In business negotiations, overcoming the fear of losing

A million years ago, cavemen and cavewomen strutting their status by piling rocks. Those with the highest pile with the best caves that had an ocean view and wheelbarrows with power steering. And so it continues today.

It 's human nature for people want their stakes exceed the other guy. But there are only so many rocks. If I take the rocks and add them to my post, I win. And vice versa. So we negotiate.

Therein lies the problem: 70% of people prefer to avoid trading altogether. They will do so reluctantly, but deep inside they wish would just go away. And when you come off the layers of this onion reluctant, what you find is fear of losing.

The Past: 8 most important words in business are: Buy low, sell high, collect early and late.

Historically our collective vision of trading is the purchase of a used car. Aggressive, pushy salesman trying to make you do decide now, pay more, do not delay. We hate that. It's called negotiation "positional", which my position imposes on you. It's not really trading at all. This is a competition. And in competitions there are winners and losers. Ergo, the fear of losing.

The future: the relationship must survive the negotiation

In business, we face that future customers, suppliers or employees, and the next day. There is an ongoing relationship. It all begins negotiations with the realization and conviction that the relationship will survive the negotiation.
The definitive work on trading is great "Getting to Yes" Fisher and Ury, written almost 40 years ago. They propose a method different from the traditional positional negotiations, called "merit" or contractual "interest". We adhere to this new method. In fact we take it over. We believe in negotiation "Both Grow," in which all parties to raise and grow.

Any negotiations should start with two goals ...
1. Get the best deal for our part, and
2. Get a result "Both Grow" for both parties.

It seems impossible? Not at all. We are serving masters conflict here ... not really. It seems so. When done properly, it is a great result. If you're committed to continuous improvement and construction of a world class business, we need to talk.

JT ......