Negotiating Tips, Negotiation Strategies March 10, 2009

This tactic will REALLY freak them out...

These are different times. People are losing work. Those who are keeping it are taking cuts. (How about this – management using the threat of closing a business to force labor concessions? Isn't that a little through the looking glass?)

So...
It's not business as usual, but as usual it's a good time to stay conscious. Are you doing what you've always done in an environment that calls for fresh thinking and new behavior? Are you tightening your purse strings when you know some are going to make great gains by investing advantageously?

It's an economic axiom that you're not going to get ahead of the crowd by being the crowd. I'm not arguing for sloppiness or out-of control economic behavior. I'm saying the person next to you is probably responding to their fear by becoming completely risk-averse, and close-fisted. The time to do that was last year.

If all of business is slowing down, why not take some of that extra time and find ways to build your business and your partners' business. Remember all the times you thought it might be great to do a little something extra for a customer or a vendor?

Here's your chance. See what it gets you in a current negotiation and see how you're remembered when we come out of this Depression. Remember what things are worth.

I see people slowing and down and being a little kinder to each other. Maybe that's just my perception, but if we could do this in business as well, we might all come out of this mess a little better, a little sooner.

Until next time...think about it.

(If you've got some creative ideas about how to invest in your partner's business,
I'd love to hear about them. email me at [email protected].)