Friday, September 24, 2010
Cranium Booster: Negotiation Re-visit - go easy on the water!
Cranium Booster: Negotiation Re-visit - go easy on the water!: "Image via Wikipedia Buzzwordy's Reservoir of Marketing Tips Negotiation Re-visit The following tip was introduced as the second o..."
Negotiation Re-visit - go easy on the water!
Image via WikipediaBuzzwordy's Reservoir of Marketing Tips
Negotiation Re-visit
The following tip was introduced as the second one from my September 14, 2010 negotiation post,
When the other side offers you something to drink, always choose water over anything else. Naturally, a bottled water with a tightly sealed cap is preferred. Make sure that you check for bubbles inside the bottle - if bubbles are seen, don't drink that bottle. This means that it has been tampered. With a clear bottled water, you don't need to drink too much, just a tiny sip to keep your mouth moist will work.
Lets use Buzzwordy in this example.
The Location: customer's dingy office
The Parties: Buzzwordy and the customer
The Topic: policy adjustment request
"Welcome to my joint Mr. Buzzwordy. I hope that you had a wonderful flight!" greeted the customer.
"Thank you kindly for your asking Mr. Customer. My flight has been decent." replied Buzzwordy while shaking the customer's hand.
"Great! Please have a seat and make yourself comfortable. Can I offer you anything, will water or juice be fine?" suggested the customer.
"Bottled water will be just fine. Thanks very much." confirmed Buzzwordy.
Once the customer returned with the bottled water. Buzzwordy kept staring at it to make sure that there were no suspicious bubbles inside. He did it so subtly that the customer couldn't detect anything obtrusive about his behavior. After he had the opportunity to scan the entire bottle a few times and come to the conclusion that everything looked normal, he proceeded to uncap the bottle.
"Shall we start our meeting?" asked the anxious customer.
"Absolutely!" agreed Buzzwordy while sipping his water gently.
Anyhow, it was a productive meeting. The customer was happy with how knowledgeable Buzzwordy was with his company's policies as well as understanding his hot buttons. By taking in the water gradually, Buzzwordy didn't have to make multiple excuses about going to the washroom. This made the meeting go smooth and effective.
So hats off to Buzzwordy for going slow on consuming his bottled water and making the negotiation meeting go smooth and effective.
Buzzwordy
Note from Buzzwordy
If you enjoy reading the Cranium Booster - Buzzwordy tales, why not spread the words and share them with your friends and family. Everyone deserves a good laugh and so do you. Just send them this link so they can sign up for free.
http://buzzwordy-craniumbooster.blogspot.com/
Questions
If you are interested in contributing to Cranium Booster-Buzzwordy, please send an email to gwu@buzzwordy.com.
Cranium Booster: Well gentlemen, time is running out!
Cranium Booster: Well gentlemen, time is running out!: "Image via WikipediaDay Forty Two, Buzzwordy and Bif were staring at each other, dazed, confused, and could hardly utter a word. Mr. ..."
Well gentlemen, time is running out!
Image via WikipediaBuzzwordy and Bif were staring at each other, dazed, confused, and could hardly utter a word. Mr. Wang saw their crumbling composure as an opportunity for him to wedge into their territory.
"Please don't let my physical transformation scares you off. My understanding is that you are here for this important negotiation. In the interest of time, we should get started now. Do you two agree?" proposed the unscrupulous Mr. Wang.
"You are right Mr. Wang, we should get going on this. If you don't mind, I would like Buzzwordy to be the primary negotiator and I will support him whenever needed." replied Bif.
"No issue Mr. Bif, so lets review our latest proposal together!" said Mr. Wang while gesturing to one of his assistants to get the overhead projector ready.
"Excuse me Mr. Wang, I don't mean being a pest at this meeting. Could you or someone explain to me why were there so many emails between us with Madame Fei's name on them? Based on my quick analysis, your physical transformation date doesn't correlate with some of the dates in the emails!" interrogated Buzzwordy.
