055 - Why most negotiation concepts fail

Procurement Zen - Valuable Insights in Negotiation and Procurement

• for example win-win
• the example of the organe
  • one wants the peel for the cake
  • the other wants the juice to drink
• most of the times it's not that easy
• more often than not both parties want the same resource - money
  • one party wants to earn as much money as possible
  • the other party wants to save as much money as possible
• the jibberish talk of expanding of things that are to share between both parties
• i have been dealing with automotive customers as a supplier in the past
  • if you start with this stuff, you are up for an unpleasant surprise
• in addition, there is simply - excuse my french - assholes out there
• sales people that want to boost their own ego and would never accept compromises because it makes them feel they "lost"
  • dominant personality types are very overrepresented in this group
• and the same is true for procurement people
  • 800 pound gorillas who use their market power to squeeze the last drop out of a supplier just because they can
• I also want to refer to Chris Voss book "Never split the difference" which is a breathtaking realistic view on negotiations
  • Chris is a former FBI hostage negotiator who applies his live saving techniques to business negotiations
  • if you apply the win win or compromise principle of FIsher and Ury to hostage negotiation what is the outcome?
    • ok, Mr Gangster, you give me two hostages and can kill 2?
    • not acceptable at all
• let me share my personal view
• disclaimer: this is an ugly truth from my point of view.
• the master negotiator is one that can switch to a model based on the situation
• Let me make this clear based on the previously mentioned win win
  • this is often a beneficial concept when there are two soft negotiators
  • these can find a good joint agreement because both are willing to give in
  • soft and and hard, does not work because hard won't make any concessions
  • hard and hard also yields no result: they simply cannot give in one inch to come to a level where it makes sense to constuctively discuss
  • soft and soft is the only model, where win-win works, no matter if you put the Harvard label on it or not
• tomorrow for example we are going to talk about the phases of negotiation:
  • early, middle and late phases
• that is another great example of negotiation dynamics
  • there is no one size fits all phases
  • there are tactics and models you apply early
  • and there are different models you apply middle or late in the negotiation
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