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A-Z of Business: N – Negotiating With Integrity

Being able to negotiate with integrity is vital to profitability and also for relationships. Effective negotiation is less about winning as it is about creatively finding a way in which both parties get what they need.  Sometimes this will involve compromise, where each party makes concessions to the other.  Sometimes it will involve backing down in the interest of maintaining a positive ongoing relationship – short-term pain for long-term gain.

There is an art to knowing when to concede, when to power- through at all costs, when to collaborate and when to compromise, or even withdraw altogether.  Here are my top tips for negotiating with integrity:

  1. Be clear about what you want and the minimum you will accept but don’t talk about your minimum too early as it will weaken your position.
  2. Create a resourceful state prior to the negotiation.  Useful states are powerful, calm, creative, respectful and influential.
  3. Listen more than you talk so that you can ascertain what’s important to them and where you might be able to seek leverage.
  4. Always find points of agreement first.  This creates a “yes-set” which makes it easier for the other person to continue agreeing with you.
  5. Show the value in what you are offering so that the negotiation is not just about price.
  6. Use positive language such as “My price is…”.  Too many people use softer language such as “I’m looking for…” which is subtext for “I am expecting less so push me as much as you want – I will give in really quickly”.
  7. Use silence positively.  Once you have stated your price (or your condition, wants, needs), be silent.  Over-explaining weakens your position.
  8. Be clear about the specific need of the other party, sometimes we negotiate on the wrong thing.  They might be concerned about cash flow or speedy delivery over price for example.
  9. Price is just one area for negotiation but also consider discounts for volume, including training in the price, payment terms, contract periods, etc.  This adds value to the negotiation so that price becomes less of a block.
  10. Use “If you …I will” when talking about concessions.  Much stronger than “If I … will you” which tells them that you are ready to concede first, thereby reducing your negotiating power.

Negotiating is a powerful tool which can be very effective when used correctly.  However, applied clumsily, it can damage relationships and profits.  If you would like help, why not book some coaching by calling 0845 130 0854.

In the meantime, you might want to check out our Influencing Skills Course on 19th September, which also has some powerful techniques to help you.

© Tricia Woolfrey 2013

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

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Decision Making, Influencing, Negotiation, Sales, Suppliers
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A-Z of Business: L – Leadership-v-Management: Are You a Manager or a Leader?

How do you know if you are a manager or a leader? 

There are few job titles with the word “leader” in them.  Manager or Director (depending on your level of seniority) seem to be the titles of choice – Customer Services Manager, Finance Director, Marketing Manager, Human Resources Director, etc.  Yet, the title is not an indication.  Being a manager is as important as leadership.  However, without leadership, you are missing a crucial element in business success – winning people’s hearts and minds.

Management can be thought of as being the ‘nuts and bolts’ of your role, with duties such as:

  • Planning
  • Allocating resources
  • Organising and co-ordinating
  • Controlling and directing
  • Measuring and evaluating
  • Solving problems
  • Short term thinking for managers, medium-term thinking for directors
  • Managing systems and procedures
  • Maintaining
  • Concerned with the “when” and “how”

All of these are absolutely essential and create a framework, structure and systems to achieve results which are monitored and course-corrected on a regular basis.

A leader, by contrast will be more of a visionary and will motivate and inspire people to follow.  Their focus will be on the long-term and they will be concerned with:

  • Establishing a vision
  • Inspiring co-operation and trust
  • Developing ideas and people
  • Concerned with the “what” and “why”

Creating a vision will usually require change and a good leader will inspire the team to be motivated for that change which might otherwise be met with resistance.  A leader paints a picture that people want to be part of and want to help make happen.

Managers deal with “shoulds” (the realms of necessity) while leaders deal with “coulds” (the realms of possibility).

Of course, leadership and management are not mutually exclusive.  There is a lot of overlap between the two.  A good leader will need good management qualities.  A good manager will require good leadership qualities.  If you tend to be a good leader but are not good at the planning, implementation and problem solving, it’s essential to have a very good, reliable and loyal team to do this for you.  If you are a good manager without the leadership qualities, you will need a good leader managing you to help you pass on the vision to your team.  Both skills can be learned and, with both skills, you will be a rounded professional contributing fully to the success of your team and your business.

And, to close, off, the wonderful Stephen Covey said “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”  You have to have your vision right, otherwise you are managing the wrong things.

If you would like to have greater insight into your leadership and management skills, book a psychometric profile session.  This helps overcome blind spots and highlights development opportunities for you.  Call 0845 130 0854 to find out more.

© Tricia Woolfrey 2012

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

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Business Coach, Decision Making, Employees, Leadership, Management
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A-Z of Business: J – Judgement: The Key to Effective Decision Making

Judgement is your ability to assess a situation and to draw sound conclusions.  This is a key factor in your decision making process.  How do you judge whether something is right for your business or not?  And how do other people judge you and your business?  When you understand this, it can really help you:

a) make decisions which serve your business well
b) help you to help other people make judgements in your favour

There are various ways in which we may be convinced of something-

  • Number of examples – ie the third time you see something, you are sure it’s right
  • Automatically –  you don’t take too much convincing, you just automatically trust that something is right
  • Period of time – you need to think about something for a while before deciding, even if it is an obvious solution
  • A trusted source – if you hear it from someone you trust, or know they are doing the same thing, that’s enough to convince you
  • Logic – you need to evaluate the facts before deciding if something is right for you
  • Emotion – you tend to trust your gut
  • Impact on the bottom line – you will not be convinced of anything unless you see how it will affect the bottom line
  • Tried and tested – you need to see something working somewhere else before you think about it for yourself
  • Cynics – you are never truly convinced of anything

