At the end of the day, any
negotiation is about getting all parties involved to say, “Yes.” There are many ways and different techniques
to get to this ultimate goal. However, the
negotiation is not very productive if we don’t get what we want in return.
The podcast titled, “Entrepreneurship -Part 7: Negotiation” covers many different negotiation techniques and
principals. However, I would like to
focus on using objective criteria. This
can be very useful and necessary to avoid the parties arguing about their
positions. To avoid conflict in a
negotiation, you can bring in a set of third party standards or criteria. This can include things such as industry
norms and standards. Instead of battling
over who is right and who has the best position, you can use objective criteria
to set a standard to work from. This can
help with any aspect of a negotiation to include price and the amount of time a
job can take.
From the
next video that I watched in regards to avoiding conflict in negotiations
titled, “HandlingConflict in Negotiations” I will focus on how to “Separate the people from the
problem.” In many situations, the best
way to avoid conflict is to focus on the problem and remove the people and
emotions from the situation. The speaker
in the video discusses how personal emotions can ruin the chance of an
agreement and ultimately ruin the relationship all together. He talks about how we need to be “Hard on the
problem and not the people.” Once we are
able to remove emotions from the negotiation we are able to come closer to an
agreement that solves the problem and benefits all parties involved.
The next video that I have chosen to
view for this blog is titled, “BATNA – Negotiation.” In order to understand how this can help us
to the “Yes” that we are looking for, we must first understand what a BATNA
is. BATNA is simply the Best Alternative
to a Negotiated Agreement. The speaker
defines this as, “A comparison of your options.” The speaker uses a continuing example of a salesman
trying to sell a car and how you need to analyze the individual interests. In every situation you need to know what you
best option is. Maybe your company can
perform the task instead of outsourcing with the other party of the
negotiation. We also need to determine
what each party’s interests are in the situation. In a situation of getting paid now or later
for a product or service, most would rather have the money now. However, it’s not always that simple. What if you could have $25,000 cash today or
$30,000 a week from now for the same product or service, which would you
choose? Now, that changes the game. You now have to look at your needs and
interests to determine which is better for your company. If you need the money now, you only have one
option it seems. If you need more money
and can wait, then you wait.
Negotiations may not be easy or cut
and dry. However, there are always many
different ways of avoiding conflict and getting to the bottom line. I have only discussed a few of them here in
this blog post. In my opinion these are
some of the most helpful tools in negotiation. You always have options and interests; at the
end of the day it all depends on what is best for you or your company.
