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Negotiation Tip

Does Your Negotiation Style Help You or Hurt You?


 

Does Your Negotiation Style Help You or Hurt You?

 

Without realizing it, we often negotiate every day. We negotiate with clients, colleagues, friends and family. We try to come to agreement on cost, terms, location, services and times. How you approach a negotiation, especially in this economy, directly impacts the results you achieve – both long-term and short-term. Some negotiations are planned and some are spontaneous but both require the same mind-set to support your success. Assessing your negotiation style is the first step towards understanding your natural tendencies during confrontation and ultimately increasing your number of “win-win” negotiations. What type of negotiator are you?

 

The Competitor

 

The Competitor approaches a negotiation as a contest that must be won. The competitor thinks about the word negotiation as “negative” and is often a bully during the negotiation. If you are a competitor, the other person is your “opponent” and you often hide what is important to you. You don’t really care about what the other person needs as long as you win.

 

A competitor in a sales role shows his/her true colors from the very beginning of the sales process. They use tactics to disarm the other person and don’t really care about the long-term relationship – just the short-term sale. Sometimes the tactics and bullying are subtle but the goal is the same. Your result – Win-Lose. You win, the other person loses.

 

The Conceder

 

The Conceder is almost the direct opposite of the Competitor. The conceder gives up what is important in order to let the other person have what they want. During the negotiation, your needs are not as important as the other person’s needs. You are often unaware that you leave money on the table. When you are aware, you feel like the other person took advantage of you.

 

If you are a Conceder and in a sales role, you may make a lot of sales but your profit margin is very low or non-existent.  If you work in a service industry, you often waive fees or reverse service charges without getting anything in return. Your result – Lose-Win. You lose, the other person wins.

 

The Compromiser

 

The Compromiser will do everything possible to make a deal happen and complete the negotiation. A Compromiser is similar to a Competitor in that the negotiation is a transaction that can be won or lost. If you are a compromiser, you may have used the approach of “Let’s split the difference.”

 

When a Compromiser in a sales role “splits the difference”, either the customer or the salesperson leaves money on the table. The Compromiser does not address the needs of the other person – just the terms that are being negotiated. Your result is sometimes a Win-Win but can in fact be a Win-Lose or Lose-Win.

 

The Collaborator

 

The Collaborator looks at a negotiation as an opportunity to come to agreement and have both parties’ needs met. The Collaborator explores the other person’s needs and thinks about the long-term relationship with this person.

 

When a salesperson is a Collaborator, the focus is on the dialogue with the customer and ways that he/she can help the customer and make a profitable sale. There is open communication between the parties and it is not approached as a contest. The result – Win-Win. Both parties have their needs met, both parties feel good about the negotiation and long-term relationships are established with a foundation of trust. 

 

 

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