My aspiration of becoming a Contract
Negotiator in the Entertainment Industry in Jamaica will see me negotiating to
get the best deal possible for my clients. However, before I undertake my first
negotiation there are a number of techniques that I will have to master to
ensure success. The most important techniques that I will have to learn and
master are a) Separating the People from the Problem, b) Positional Bargaining,
c) Using Objective Criteria, d) Mutual Benefits, e) Best Alternative To a
Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) and f) Handling Dirty Tricks.
In my research on the afore-mentioned
topics, I discovered three (3) videos on YouTube that will be helpful in my
quest for mastery. These videos are a) William Ury: The walk from “No” to
“Yes”, b) Negotiating Strategies and Tactics and c) Margaret Neale:
Negotiation: Getting What You Want.
Firstly, William Ury, in his video ‘The walk from “No” to “Yes”‘,
gives a lot of insights on how to separate the people from the problem. In
his story about the camels
he speaks of stepping back from the situation and looking at it with fresh eyes and how involving a third party is helpful when you have a stalemate in negotiations as this makes a great difference in solving a difficult negotiation. Seeing humanity as one family and that with all family reunions there will be conflicts, Ury asks the question, “How can we deal with differences that arise because of conflicts.” Another great story he told was about the Bushmen in South Africa who when they had a conflict they would hide their weapons and would sit and talk until they had a resolution. This is exactly what negotiations should be about. Not leaving the table until one had an agreement. Ury
he speaks of stepping back from the situation and looking at it with fresh eyes and how involving a third party is helpful when you have a stalemate in negotiations as this makes a great difference in solving a difficult negotiation. Seeing humanity as one family and that with all family reunions there will be conflicts, Ury asks the question, “How can we deal with differences that arise because of conflicts.” Another great story he told was about the Bushmen in South Africa who when they had a conflict they would hide their weapons and would sit and talk until they had a resolution. This is exactly what negotiations should be about. Not leaving the table until one had an agreement. Ury
speaks
of ‘going to the balcony’, of not losing one’s perspective – of not getting
angry during negotiations, which is another great technique to learn. Knowing
how to keep your emotions in check was powerful, as can be seen when Ury did
not react in an adversarial manner when challenged about Puerto Rico. He was
able to reframe, the words of the Vice-President of Chechnya, and not react to them.
Ury also used the hospitality of Abraham (of the Bible) as symbolism in
resolving conflicts; he said that walking was powerful which was why in
negotiations people would go for a walk.
Secondly, Brian Tracy, in his video Negotiating Strategies and Tactics, explained
that everything was negotiable. He said that one should approach negotiations
with the right attitude, know how to play the game, learn to ask for and get
the best pay as well as negotiating for the best deals. Tracy spoke of the need
for preparation (Objective Criteria).
He said the more prepared you are, the more success you will achieve and you
must do your homework. Knowing the objectives of your opponent was important,
he said, as well as knowing where you differed from your opponent in wants and
needs. Another great technique that Tracy spoke
of was role reversal which he said was a good preparation for negotiations as
this will make you think of everything that your opponent would come up with
and address it beforehand. He also spoke of getting solutions that are
acceptable to both sides (Mutual Gains),
finding the middle ground and collaborating rather than competing. Tracy
emphasized the importance of preparation and how it is the key in handling
dirty tricks, as told in his story of the man trying to sell him (Tracy) a
company that was on the verge of bankruptcy not knowing that Tracy had done his
research and knew that the deal wasn’t viable. Objective criteria do indeed pay
off!
Another technique spoken of was that of
developing options, the more options you had, the stronger your position. He
also said that delay was a powerful tactic and you must learn to diffuse
urgency and also be willing to walk away from the negotiation. Your knowledge
of the marketplace was also a source of power if your opponent has not done any
research.
Thirdly, Margaret Neale in her video, Margaret Neale: Negotiation: Getting What
You Want speaks of
moving from the adversarial to the collaborative (problem solving) and that our
goal was not just to get a deal, our goal was to get a good deal. She speaks of
having an alternative, what happens if the negotiation fails? My Lecturer
teaches of always having a BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement).
Margaret Neale states that the person with the better alternative does better
in the negotiations. She talks
about
having a reservation price, your indifferent point where a ‘no’ looks as good
as a ‘yes’, and having aspirations: an optimistic assessment of what you hoped
to achieve in the negotiation. In getting more of what you want knowing the interests
and preferences of one’s counterparts were just as important as your own. This
is where preparation comes in. You have to engage (ask) with your counterpart
in order to exchange unique information. An important technique, she said, was
not to negotiate issue by issue but negotiate the issues as a package as this
was less adversarial. In ending, other participants in the video reiterated the
importance of research, but not just on websites, as these sometimes were
inaccurate, and to be objective, not personal.
As a Jamaican entering the Jamaican
entertainment industry, I know for a fact that simple negotiations can get
volatile at times. These techniques that I have learned from these videos will
be very helpful in my negotiations as they are easily adaptable, practical and
functional to the Jamaican entertainment industry. I have learned how to
separate the personality from the person, which is the most important of all.
Jamaican artists are very difficult to deal with and I have now realized that I
was judging them based on their personalities and not on their right to want
the best deal. I have also learned how to not only identify my interests but
also to identify the underlying needs of my opponents interest which is also
crucial for any settlement.
Resource
material taken from the following sources: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc6yi_FtoNo
Negotiation and
Deal Making - Course Lecture Notes and References.
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