Overcoming Six Common Negotiation Challenges
Part One: Challenges 1-3
The late Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s long-time partner, observed, “Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.” Many negotiation skills I practice and teach are intuitive and pragmatic, yet effective only if based upon a firm foundation of work and knowledge.
Every negotiation is different in terms of its scope and details. However, whether you are discussing something as major as a merger of Fortune 500 companies, or as minor as a product delivery schedule, there are a number of common challenges you will likely face as well as some repeatable strategies on how to neutralize them. Let’s discuss three of these challenges related to personalities.
Challenge One: Dealing with a Know-It-All. There are three types of know-it-all personalities, instructors, impostors and intimidators.
Instructors like to showcase their knowledge and prove that they know everything being discussed. Even if well-intentioned, this can drag on discussions to the point a deal is delayed or killed. Avoid the temptation to confront the instructor because you don’t want to create a hostile climate. Plus, you may learn things that are helpful to your cause. Make sure you have a published agenda and rules of engagement for meetings to help you keep the process on track.
Impostors are individuals who are not experts, but often posture to give the appearance of knowledge and relevancy. Just as with the instructor, you need to be careful about a direct confrontation – no one likes to be challenged on their credentials. Rather, extraneous or useless comments can be shelved when they are outside the published agenda. Just thank the impostor for the comment and move on to the next item. It’s also important to have a knowledgeable person on the impostor’s team who you can communicate with when needed.
Intimidators are in a special class that crosses between instructors and impostors. Intimidators use their superior knowledge as a weapon to undercut you and attack your individual credibility. Once again, we should endeavor to refrain from turning the negotiation into a confrontation. Just think of dealing with an intimidator as a great opportunity to practice your patience! When challenged with a person who wants to show off their superior knowledge, your best bet is to become an inquirer and gain the knowledge you need to move the deal forward. At times, self-effacing humor can pause the intimidator without causing a confrontation. But please never let the intimidator cause you to lose your self-respect or the respect from others in the process.
When dealing with any of these know-it-alls, we need patience and the involvement of people who actually know how to prioritize the goals and issues being discussed in a rational way.
A few years ago, my partner was in a difficult negotiation with a know-it-all lawyer who started explaining something. Then she paused, looked at him and said “never mind, it would go over your head anyway.” Basically, she was calling him stupid. He slowly stood up and said, “go ahead and explain…it won’t go over my head now.” Everyone in the room laughed and even she had to chuckle, breaking the tension and keeping the negotiation on track.
Challenge Two: Counterpart Has Little or No Authority. We’ve all dealt with individuals who are cooperative and emit positive buying signals – yet prove to have little influence over the decision. Getting affirmation for you and your offering is fine, but the real goal is to bring the deal to closure. If your sponsor doesn’t have authority, help them be an advocate with the actual decision maker(s) by understanding their process and presenting them with the data necessary for the decision maker(s) to decide in your favor. In other words, you need to understand their decision and approval process and have a plan for engaging the individuals who have the authority.
Challenge Three: Organizational Paralysis. This is a tough obstacle to deal with, because it is frequently hidden. People may be insecure in their jobs, lack the knowledge to make informed decisions, or it could be an organizational issue where employees are constantly moving and discouraged from taking risks, despite the pain that inaction is causing them. Helping to create a strong business case and gaining access to true decision makers can help break the paralysis, and once again, patience is important.
Stay tuned for the next article where I will cover negotiation an additional three challenges.