"What do you mean Mr. Buzzwordy?" asked the unpleasant Mr. Wang.
Bif gave Buzzwordy a dirty look and shook his head. It was obvious that he didn't want to start a battle with Dominance Technology in their backyard. By the look on Buzzwordy's face, he was concerned that this marketing whiz kid would refuse to drop his interrogation.
"Mr. Wang, I'm very sorry if my question has offended you. Please accept my apology. Why don't we just focus on our negotiation?" suggested Mr. Buzzwordy.
"Gentlemen, Let me make myself clear. If you continue to bring up Madame Fei in our meeting, I will end our negotiation immediately. Is my message clear?" demanded Mr. Wang.
"Agreed!" nodded Bif and Buzzwordy in unison.
The projector was ready and Mr. Wang started to pinpoint some of the key topics for negotiation. The list was emphatically long and many of the issues were sticky ones. Both Bif and Buzzwordy were busy jotting down their concerns while Mr. Wang continued to bring up more and more topics.
"Mr. Wang, since we only have one day in Shenzhen, I'm afraid that we may not be able to complete our negotiation in time!" expressed the concerned Bif.
"Mr. Bif, please don't worry. I have already requested my team to come up with the answers for all the topics. If you and Mr. Buzzwordy find them acceptable, all you have to do is to agree to our answers and we can make this meeting go very quickly. By the way, I have planned a dinner reception for the two of you" proposed Mr. Wang.
Buzzwordy knew that Mr. Wang was setting up a trap for the two of them. He was going to use time on his side to force Bif to agree to all the terms and then take both of them out to dinner to celebrate his personal triumph. The more he thought about it, the more upset he became. He peeked across the table and saw Bif in full perspiration mode, just a terrible way to show his true color to Mr. Wang.
"Well gentlemen, what do you think?" asked the cunning Mr. Wang.
Bif was confused and nervous, and he kept rubbing his eyes while staring at all the topics on the screen. Buzzwordy saw Mr. Wang grinning and part of his face was twitching uncontrollably. He told himself that unless he came up with something quick, Bif would lose his shirt in this negotiation.
"Well gentlemen, time is running out, especially for the two of you. What do you want to do?" pressured Mr. Wang.
Without a sign of warning, Buzzwordy stood up and signaled Bif to get up as well. His action took Mr. Wang and his team by surprise.
"Mr. Wang, I feel light headed all of a sudden. If you don't mind, I would like to return to the hotel and rest. I'm very sorry to cause you and your team this inconvenience." said Buzzwordy apologetically.
"What? You're not sick or are you really ill?" questioned Mr. Wang skeptically.
The negotiation will continue on Day Forty Three.
Buzzwordy
Note from Buzzwordy
If you enjoy reading the Cranium Booster - Buzzwordy tales, why not spread the words and share them with your friends and family. Everyone deserves a good laugh and so do you. Just send them this link so they can sign up for free.
http://buzzwordy-craniumbooster.blogspot.com/
Questions
If you are interested in contributing to Cranium Booster-Buzzwordy, please send an email to gwu@buzzwordy.com.
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Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Cranium Booster: Negotiation re-visit
Cranium Booster: Negotiation re-visit: "Image by jonny goldstein via Flickr Buzzwordy's Reservoir of Marketing Tips Negotiation Re-visit Hello Fans and Readers of Buzzwordy..."
Negotiation re-visit
Image by jonny goldstein via FlickrBuzzwordy's Reservoir of Marketing Tips
Negotiation Re-visit
Hello Fans and Readers of Buzzwordy's Cranium Booster Tales,
Since posting my top 10 negotiation tips on September 14, 2010, I've been getting comments from some readers expressing their interests in seeing illustrations and examples for these tips. After running into more readers over this weekend, I feel compelled to put some examples together in order to make my tips stick in people's minds.
The following tip happens to be the first one from my September 14, 2010 negotiation post.
