The Importance of Planning a Negotiation Strategy for Sales free essay sample

I read and analyzed this information multiple times until I had a complete understanding of the situation I was about to be submerged in and the responsibilities/duties I was obligated to fulfill. After completing this task and recognizing what my goals were I had to decide what strategy and type of negotiation I should use in order to plan appropriately and arrive at the goals assigned to me by POP Production. It was made clear that my goal was to structure a contract/deal with Windy City Theater that would outline an agreement concerning profit sharing of the box office tickets, salary amounts paid to my cast and crew, and who would be responsible for lodging/board costs. Having a lot of criteria and alternatives revolving around these three negotiable components, it created a wide range of bargaining mixes. With further research and exploration of information regarding WCT it was obvious that I did not have a clear understanding of their exact goals and priorities when it came to hosting a show in their theatre. We will write a custom essay sample on The Importance of Planning a Negotiation Strategy for Sales or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Recognizing this blind spot and the importance to keep a positive and healthy relationship for the possibility of future business (Bugles); I decided to choose collaborative negotiation that would aim to create a settlement that fully satisfies all parties. After conceptualizing the information and present situation it had clearly outlined the necessary conditions that characterize collaborative negotiation and reinforced my theory that I was heading down the right path. It is these following conditions that define the relationship and motive of my negotiation: * Potential for mutual gain Fundamental motivation * High aspirations * Laborious and tedious * Problem-solving orientation * Required to work through issues * Premised on relationship building * Dilemma of honesty and trust Having my goals and strategy identified I was able to start the planning phase of my negotiation by creating a planning document. I outlined and organized information on both parties to the best of my know ledge relating to the topics of goals, background information, important issues, BATNA, resistance points, and target points. Once I had the raw data in front of me on my planning document I continued to outline the necessary steps to successfully implement my strategy. There are seven main steps which structure and make collaborative negotiation successful. It is these seven steps that I added to my planning document to ensure that I acted in the right way and followed the appropriate steps and rules of collaborative negotiation. 1. Define the problem and goal a. It is important that you keep it simple in the beginning as you are trying to build friendship and trust. b. I simply shared my three goals without any numbers or solutions attached to them. . Identify interest c. This is where I can try and figure out what WCT’s substantive interests are and what their priorities are. 3. Identify the obstacle d. This is where I planned to â€Å"open up† in a friendly way to find out what stands between me and my goals. 4. Develop Criteria for solutions e. This is where I planned to determine what WC T is interested in, in order to close the deal. 5. Have a frank discussion about pooling resources f. This is where I planned to talk about my other show Bugle and additional revenue generated from autograph signing sessions. . Generate alternatives g. This is where I planned to be creative and work as a team to generate additional alternatives that might help the both of us out. 7. Evaluate and select alternatives h. This is where I planned to use the provided spread sheet in calculating the selected bargaining mixes we agreed upon. I planned for this negotiation by first identifying what my goals were, choosing an appropriate strategy than creating a planning document that incorporates all the aspects of negotiating demonstrated above. Actual Negotiation I met Taylor Anderson at Red Square around 4:30 Sunday evening, and it was extremely noisy because it was during the midst of the low-rider car show. I had showed up early to walk around to see all the cars so I wouldn’t be heavily distracted from the negotiation. Once we found an appropriate spot we jumped right into the negotiation. I was the first person to speak up by saying that I wanted to be honest and work together in a collaborative setting. He paused for a second before saying anything but I could tell by his non-verbal sigh of relief portrayed on his face that we had the same intentions for this negotiation. Once we had come to this agreement we started going through the seven collaborative steps to get a better understanding of each other’s interest. We were able to go through the seven steps in a relaxing and friendly manner. When it came to verbal communication we were talking like two friends at a bar which relieved lots of stress and I believe it helped when it came to pooling resources. The fear of giving out to much information and being left in a vulnerable spot had dissipated as we got deeper in the negotiation. Being in a loud public setting had an extremely different effect on our verbal and non-verbal communication than that of being in the break-out rooms or class room setting where you feel obligated to talk in a proper business voice and sit in an upright manner; ultimately wearing a mask of deception which causes me to second guess everything my opposing party says or does. As we worked our way through the negotiation using friendly body gestures and speaking freely by using slang terms we started getting into numbers and bargaining mixes. We started off by discussing salary for my crew and cast. Taylor made the initial offer of $165,000 and I rebutted by saying I need a salary above $200,000. He then made an offer of $225,000 if I agreed to use my cast and crew for three matinees and autograph sessions. This sounded like a fair deal so I accepted it as part of the bargaining mix. The next topic was profit sharing. We agreed that I would keep 35% of the profits for this show since he agreed to pay for the lodging/board and meals. This gave the structure of my contract a value of $587,000 which is $287,500 more than what the Grand Palace was offering. When assessing our individual traits and how it influenced the outcome of our negotiation I believed it to have a positive effect. We were expressing almost identical moods and emotions which made us very cohesive and placed a large emphasis on premising relationship building and helping eliminate the dilemma of honesty. We were both telling jokes and laughing at each other’s jokes while