Chapter 9 – Bargain Hard
Voss begins this chapter discussing how the bargaining part of any negotiation is anxiety-inducing for most people. His goal in this chapter is to rid readers of their bargaining concepts and give strategies to take advantage of psychological nuances.
Voss states the three general types of negotiators are Analysts, Accommodators, and Assertives. According to Voss, a negotiator should know her prominent style and decipher the style of her counterpart because not every counterpart views the deal similarly. He gives descriptions of the different types:
- Analysts – believe that any time spent on gathering more information is productive.
- Accommodators – think negotiations are making progress if rapport is being established.
- Assertives – evaluate negotiations on how much progress is being made.
Next, Voss discusses “taking a punch.” At the outset, the shrewd negotiator wants her counterpart to name the price so that she can get a feel for her counterpart. It is important that she have tactics ready to respond to extreme offers (“punches”) she might receive from her counterpart because emotions can take over quickly. Voss suggests a way to do this is to “pivot to terms.” Voss explains that “when you feel you’re being dragged into a haggle you can detour the conversation to the nonmonetary issues that make any final price work.” As an example, a negotiator could say, “What else would you be able to offer to make that a good price for me?”
If a negotiation begins to stall, Voss encourages negotiators to “shake things up” by going on the offensive (“punching back”). Using anger at the appropriate time is called “strategic umbrage.” When it’s real, it “shows passion and conviction that can help sway the other side to accept less.” If a counterpart gives a nonsensical offer, Voss advises channeling any anger “at the proposal, not the person-and say, ‘I don’t see how that would ever work.’” Another “punch back” is having a “ready-to-walk mindset.” Voss stresses, “no deal is better than a bad deal.”
Quotes from the chapter:
- But there is one basic truth about a successful bargaining style: To be good, you have to learn to be yourself at the bargaining table. To be great you have to add to your strengths, not replace them.
- The person across the table is never the problem. The unsolved issue is. So focus on the issue.
- Once you’re clear on what your bottom line is, you have to be willing to walk away. Never be needy for a deal.
Chapter 10 – Find the Black Swan
Black Swans are defined as, “those hidden and unexpected pieces of information—those unknown unknowns—whose unearthing has game-changing effects on a negotiation dynamic.” It is the concept, “you do not know, what you do not know.” Voss analogizes Black Swans to Steve Jobs making the iPad (a product we did not know we needed). In any negotiation, Voss recommends listening to known knowns (e.g., a counterpart’s name), but not letting them “blind us to what we do not know.” Voss claims the negotiator who can find unknown unknowns is the negotiator who will succeed.
Before discussing how to find Black Swans, Voss defines three types of leverage:
- Positive – a negotiator can give or withhold a counterpart’s desire
- Negative – a negotiator “has the ability to make a counterpart suffer”
- Normative – a counterpart’s “moral framework” that a negotiator can take advantage of if she can show an inconsistency between it and the counterpart’s actions
Voss reveals it does not matter what leverage you have on a counterpart; it is the leverage the counterpart believes you have on them.
Understanding a counterpart’s “religion,” or “worldview,” is a way to obtain normative leverage. Voss recommends framing a negotiation within the counterpart’s “religion” because it will “show them respect” which will result in more attention. The following are a couple of tactics that knowing a counterpart’s “religion” unlocks:
- A negotiator can employ the similarity principle that says people trust others who seem like themselves.
- A negotiator can capitalize on any of the counterpart’s hopes and dreams. Encouraging these promotes cooperation. As an example, hockey and basketball franchise owner Ted Leonsis always talks about “creating the immortal moments in sports that people will tell their grandchildren about.” This attracts professional athletes who want to be known as “legends”.
Continuing, Voss shares that it is important to pay attention to instances in which a counterpart appears to be acting illogically. When this occurs, Voss advises that the counterpart could be ill-informed, constrained or not interested. Keeping these possibilities in mind allows a negotiator to proceed towards finding Black Swans.
Voss ends the book expressing his hope that by reading the book readers are less avoidant to conflict. He re-emphasizes viewing a counterpart as a partner in the negotiation, not an adversary.
A few related quotes:
- Don’t look to verify what you expect. If you do, that’s what you’ll find. Instead, you must open yourself up to the factual reality that is in front of you.
- That’s why I say there’s always leverage: as an essentially emotional concept, it can be manufactured whether it exists or not.
- It’s not the guy across the table who scares us: it’s conflict itself.
Andrew T. Daniel 