None are right or wrong in themselves.  However, it’s possible to rely too much on a particular method which could leave you vulnerable.  For example, going on gut instinct without checking the effect something has on your bottom line could affect the profitability of your business; relying on a period of time may mean that an opportunity is lost; being automatically convinced can be dangerous as there is no evaluation of the possible impact something may have; cynics can fail to take opportunities because they always find fault; depending on tried and tested methods can mean you are behind the curve in terms of your competition; relying on logic alone can mean that you are ignoring the not inconsiderable power of your intuition; depending on a trusted source requires that the trusted source be right 100% of the time or that their circumstances are the same as yours.

Ask yourself, what other factors do you need to consider when you are formulating your decisions?  Do re-read the decision making part of this series.

Finally, what to do with this information when considering your customers and prospects?  You will be well-advised to consider an example of all the above criteria in relation to your products and factor in where appropriate.  For example, Jack has a strong gut instinct but likes to back it up with number of examples, so you might want to either find three ways of proving your product, or expect to make your case over three appointments, and follow that up with “What does your gut tell you about the suitability of our product for your business?”

Or, Sally may make her decision solely on the bottom line.  So you may want to take the approach of showing the cost savings your product will give her, or the revenue potential, or perhaps some other way of impacting the bottom line.

If you aren’t sure about what someone else’s convincer strategy is, ask them how they decided to buy their latest car, computer system or even holiday.  This should give you a lot of clues.

Even the most successful business people have made bad judgements in their time. However, you can minimise yours by considering all of your options to make a more informed decision.

If you would like to discuss you own business decision making strategy, or change the way others judge your business, please contact us on 0845 130 0854.

© Tricia Woolfrey 2012

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

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Business Coach, Decision Making, Performance, Problem Solving, Success
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A-Z of Business: D – Decision Making

Of all the things you have to do in business, making effective decisions is probably the most important.  Decisions can vary from a simple yes” or “no”, or between a variety of options or even to determine what the options are.  The subject of the decision can also be varied from hiring and firing, appointing the right supplier, deciding whether to increase your product portfolio or consolidate, expand or downsize, borrow or cut costs.  Each of these decisions can have long term consequences so it’s prudent to make sure your decision-making is pretty robust.  Delay can be as destructive as the bad decision.

Here are my top ten tips to effective decision-making:

  1. Clarify the problem you want to resolve – different people may have a different perspective on what the problem is.
  2. Include relevant stakeholders in the decision-making process – if the right people are not involved, they can adversely impact the implementation of your decision.
  3. Brainstorm all the options – don’t judge them yet, just put all the options down on paper.  Essentially this is about becoming aware of what you could do before you decide what you should do.  If you go into the shoulds too early, you cut yourself off from creativity.
  4. Determine what will let you know the decision was a good one.
  5. Make a list of the pros and cons of each option and for each stakeholder including:
    • Costs involved, especially whether the solution outweighs the problem it is intended to resolve
    • Effect on profit
    • Effect on customer relations
    • Impact on employees and workflow
    • Ability to support the decision in terms of skills, time and resources (a lot of good decisions don’t work out because of the lack of infrastructure to make them happen).
  6. Ask yourself whether it is line with your personal and business values – if it is not, it is bound to lead you into hot water at some point.
  7. If you are not at peace with the decision ask yourself what the concern is.  Is there a way of addressing this concern whilst going forward with the decision?
  8. Make sure the solution is treating the cause of the problem rather than the results.
  9. Consider any negative outcomes which may result from your decision and minimise those as much as possible – even the best decisions can have negative consequences – sometimes the best decision is not the most popular so it’s important to think of the short-term and long-term implications and how you can mediate those.
  10. Last, but by no means least, develop an implementation plan – no point in going through all of this if it isn’t going to bear fruit.

Finally, problems to avoid:

  • Analysis paralysis – you can spend too much time gathering data to make your decision – get the balance right.  Often the information being collected is to provide comfort rather than to influence your decision either way. Gather only what you need.
  • Procrastination – the enemy of success and the refuge for those who fear failure.  Procrastination can cause missed deadlines, missed opportunities, wasted resources, delayed projects, and frustrated customers, vendors, employees and co-workers .  It can often cause a loss of respect.  The worst thing is not to do anything.  Much better to anticipate problems and plan for them.
  • Impulsivity.  This is often the curse of the enthusiast.  They often rely on their “gut” but the decisions are not backed up by critical thinking around consequences and implementation issues.  Make calculated decisions and then your gut will tell you if it’s right or not.   A “niggle” can tell you that there is something you’ve overlooked.
  • Ignoring different viewpoints.  Sometimes the best ideas come from the most unexpected places and if you are filtering information through your ego, you are closed off to this.  At the same time, you don’t want to pander to people’s ideas if they don’t work.  It’s important simply to be open and receptive. Sometimes someone else’s idea might not be right in itself but is the seed for something which is.

I can’t resist one more tip:  ask yourself whether it will feel like the right decision a year from now.  This often flushes out any unconscious concerns or validates a difficult decision.

To your success,

Tricia Woolfrey
© Tricia Woolfrey 2012
 About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.
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Decision Making, Performance, Problem Solving, Success
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