When negotiating with your clients and vendors, never give them a clear indication of how far you are willing to go - whether the price is up or down. Just sit tight, smile, and stick to your gun. Usually a poker face works every time. Time is your best friend in negotiation - learn to love it.
Lets use Buzzwordy in this example.
The Location: a small and stuffy room in the customer's office
The Parties: Buzzwordy and the nagging customer
The Topic: price reduction request
"Buzzwordy, your company has been charging us an arm and a leg for the last three years on this particular widget. On behalf of my company, I really feel a sense of injustice. I sincerely hope that you and I can resolve this discriminatory price practice today!" complained the nagging customer.
"Thank you so much for bringing this matter to my attention Mr. Customer. This is the reason why I am here today. My mission is to make sure that your concern can be remedied and we'll continue to do great business together." smiled Buzzwordy.
"Listen Buzzwordy, my request is pretty darn straight forward. What I want from you is to get a retro price discount of 30% or should I say a refund for the last 2 years of widgets purchased from your company. Moreover, I want you to give us a 20% quarter-to-quarter discount for this widget starting next month. I strongly feel compelled for you to honor such a reasonable request to my company. By complying with this request, I believe our company and yours can continue to do great business together." demanded the nagging customer.
"I must say that you have put a lot of thoughts into your request and this is very commendable. Since we have already given you the most favored nation pricing from the beginning, I must consult my executive team as well as my finance department to get a read before responding to you. Just to ensure that your request is being handled with top priority, I'll inform them immediately. This will just take a few minutes and thank you so much for your patience." smiled Buzzwordy.
"OK, I'm waiting!" responded the nagging customer.
After a few minutes, Buzzwordy was ready to update the nagging customer.
"Mr. Customer, thanks for waiting. I just got a reply from my C-team and they deeply value our relationship. On this note, we're prepared to address your future demand by giving you a 10% annual discount starting next month, however, our company policy prohibits us from giving any of our customers a retro discount or refund because this will impact our standard accounting practice. Please understand our limitations!" smiled Buzzwordy.
"Just hold it right here. This is ridiculous and I cannot accept your offer. No way!" screamed the nagging customer.
"I fully understand how you feel at this moment and am prepared to spend my quality time with you for as long as you need me for. Lets not give up and we should continue to try to work this request out together." smiled Buzzwordy.
The nagging customer was unhappy but he knew that Buzzwordy was trying to help him find the best solution. He realized that his refund request was a pie-in-the-sky one and very rarely would he ever get his vendors to grant him this wish. He then focused his energy on negotiating for the best future deal. Since Buzzwordy had plenty of time on his hands, he was using this weapon as his leverage to rein in Mr. Customer. Guess what? After a long and tiresome negotiation, Mr. Customer did agree to accept a 5% quarter-to-quarter discount with the commitment from Buzzwordy's management to re-visit the widget price at the end of the 12-month period.
So hats off to Buzzwordy for using his poker face tactic and time as his best friend to rein in Mr. Customer.
Buzzwordy
Note from Buzzwordy
If you enjoy reading the Cranium Booster - Buzzwordy tales, why not spread the words and share them with your friends and family. Everyone deserves a good laugh and so do you. Just send them this link so they can sign up for free.
http://buzzwordy-craniumbooster.blogspot.com/
Questions
If you are interested in contributing to Cranium Booster-Buzzwordy, please send an email to gwu@buzzwordy.com.
Privacy Policy for http://buzzwordy-craniumbooster.blogspot.com
The privacy of our visitors to http://buzzwordy-craniumbooster.blogspot.com is important to us.
At http://buzzwordy-craniumbooster.blogspot.com, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use and visit http://buzzwordy-craniumbooster.blogspot.com, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.
Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.
Cookies and Web Beacons
We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.
We also use third party advertisements on http://buzzwordy-craniumbooster.blogspot.com to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).
You can choose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.
AdSense Privacy Policy Provided by JenSense
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