In
his "Principles of Negotiating Webinar", Dr. Tom Duening states that
negotiating is something that every business owner needs to know how to do; and
do well. He tells his audience that there is not a time of day he is not
negotiating. An interest-based approach is appropriate when a quality agreement
is more important than an expedient one and when both parties are willing to
problem solve and carry out a commitment. Duening insists that you will have
more negotiating power when you know the parties' interests, negotiation style
and other circumstances that may affect the outcome of a negotiation. You never
want to enter into a negotiation without knowing your best alternative to a
negotiated agreement, or BATNA. One should get to know the other party's BATNA
if at all possible and not disclose their own BATNA. "You want to know the
other parties' BATNA if you possibly can...because if their walk away price or
their walk away terms or agreements are not suitable to you, then it doesn't
even pay to go into the negotiation."
Toward
the beginning of his "Negotiations" podcast, Michael Erdle talks
about separating the person from the problem. Unfortunately, there are too many
negotiations that end prematurely because it becomes quite tempting to attack
the person directly, especially if you don't care much for this person. It is
important to be soft on the person and hard on the problem. Understanding where
the other person is coming from can lead to making more clear-headed decisions
and less cloudy judgments during negotiation. The idea is to attack the problem
head on, not the person directly.
Interest-based
negotiation is especially important for entertainment business professionals because
you are going to want to build and maintain healthy business relationships and
may need to negotiate with the same person more than once. Practicing
negotiations will make me better at it and as time goes by, I will become
self-conscious and self aware about the way we negotiate just like the
aforementioned Dr. Duening points out. I aim to get better at negotiating
because the last thing I am going to want to do as a business owner is leave
money on the table. If you leave enough money on the table, your business may
not be able to sustain it.
