Negotiation answers and planning

Grant Leboff: So of course Michael, one of the times when we all get asked difficult questions in businesses is when you’re in negotiations. And you talk about in your book having these gold, silver, and bronze offerings, which sounds like a great idea to have up your sleeve already. Can you explain a bit about how that works.

Michael Dodd: Yes, I’m indebted to negotiation experts for giving me this, but part of great answers in negotiations is not to just give it a take it or leave it offer, because it may be outside their budget, or outside their expectations… So if you actually think about planning for negotiations, which is as important as planning for any answers that you’re giving to a world-wide media audience or anything else. You want to be thinking well, I don’t want to just say, “Here it is. It’s this much, and have it if you want it or don’t if you don’t.” You want to be actually showing that you can have a top of the range one, mid-range, perhaps a cheap and cheerful version as well so that you’re not in that situation where you’re in discussions over negotiations just saying, in answer to well “Can you do it cheaper.?” You can actually give them an answer because if you’re discussing your gold option I’d say well, can you do it cheaper it should be, “Yes, there’s the silver option, which doesn’t contain that function but it’s still very helpful for this.”

And you’ve got something to fall back on because like with all great answers typically it’s about planning, preparation, and practice. In negotiations I think that’s particularly important because you don’t want to be making negotiation decisions on the run. But if you’ve got a gold, silver, and bronze option, then it’s so much easier to be flexible within the discussions without actually giving away your principles or giving in to price pressure, which you shouldn’t be doing.

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