Negotiating 101: What If? Would You Consider?

"What-If" and "Would-You-Consider" are excellent discovery devices that can help you build better agreements.

Both types of questions provide an avenue for getting more information than you would ordinarily be given.

A buyer who knows more about a seller's cost and price structure is bound to make better decisions. A seller who knows more about a buyer's specific needs and constraints will be in a better position to configure a product offering.

Following are some examples of how you might use this negotiation technique.

Buyers: you need to make sensible business decisions based on the best information you can get. "What if" is a good way to get pricing data as well as other information. The "what ifs" listed below usually open up new alternatives and generate valuable answers. Their logic is self-evident.

• What if we double the order (or halve it)?
• What if we give you a one-year or two-year contract?
• What if we drop the warranty (or increase it)?
• What if we supply the material?
• What if we own the tooling?
• What if we buy apples and pears instead of just apples?
• What if we let you do the job during the slow season?
• What if we supply technical assistance?
• What if we change the specification in this way?
• What if we give you progress payments?

Any of these "what ifs" provide insights into the seller's business practices and motivations that would not otherwise be available. "What-if" questions may create organizational pressures for the salesperson. With every "what if," the salesperson may have to go back to their engineering, production, and pricing people. They may find it hard to say no to a buyer's innocuous sounding request. Many a salesperson has lowered the price rather than go through the tedious routine of re-pricing.

Salespeople: the next time a buyer asks a "what-if" question, make sure you don't shoot from the hip. A well-considered answer can pay big dividends. An alert salesperson can turn "what if" into an opportunity instead of a problem. Use "would-you-consider" or "what-if" questions to probe and find out what the buyer really intends to buy. Buyers may not have as many options as they say they do.

Here are ways you can respond to a buyer's "what if" questions:

• Would you consider taking grade-B products, a larger delivery, spare parts?
• Would you consider last year's model?
• "What if" we change the configuration this way?
• Visit with other people in their organization (production, engineering, etc.). You may get a better picture of the buyer's constraints and the potential options you can present.
• Never price a "what if" on the spot.
• If a concession is offered, make it contingent on getting something in return. "Would you consider" this if we reduce the price?

Both "what-if" and "would-you-consider" questions open up new avenues of thought for both parties. Use of this discovery and information gathering technique can lead to a better deal for both parties.

Summarize

Appropriate use of the summary:

In the face of a deadlock, where both parties seem to be becoming intransigent in their position, try summarizing, "Let's see what we have achieved so far……."

The purpose of summarizing is to show the other party that, even in the face of a conflict, we ARE moving toward an agreement.

When you are ready to close the negotiation and the other party seems to be dragging their heels, try summarizing all that has been accomplished, then suggest that it looks like a good agreement for both parties, ask for their agreement and close.

If the other party does not accept your closing gesture, immediately ask what it is specifically that is keeping them from saying "Yes". Isolate that objection, deal with that issue, summarize and close again.

Jim Sauerwein

Don't be greedy!

Here are a couple of quotes that illustrate the importance of thinking long-term in your business negotiations:

"One last thing to learn from the negotiations. Don't be greedy. I might have gotten more money, but would it have been worth it? Always remember the straw that broke the camels back." Mark McCormick

"My father said, 'You must never try to make all the money that's in the deal. Let the other fellow make some money too, because if you have the reputation for always making all the money, you won't have many deals." J. Paul Getty

Perceptual Power

I recently celebrated another birthday and one of the comic cards I received illustrates a great negotiation lesson. Picture a small goldfish swimming in the fish tank. Strapped to the goldfish is a shark's fin, which protrudes out of the tank several inches.

Now, how much power does this little goldfish have? If the other occupants of the tank accept that fin as real, has the goldfish grown real power or perceptual power?

How much value is there in perceptual power? It is easy to dismiss perceptual power as bluff or fake, but you might be interested in some other's thoughts:

· Re Jesse Helms: "…he plugs into no important levers, controls no important network, has relatively scant rewards to offer and penalties to impose on his own." "…such power as he has is strictly a function of their own willingness to let him push them around." Meg Greenfield, Newsweek, August 1, 1997

· The idea of power lies in the mind of those involved in the bargaining. J. Winkler

· (Power) It is relative to the assumed power of the other party. J. Winkler

· Their power exists if you accept their power. Karrass

· In an Article titled, "Cheney: Not What He Used to be" in THE WEEK magazine, November 11, 2005, re Cheney losing power in W.DC, "…in a city where power is the appearance of power."

Too many people quit in the planning stage of a negotiation because, "I don't have anything to work with." They move quickly into damage control and away from finding the best agreement for both parties. The RESULT BECOME self-fulfilling. We can't afford to respond soley to our evaluation of our real power and our estimate of the other party's power.

From now on, think about how to grow the perception of our power and test our estimates of the other party's power.

Jim Sauerwein