5 Negotiation Strategies to Improve Your Campaign – Raz Shafer

This week we’re talking about how hostage negotiation strategies can be used to improve your campaign. I’ll also share some case studies about how I’ve used them in my life, including a free hotel room upgrade, improving my marriage and helping me get a donor to nearly double his highest previous gift.

Before we get to our main topic, I’d wanted to throw out a question for y’all to think about. How are you going to overcome your target voter’s assumptions about the November election? Here’s why I ask: From what I’ve been observing, it seems like the majority of the Republican voting base thinks the polls are as wrong this year as in 2016 and that there’s no concern over losing the House, Senate or a majority of Governorships. While I do think Democrats have an energy advantage, much of the less politically engaged Democrat voting base seems to be assuming that they’ve got this thing in the bag as well. Both sides seem to have a legitimate reason to panic about voter apathy.

So, how are you going to combat that? I’d love to hear your feedback and I may discuss it further in a future episode. At the very least, I hope it’s food for thought.

Ok, so back in January, on Episode 59, I interviewed Chris Voss, former lead International Kidnapping Negotiator for the FBI and author of the book Never Split the Difference. If you’ve listened to the episode, I’ll bet you picked up some great knowledge from Chris and that you heard how excited I was about what I’d learned with the book. Over the seven months since then, I’ve been working to practice the strategies covered in the book.

Last month, I got the opportunity to enrol in a five-week live, online course that Chris’ company, the Black Swan Group, was holding. Derek Gaunt , a 29-year law enforcement officer and a 20-year negotiator was our instructor and the course was absolutely amazing. I’m actually recording this the day I completed the course. While I hope to have Derek on the podcast soon, I really wanted to share with y’all some of the easy tools that the book and course both cover that will make your campaign stronger.

What You’ll Learn about Derek Gaunt and Negotiation Techniques In This Episode:

[00:00] Podcast Introduction

[00:55] Question about your 2018 Election Assumptions

[01:50] Why Hostage Negotiation Strategies matter to your campaign

[04:05] How to Negotiate a Free Hotel Room Upgrade!

[13:11] Using Labels and Mirrors to learn more from every conversation (Whether it’s your sister in law or a major donor!)

[18:43] The biggest way these negotiation strategies have helped me.

[21:45] Specific idea for how you can field negotiation strategies in your campaign

[23:23] Conclusion and outro

Links from the Podcast:

Connect with Derek Gaunt and Black Swan Ltd. on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Learn more about him and Black Swan Ltd here.

This week we’re talking about how hostage negotiation strategies can be used to improve your campaign. I’ll also share some case studies about how I’ve used them in my life, including a free hotel room upgrade, improving my marriage and helping me get a donor to nearly double his highest previous gift.

Before we get to our main topic, I’d wanted to throw out a question for y’all to think about.