January 8, 2024

SURPRISES IN NEGOTIATIONS

You may encounter a negotiator who uses ‘Surprise’ as a negotiating tactic. Some negotiators feel surprises provide a good way to keep the pressure on the other party. I’ve been caught by surprise many times and it still shakes me up, at least for a short period of time.

I don’t like surprise because it creates distrust and fear. Surprise acts as a communication block. The sudden introduction of unexpected events can cause the other party to lose face and thereby harden his or her position. If this happens the entire negotiation may be in trouble.

Once you recognize that many surprises are negotiating tactics, you are in a better position to respond effectively.

Before you can defend against surprise, it is well to recognize the kinds of surprises you are likely to come up against.

1. Issue surprises: new demands, new packages, backing off concessions, position changes, risk changes, escalation tactics.
2. Time surprises: deadlines, short sessions, change-in-pace, patience, all-night sessions, having to work over the weekend.
3. Move surprises: walk outs, recesses, delays, smoke-screens, emotional outbursts, frequent interruptions, displays of power.
4. Information surprises: introduce new rules/regulations/policies, new data to back-up a point-of-view, new sources of data, tough questions, peculiar answers.
5. Ego surprises: bursts of abuse, anger, distrustfulness, one-upmanship, disbelief, attacks on intelligence and integrity.
6. People surprises: changes in buyers, changes in salespeople, new team members, disappearance of people, higher-level executives join the negotiation, experts or consultants are brought in. Another people surprise – when nobody at all turns up for a meeting, or when someone shows up hours late.
7. Authority surprises: suddenly the other person lacks the authority to make a decision, people who have the authority are missing, people who have authority but only up to a certain limit and not more.
8. Place surprises: beautiful offices, uncomfortable chairs, no air conditioning, freezing rooms, holes in the wall, noisy surroundings, big (long) parties.

The best thing to do when surprised by a turn of events is to first recognize that this might simply be a negotiating tactic. Give yourself time to think. Listen, say as little as you can, and take a break. A negotiation is not a courtroom or a war. Don’t respond to something new until you sort it out and are prepared to respond effectively.