\”Are you cruel when you use time as a weapon in your negotiation?]- Negotiation tip of the week
For the past three months, the two teams negotiated fiercely with each other, they were vicious, they lost the semblance of civility after the first month. At times, inflamed tempers had driven them to cruelty. Then, out of frustration or desperation, one team’s lead negotiator told his counterpart, in an extremely cruel tone, accept our offer within the next three days or we will drop this negotiating and never come back! With that edict, weather it was to assembled. He had unleashed a tick-tock weather bomb that would blow up the negotiation unless someone denied the situation. And, the way he made his pronouncement left him no face-saving wiggle room.
How do you use the time to advance your negotiating position? It is one of the most precious assets that a negotiator has. The following thoughts are ideas on how you can use the time to improve your efforts.
Time frames:
Some negotiators try to use time to create a sense of urgency (eg sale ends tomorrow, get it now – I only have ‘x’ amount of time to close this deal). In those situations, its use is an attempt to force the opposing negotiator to take specific immediate actions. The challenge is what to do if the desired action doesn’t happen by the deadline: you’re left in a weakened position if you have to come up with a lame excuse for why the deal is still available. Unless you’re ready to face the consequences, don’t make tough statements as the leader of team one.
When you use time frames to create a sense of urgency, give yourself some wiggle room to escape if your demands aren’t met. To do this, instead of setting a hard deadline (eg sale ends tomorrow), set a softer one (eg sale ends soon). The sense of urgency isn’t as great in the second situation, but you’re less likely to back down.
Exceeding the imposed deadlines:
Deadlines can bring a negotiation to a slow death. Therefore, you must be careful when they are issued. When faced with a time deadline –
- Take care of your time – Be aware of the time you invest in the negotiation. Psychologically, the more time you spend trading, the more likely you are to stay engaged. That can make you more susceptible to falling prey to time constraints. If you don’t think the negotiation is redeemable, get out of it. And do that sooner rather than later.
- Control emotions – When trading, the more you control your emotions, the more control you have of the negotiation. Time is a factor that weighs on the mind of a negotiator. Therefore, to combat it, control your perspective and the emotional stress it causes you. Never let time pass unnoticed: that is a control factor.
- Have a backup: You can ease the pressure when you have alternative options; having them can be the escape valve of time pressure. If you have alternative options and you suspect the other dealer may be setting up the time, don’t expose your backup plans (eg if I can’t get it from you, I can get it from the other dealer, and it may be less) – Doing that can momentarily stun the other negotiator, but you will also have given him another point to attack him (ie discover how viable his backup might be). If necessary, let your deadline pass and see what you do. He will expose his strategy by revealing how sincere the deadline was.
In every negotiation, negotiators look for actions to control their counterparty: arming time is one of those actions. To be more successful in your negotiations, keep an eye on time, know what to do when faced with deadlines, and be cautious when issuing them. Time is a precious commodity for a negotiator, use it wisely… and all will be well with the world.
Remember, you are always negotiating!
Listen to Greg’s podcast made https://anchor.fm/themasternegotiator