Alternative Blog Assignment

            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.