CHAPTER 6
Assessing the Tendencies of Others
Dealing with the Other Side
Dr. Pat was now ready for the phase of taking the XL participants into the outward-focused portion of Step 2 in their treatment for negotiaphobia: assessing the other side’s strategic tendencies. Both Jay and Eduardo found it odd that their leader started the afternoon session of the workshop holding a deck of cards. Eduardo jokingly asked, “Hey, Doc, we going to play Texas Hold ’Em or what?” Dr. Pat simply shuffled the deck and smiled.
Your One Minute Drill: Each time you begin a negotiation situation, take a minute to review the three steps.
STEP 3
Strategize: Select the proper strategy for this particular negotiation.
STEP 2
Assess: Evaluate your tendency to use each of the negotiation strategies, as well as the tendencies of the other side(s).
STEP 1
Engage: Recognize you are in a negotiation and quickly review the viable strategies.
You Ain’t Playin’ Solitaire
“Well, now that you are well versed on the four strategies, and which ones you are most likely to use, you have a pretty good view of how you like to play your negotiation cards. Like Eduardo just mentioned, a lot of people rightly think of negotiations as a high-stakes card game. But as we all know, unless you are playing solitaire, there are other people at the card table, and they are not simply filling a seat to watch you win. They want the game to go well for them, and they have their own negotiation strategy tendencies. Your ability to effectively assess them and anticipate how they like to play, when coupled with knowing how you like to play, will take you a long way down the road toward generating successful negotiation outcomes.”
The need to know how everyone at the negotiation table likes to play cards sounded like a daunting task to Jay. He was already concerned about becoming tougher and less of an accommodator. Now he had to get inside the heads of the other people involved?
That is when Dr. Pat stepped in to address Jay’s rapidly developing fears. “I am seeing frowns on some of your faces. This all sounds tough, doesn’t it? I told you I was going to make this easy for you. Allow me to let you in on a little secret. Most people are extremely predictable when it comes to how they negotiate, and even those who aren’t rarely have a good enough poker face to effectively hide the strategy they are using for very long. After this seminar at sea is over, and you get a little experience with the steps, the learning curve will have kicked in, and you will find it pretty simple to know what’s coming from the other side.”
History Repeats Itself
The group was about to learn that the first indicator of how someone is going to negotiate with you in the future is how they have negotiated with you in the past.
“Many people are just not comfortable or skilled in using more than one of the four negotiation strategies,” stated Dr. Pat. “Just like you, they experience negotiaphobia that traps them in their own comfort zone, and additionally, over 99 percent of them have not had this training. If they were competitive with you in the last negotiation, they will most likely play win-lose with you this time around as well. Such is the case even if it did not work out all that well for them. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. In cards, bluffers tend to bluff often, and folders tend to be folders. That is how they like to play, even without thinking about it. All you have to do in this assessment of the other side is be observant enough to recognize it.”
Dr. Pat went on to share a story that reinforced history repeating itself. “I have a client who has a customer I unaffectionately call Mr. 10 Percent. Every year when they negotiate a new annual contract with this guy, he takes the highly competitive stance of immediately demanding a 10 percent price reduction, regardless of his growing business and accompanying service requirements. Some of my clients think I have a crystal ball that helps me see into the future because I am pretty accurate in my prediction of what other parties are going to say and do at the table. This ability is not based on any peek into the future. It is instead driven by my careful observation and assessment of what has happened in the past.”
Jay thoughtfully agreed that most of the times when he was surprised by something his customers said, did, or did not do, he should not have been caught off guard. He had often gone to meetings hoping against hope that he would experience something different this time around because he still did not have a means to counter those buyers who proclaimed a lack of differentiation or the questionable value of XL’s offerings. It was like reliving the same bad dream over and over again.
Taking Things Personally
Dr. Pat next moved to the topic of behavioral styles in anticipating how an individual might negotiate with you. “Even if you have never engaged in a formal negotiation with someone, and thus have no history to draw upon, you can still assess them. If you observe their behavioral style tendencies, you will have a solid source of input in terms of what strategy they are most likely to deploy.” He went on to describe the four basic interaction styles in terms of their pace of information exchange and their focus on either tasks or relationships.
Analyticals (Slow Pace/Task Focus)
Dr. Pat explained that analytical people are the least emotional when it comes to their negotiation encounters. “When you are involved with a numbers person, recognize that what they really want is no surprises,” he said. “It’s all about a rational evaluation of the numbers. You should minimize any focus on opinions and feelings. They want the hard data, accurately presented, and the time to study it. Analyticals are like a dog taking a bone and running under a porch to work it over.” Dr. Pat explained that for this reason, you can predict that analyticals will make heavy use of the avoidance negotiation strategy. “They avoid making a decision without adequate data and significant time to process it. They also often strongly resist making decisions and expressing opinions in public forums.”
Dr. Pat concluded his coverage of how analyticals negotiate by emphasizing, “You had best make certain that they have all the data you want them to consider before they go under that porch, because when they come out they have already made up their mind. To change their mind after that point would be an indication of the one thing these folks fear most in any negotiation: making a mistake.”
Drivers (Fast Pace/Task Focus)
“A lot of people are intimidated by negotiating with drivers, but personally, they are my favorite interaction style to work with,” Dr. Pat continued. “The beauty of negotiating with drivers, given their short attention span, unemotional task orientation, and direct nature, is that you generally know exactly where you stand with them. They often come at you with an overtly competitive strategy, but this is just a test. They want to see what you’re made of and how prepared and confident you are in terms of the issues being negotiated.” He then proposed that if you pass their opening salvo test, there is a very good chance to move into a collaborative encounter with a driver. Eduardo had always found such an opening attack painful and disorienting. He now had a much better idea of what was actually taking place.
