ultim both
Inflatable Ball parti lose. If the tradit approach of find a common ground doesn't lead to ani attract outcom for either party,Conclusion: "Winning" in negoti mean creat win-win situations. If on parti loses. you mai need to look for a higher ground. Higher Ground Negoti requir trust, the desir for win-win situat on both sides, and a thorough understand of what is import to the other party. With creativ out-of-the-box thinking, an attract higher ground can be found which result in true win-win situat make it unnecessari for you to compromis your posit with a compromise.
I still rememb sit in the car with our French repres on the wai to our customer' factori north of Pari some five year ago. At that time I wa Director Internat Sale for a German technolog company. The convers went thi way.
what do you think? How much of a discount will Monsieur Ribault expect? You know,"A lain. we offer the instrument includ all accessories, instal and commiss for 350,000 USD."
we sold the same machin for 280,"The last time.000 USD wa four year ago. Also, I know, you ad some featur to the machin that improv it performance. However, know M. Ribault, it will be tough to achiev a higher price than last time."
not decreased,"Th price for the previou machin wa alreadi at the bottom. Our cost increased. with higher wages, higher materi cost and improv design. So we need a higher price thi time."
we can try to get him on 300,"Well.000 USD. Would that still be acceptable?" I inquired.
but o.k. At the same time we need thi order now,"A ctu not. so if he can decid immediately, we ar will to compromis to 300k."
a multi-n automot corporation,I knew that M. Ribault wa a tough negoti but I also knew that hi company. wa veri satisfi with the machin thei bought four year earlier.
he open the convers by sai that hi top management' requir wa to reduc the cost for ani supplier by 3.5% per year on the average. Thi polici wa introduc the year beforeWhen we met M. Ribault..
i.e. the maximum we can pai for thi machin is 260,M. Ribault wa not a man of mani word and he frankli stated: "We need your price to go down by 7% at least.000 USD. If you can't follow our polici and effort to reduc our cost, I'm afraid that we will need to look for altern suppliers."
there I sat,Wow. expect to get a better price and now I had an import custom serious sai that if we didn't lower our price to 260,000 USD, we would be out of the game.
I tri to explain why in thi case it wa imposs for us to lower the price and that we actual need 7% more,A t first. not less. I realiz quickli that thi attempt would lead nowhere.
no matter if we compromis or notSo what to do? Negoti and pressur him so long until we reach a somewhat still toler compromise? Perhap to reach at least the same price as last time? Give up? Give in? It seem like on of us had to lose and that on would most like be us..
I realiz that M. Ribault' compani would also lose. I knew that our instrument wa by far the best the solut thei could get for thi application,When I thought more about it. so if we gave up, thei would lose by choos anoth supplier. If we gave in, thei would lose becaus with such a bad margin on our side, servic would be reduc to an absolut necessari minimum in order to recov at least some of the lost margin.
Wa it a lose-los situat that couldn't be overcome?
I realiz that ani common ground would not be attract enough. We had to do someth outsid the box to turn thi negoti into a win-win situat for both partiesSuddenly..
thei requir compromis from on or both parties. Common ground negoti ar the appropri procedur if the compromis ar still attract for both parties. Unfortun thi is often not the caseTradit negoti practic teach you to optim your posit when try to establish a common ground. Common ground negoti ar straight forward and usual the fastest wai to achiev an agreement. In most cases..
So what do we normal do?
or both. In the worst-cas scenario,W either compromis our desir posit through a sub-optim compromis or we pressur the other parti into an undesir compromise. we exit and let the negoti fail.
well,Som might think. no problem if the other parti compromis their posit as long as we get what we want. A win-los situat is a win for us and therefor is o.k.
I wholeheartedli disagre with thi concept.
both parti lose. Any win-los situat eventu end up as a lose-los situat and is therefor not desirableI strongli believ that if on parti loses..
So what els to do?
we need to have a few pre-condit in placeTh answer is "Higher Ground Negotiation" which mean to leav the common ground and to look for a higher ground that is attract to both negoti parties. To do thi successfully.:
1. True trust between both parties
I elabor on the issu of trust and it' three kei element in our Juli edit of thi E-Zine. Kindli refer to thi section.
2. The willing of both parti to creat win-win situations
mani hardcor negoti still believ that a win-los outcom is desirable. You mai attempt to chang your negoti partners' belief on thi by coach them through the potenti consequ of win-los situations. However,Of course. if thi turn out not to be fruitful, you will need to decid on whether or not you want to continu do busi with peopl who want you to lose everi time you deal with them.
3. A thorough understand of what is import to the other party
thei will help you understand what is truli import to them...and that mai go wai beyond the price of your product or service. You need to gain a thorough understand of the other parti to find a higher ground that is attract to both them and youIf you have built some trust with your negoti partners..
you can start explor an attract higher ground. You will have to think outsid the box and be creative. A solut might not be evid right away,Onc you have these three pre-condit in place. so you might need to do some meaning brainstorming.
we discov that there wa an upcom need for certain other product thi compani would typic sourc from our competitors. For a long time,In the case of our French customer. my colleagu had tri to sell these kind of products, but without success. I knew that we had rather big margin on them and could compens for the loss of margin caus by sell the other instrument at 260,000 USD.
we got the order not onli for thi instrument but also for the other product and therefor could still get a good overal margin...and my colleagu were happi to final get a chanc to have their equip emploi at thi import companySo everybodi won. M. Ribault got hi cost reduction..