NCCA Meeting

6 June 2007

58 Attendees

Everything is Negotiable - Susan Graham

• <slides will be attached when they are available>
• Negotiation is all about your commitment to get what you want
• Susan's definition: Negotiation is a game in which you work to achieve a win-win outcome for both parties
• Susan learned about negotiation when she worked with her company to negotiate a move from New York to Colorado
• Why is Everything Negotiable? It totally depends on your frame of mind!
• Where could you negotiate something that you're not currently?
  • Motel bill
  • Credit card interest rate
  • Late fees
  • Auto parts
  • Furniture
  • Retail store
  • With your kids: Curfew
  • Rental rates
  • Salary
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Incentives
  • Vacation time
  • Speeding tickets
  • Commissions
  • Doctor's office
  • Pre-nuptial agreements
• Three critical components to any negotiation: information, time, and power
  • Time: timing, "maybe not today" willingness to be patient
  • Can-do attitude
• Frame of reference = find out what their true needs are
• The internet is, many times, not a reliable source of good information
• Entering negotiation with a positive frame of mind tilts the balance of power in your direction
• Trip-wire point = the point at which you walk away from the negotiation
• Having an agent negotiate
  • Gives that person limited power
  • But they're not so vested, so they will get a better deal
• The difference between a Mutual Satisfaction outcome and Win-Win is that both sides have to make some serious concessions, they don't get everything they want
• We did 3 negotiation exercises in small groups of 3, each personal alternating roles as customer, seller, and observer
• Observations
  • What you don't know kills you
  • You get better as you go along
  • Information = Power
  • The first move can be a powerful source of power if you use it properly
  • You can change the power balance during the course of the negotiation
  • We tend to assume lack of negotiability from our social norms, but it's not really true