Unleash The Power of Collaborative Negotiation

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Why is it often challenging to ask for what we truly want?

I typically get called into negotiations with customers when we’re at the end of our process. It's a situation where I am trying to get my team and customers to think differently and develop a more proactive approach where we understand what's important to both parties earlier in the cycle.

I also try to break the mindset of my sales team and customers about the mythical fixed pie. It’s the belief that someone wins and the other loses over a mythical fixed boundary—or, in this case, the last piece of pie we are going to bicker about.

I believe that if you think success in negotiation always comes at the other party’s expense, then you are leaving value on the negotiating table.

What happened in this specific situation is that our customer wanted something, and we ran out of time. On both sides, we waited until the last minute, losing time and options.