calculating our bargaining mixes we had proposed to each other which symbolized that we had the same personality and could work parallel with one another when solving the problem at hand; together as a team/partner. Through verbal, non-verbal, conforming individual traits, and a laid back public setting helped in building a healthy relationship and developing a barraging mix that allowed us to mutually gain value from one another. Negotiation Assessment After reaching an agreement and walking away from the negotiation I started thinking and reflecting on what just happened and if I was truly satisfied or not. The first question that popped into my head was, â€Å"why did the negotiation progress as it did? I think the negotiation progressed as it did through the art of friendly negotiation which is the backbone and main driver of collaborative negotiation. If I would have entered this negotiation with a distributive and competitive attitude I probably could have gotten a higher salary and better split of the profits from the box office tickets but would have thrown away the opportunity to show my Bugel musical at the WTC which is favorably located in Chicago. The next question that came to mind was, â€Å"how did individual differences impact the process/outcomes? After going back over the series of events that happened I realized that it wasn’t the differences that played a major role but all the similarities that we shared when expressing ourselves through our individual traits. Not having to articulate around someone who is completely opposite really enhanced the relationship aspect which directly correlated with pooling our resources and generating multiple alternatives that held value for mutual gains. Another major factor that determined the outcome of our negotiation was the fact we had it outside in a non-stressful business nvironment. Not having to hold to the up-tight business norm allowed for us to act natural and be our true selves. It is important to separate the people from the problem and leave your ego at the door when walking into a negotiation. Being able to leave the business persona at the door I was able to fo cus all my energy at the current problem instead of focusing on portraying a serious business image and worrying about all my non-verbal cues that may hint I am not a powerful general manager and I can be walked on by someone who is more business oriented. Another reason I believe our negotiation went so smooth was due to the fact that I used my planned negotiation strategy directly from my planning document. Since I was able to use my planned strategy we were able to walk through each step and work as a team when trying to identify each other’s interests, priorities, and future plans. Having a well-executed and planned negotiation gave me a high level of satisfaction! I also felt satisfied because I know I gave the general manager at WCT a good deal and had made a new friend from the experience. This was a great learning experience; and with every great learning experience I was able to learn something new about myself. The most important thing that I learned about myself is that I am a way better negotiator in a non-formal setting where I can just be myself. I also learned that I am way better at collaborative and integrative negotiations than distributive negotiations. This is due to the fact that I have a friendly personality, can relate to all walks of life, and don’t have the heart to screw people over. Over the span of the quarter I have felt a large amount of personal development. I use to always veer away from conflict because I did not know how to handle/deal with it. I can now identify the type of conflict that I am dealing with and apply certain steps and follow certain guidelines to help find a resolution. A wise WWU negotiation 401 professor once told me, â€Å"You are surrounded by conflict so you better learn how to deal with it and resolve it† I feel that I have finally stopped hiding from conflict and can now deal with it and try to resolve it with confidence. Action Plan Still being new to negotiations and learning how to deal with them in a professional matter I have identified multiple weaknesses that I can hopefully improve by the following action plan. 1. I will learn the three strategic intentions of distributive negotiation by the end of the quarter. a. This SMART goal addresses my weakness of giving out to much information because I think my opposing party is my friend when really they have different intentions. b. The steps that I will take to accomplish this goal are to partake in more everyday distributive negotiations and every time I give out to much information I will snap myself with a rubber band. c. By accomplishing this goal I will keep the opposing party guessing what and how many resources I have. When I give up valuable information in the beginning I start working against myself. 2. I will learn two techniques by the end of the quarter to help me act more professional in a business environment. d. This SMART goal addresses my weakness of having to spend too much time focusing on how I look (sitting up straight, appropriate body gestures, etc. ) instead of focusing on the problem or conflict that I am trying resolve. e. I will accomplish this by joining a business club on campus where I am forced to act in a professional business manner. I will also try to stop using â€Å"slang terms† when describing or justifying my perspective or point of view. f. By accomplishing this goal I will get respect in the business field instead of being looked at as a joke. 3. I will learn to stop twirling my pen around my finger when I get nervous during a negotiation g. This SMART goal addresses my weakness/nervous tick that I have when I find myself lost for words or don’t have an immediate response h. I will accomplish this by keeping my pen on the desk and only pick it up if I need to write something down or make a calculation i. By accomplishing this goal I will not expose the fact that I am nervous through non-verbal communication 4. I will learn to stop using filler words every time I am trying to explain something that I am not one hundred percent certain about. . This SMART goal addresses my weakness in the sense that I don’t know when to use â€Å"silence† as a position of power. k. I will accomplish this by writing at the top of all my planning documents SILENCE so that way when I look down to try and figure out what I am talking about I will remember that I don’t have to answer right away and fill my sentences full of â€Å"ums† when trying to figure out my next argument l. By accomplishing this goal my speech will hold more â€Å"power† because I am not letting the opposing party know that I am lost for words which lets them know that they have me cornered with my own facts.