The Leadership Stack Podcast

Ep.173: How To Achieve A Win-Win Business Negotiation With Bruno Cignacco


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Sean: What makes negotiation so difficult? Because a lot of people shy away from it. They would rather not do it, then have to negotiate. What makes it easier for you?

Bruno: There are two aspects of negotiation. So first of is the personal aspect of this negotiation process.

So this means the relationship. This is probably the most important aspect of the negotiation process. So the personalized negotiation, then you have what we call the substantive aspect of negotiation. This means price, quantity, quality. Things that its condition should be negotiated, and this could be - if you are negotiating with an employee; it will be salary, time for working, and so on.

In the negotiation process, the only type of agreement that counts is win-win agreement. This means that both parties are benefiting from this agreement. When you have win-win agreements, you are more prone to the available long-term relationship. Because when both parties are satisfied, the relationship might not be only for this agreement, but also might be going on for other agreements.

Now, the biggest mistake in negotiation is not identifying the needs of others. Because you cannot satisfy each other's needs in a mutual way, if we don't know the needs of each other. So a very important question is; what is this party trying to achieve? What are their main needs? What are their main interests? And also we can express our interest too, to see if there is a common ground.

Companies and individuals should always keep that in mind to preserve the relationship. The relationship is the most important aspect. So I always like to quote a very famous author in negotiation, who observed that you have to be - hard with the problems, and soft with people. Hard with problems, soft with people. I like this approach. This is a book that was written a long time ago, and the author observes that you can get a bit emotional during negotiation that you can say things that are offensive to others.

You can get a bit aggressive during the negotiation process. You won't be compassionate, you won't be empathetic, and this is not good for the relationship and also not good for the transaction, and the negotiation, and the potential agreement. So this means that emotions should be unnoticed during the negotiation process.

Try to look for these interests that are related to the other party, and try to look for ways to connect, not only from the business perspective, but on an emotional level. Why this person or why this company is trying to get these interests, what things are important for them, what is relevant for them. But also try to use terminology like "we", "our agreement", "our goal". Not terminologies that show individualism, such as "I", "or my interests". We can always say "our agreement", "our potential agreement", "our sharing of this information", but also try to always to look for other ways to satisfy the other party's interest.

The only way for this to succeed from the long term perspective is, an agreement to be win-win and is mutually profitable. I'm not sure, in some cases you look for creative ways to approach the negotiation process. I will also say that it is important to understand the other person's view even if it could be conflicting with ours. Because what makes negotiation interesting is that we have different views on the transaction and decent reach in the relationship.

We have to focus both on the substantive aspect of business, this mean price, quality, quantity, and so on other conditions. And personal aspects of business, their fears, their expectations, they're interests, and their desires. So what they really want? What is meaningful to them?

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The Leadership Stack PodcastBy Sean Si

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