan. I have to or Paul will laugh me out of the industry in front of our people. I will forever be the example that he refers to for failure, oh shit!
Planning Time
Alright, let's think this through; Paul is going to call on Monday from Los Angeles. He gets up early in the morning and likes to use that when calling people for negotiations. He doesn't know that I get up at 4:00am and I'm in the office at 6:00am and I'm wide awake and at my best at that time, my advantage if he calls early like I think he will. He likes to surprise people.
Paul will have this entire meeting planned out on a piece of paper in front of him and ready for anything I do and how he will counter my tactics. He probably expects me to "balk" at his first proposed fee because as he and I know, he will ask for more than he expects to get. Balking means raising your voice in disbelief and making a remark like "How much?" "Wow, I wasn't prepared for it to cost that much!" But, I like silence; I use it when dealing with software proposals from salespeople on the phone...gets them every time. So I'll use silence and see if that catches him off guard.
Then following that, He will probably make some comment to force me to talk. That's a good tactic, you want the other party to talk first and the most, that way you get all of the info you need and they learn nothing. I will respond by referring to my budget expense and how much I've spent already this year and that I didn't budget for him so can he find a time when he's in the area and maybe do it for half price.
I suspect that after that he will change the flow towards what he is bringing to the table and reference past fees for other long time clients and that I'm getting the best deal but he will lower it to? (probably 15% less) and isn't that a great deal and surely with my abilities I can find the money somewhere and convince my boss to do this.
At that time I will refer to my boss as the third party expert in my budget expenses and how that is a problem because I just got told last week that I have to lower my expenses 1% for the year and I was planning on finishing a little out of budget because of all of the travel costs I have.
Now, here is when I get Paul's real fee for me. He has to come back with it at this time because I will stop talking. No matter what he says I will use silence and a couple of hmmms. Those are frustrating to deal with when you're trying to move someone towards your proposal. And if possible I will alert my boss to come into the office and then I will tell Paul that she is with me and I am going to speaker phone if he doesn't mind so she can be a part of the conversation. This will change what Paul had in mind and reinforce my budget concerns.
How Paul handles that will be interesting, I think we can play on our friendship at this time and I will ask him if he's coming into Tucson and Phoenix at some time in the future to speak at his fraternity and then maybe he can swing by and we can afford that lower fee. This will get him talking and I will learn something new that hopefully I can use but knowing Paul this will end with me telling him that I will try and sell this proposal to owners to see if we can do this. In finishing with that I have extended the negotiation and given him an opportunity to come back with a lower fee later.
On Monday we will see how well I did, YIKES!!!!
Last week I saw that Paul Wineman was listed as a person I might know in LinkedIn so I sent an invite to Paul. He called me at the office a couple of hours later and he engaged me in old times chatter and then asked the question that you expect Paul to ask. "Do you still use outside speakers?" "Nope", I responded but I started thinking while he continued to try and engage me in that thought. So I went through the list of employees in my mind that need that negotiation style training and that we don't get that training from anyone from the outside anymore.
So, I told Paul that we have a need and we discussed who and where and I asked if he can call me back on Monday with a proposal fee. Naturally, he said yes and in keeping with what he preaches he summed it up again at the end of the conversation. So know I wait, but no I don't wait, I plan. I have to or Paul will laugh me out of the industry in front of our people. I will forever be the example that he refers to for failure, oh shit!
Planning Time
Alright, let's think this through; Paul is going to call on Monday from Los Angeles. He gets up early in the morning and likes to use that when calling people for negotiations. He doesn't know that I get up at 4:00am and I'm in the office at 6:00am and I'm wide awake and at my best at that time, my advantage if he calls early like I think he will. He likes to surprise people.
Paul will have this entire meeting planned out on a piece of paper in front of him and ready for anything I do and how he will counter my tactics. He probably expects me to "balk" at his first proposed fee because as he and I know, he will ask for more than he expects to get. Balking means raising your voice in disbelief and making a remark like "How much?" "Wow, I wasn't prepared for it to cost that much!" But, I like silence; I use it when dealing with software proposals from salespeople on the phone...gets them every time. So I'll use silence and see if that catches him off guard.
Then following that, He will probably make some comment to force me to talk. That's a good tactic, you want the other party to talk first and the most, that way you get all of the info you need and they learn nothing. I will respond by referring to my budget expense and how much I've spent already this year and that I didn't budget for him so can he find a time when he's in the area and maybe do it for half price.
I suspect that after that he will change the flow towards what he is bringing to the table and reference past fees for other long time clients and that I'm getting the best deal but he will lower it to? (probably 15% less) and isn't that a great deal and surely with my abilities I can find the money somewhere and convince my boss to do this.
At that time I will refer to my boss as the third party expert in my budget expenses and how that is a problem because I just got told last week that I have to lower my expenses 1% for the year and I was planning on finishing a little out of budget because of all of the travel costs I have.
Now, here is when I get Paul's real fee for me. He has to come back with it at this time because I will stop talking. No matter what he says I will use silence and a couple of hmmms. Those are frustrating to deal with when you're trying to move someone towards your proposal. And if possible I will alert my boss to come into the office and then I will tell Paul that she is with me and I am going to speaker phone if he doesn't mind so she can be a part of the conversation. This will change what Paul had in mind and reinforce my budget concerns.
How Paul handles that will be interesting, I think we can play on our friendship at this time and I will ask him if he's coming into Tucson and Phoenix at some time in the future to speak at his fraternity and then maybe he can swing by and we can afford that lower fee. This will get him talking and I will learn something new that hopefully I can use but knowing Paul this will end with me telling him that I will try and sell this proposal to owners to see if we can do this. In finishing with that I have extended the negotiation and given him an opportunity to come back with a lower fee later.
On Monday we will see how well I did, YIKES!!!!
RSS Feed