Dr. Pat went on, “Once they know you’re for real, only then do they decide you are worth the effort and candor it takes to collaborate with you. They don’t play a win-win card game with many people, but the ones they do deem worthy of this strategy often end up with a lot of chips. They will have their one big issue in any negotiation, and if you can confidently address that point, they have very limited interest in the other ‘minor’ aspects of the deal. This big issue is the thorn in their paw, and if you find and remove it, the path to success has few other hurdles. When you find them in a hurry to get something they want done completed, they’ll often not be predisposed to beat you up very much on price.” He explained that they generally aggressively attack price primarily to check your confidence in the value of your proposal.
“You will need to build credibility with a driver, because the one thing they fear most in any negotiation is failure. Unlike analyticals, they don’t mind a few mistakes along the way, but you must recognize that failure is simply not an option for them. Their self-image is totally inconsistent with this outcome.”
Dr. Pat next suggested that when it comes to working out the details of a deal, drivers have very little patience for these discussions. “When successful, drivers have a valued analytical on their team. Work with this team member to get the i’s dotted and t’s crossed, but if the driver is the primary decision maker, do not fail to get him or her back in the room to bless the final deal.”
At this point, Jay recalled a recent negotiation where he had tried to work out the details with the driver herself. She ended up totally losing interest in doing business with XL, stating, “You guys are just too much trouble to work with.” Jay was wishing he had met the One Minute Negotiator years ago. That piece of advice would have saved several large deals that had gotten away from him. A conversation with Eduardo during the next break showed his friend had experienced that same realization.
Expressives (Fast Pace/Relationship Focus)
Dr. Pat described expressives as the ultimate “wannabe” collaborators. “These people love the idea of collaboration. The only problem with them is that they rarely have the attention span and discipline to follow through with this strategy. They are, at their very core, the dreamers we discussed earlier, as they simply don’t have enough focus to be sages. When you capture the attention of an expressive in a negotiation, you had best move rapidly and enthusiastically to get a deal done. They may love you today, but tomorrow they will often not even remember your name. They have moved on down the road and are now working on some other, more exciting negotiation.”
He explained that in his coaching efforts, novice negotiators are frequently offended when expressives lose interest and move to avoidance. “These people are impulsive and sometimes flighty. They generally have so many balls in the air that they can only get themselves to even consider their negotiation with you for a brief moment of time. Your best bet is to understand their goals and visions and respond to them in a stimulating manner in an attempt to secure their commitment.”
Dr. Pat emphasized the need to find someone in the expressive’s organization to work with to collect the information necessary to understand needs, develop options, create an action plan, and then come back to the expressive for a decision. “You really need for them to designate a point person in their camp for you to work with. You have to get their commitment to come back into the negotiations at the decision point, and that point had better be very soon. In this respect, they are similar to drivers. Don’t be afraid to be diligent in pushing an expressive to stick with the process. They need this prodding and ultimately will respect it.
“The number one thing they dislike in negotiations is boredom. Come up with solutions respectful of the expressive’s goals, present them in a brief and energized manner, and you might be surprised when they grab them in a nanosecond.”
As everybody was taking notes, Eduardo reflected back on a time when he had moved too slowly and had seen a potentially highly collaborative expressive prospect disappear, apparently into a witness protection program, never to be seen again.
Amiables (Slow Pace/Relationship Focus)
Dr. Pat opened the discussion of the final style with a question. “Coming into this workshop, how many of you felt that happy, friendly, and caring amiables were the best of all interaction styles with which to negotiate?” Well over half of the hands in the room went up. “My friends, I hate to tell you this, but you were seriously confused. The problem in negotiating with amiables is that you think they love you, but be advised that they love your competitor, too! Their relationship orientation and tendency to resist conflict at all cost keeps them in a friendly mode. They are not in a hurry to make a decision, because it takes a long time to find out how everybody on their team feels about any change. This makes expressives and drivers absolutely climb the wall. I like the word ‘yes,’ and I am a big boy who can live with a ‘no’ and work to see if it can be changed, but a ‘maybe’ in negotiations will eat you alive.”
For this reason, he characterized amiables as the ultimate avoiders. “Unlike analyticals, who are avoiding a decision without adequate data or in front of groups, amiables will postpone making a decision until they are certain of an outcome that will not offend anyone on their team, as well as on the other teams competing for their attention. In their mind, they are hoping that if they wait long enough, the issue in question will solve itself or totally disappear.”
Dr. Pat suggested that amiables are also the most likely style to accommodate. “In order to stay away from conflict, they will often accommodate beyond that which is even necessary. It may sound good to have an amiable doing this in a negotiation with you, but they are very big on using complaining and sometimes guilt to try to get these accommodations back in spades later in the game.”
Figuring Out First-Timers
It was at this point in the discussion that Monte Beal raised his hand. Dr. Pat nodded at him to get his input. “This is all well and good for people we have a history with,” Monte said, “but what about first-time negotiation encounters where there is not any experience to draw on?”
Dr. Pat responded, “Monte, I owe you $5, because that is a great segue for where we are going next. You have two sources of assessment information when you have not negotiated with a person in the past or have no input regarding their behavioral style.” The first point identified was the company you are negotiating with, if it is a business-to-business encounter. “The number one thing I want to know when I have not negotiated with people in a company before is, ‘How does that organization negotiate with their customers?’ If they have a reputation for working collaboratively with their customers, I expect them to be collaborative with their vendors or suppliers. On the other hand, when they face highly competitive encounters with their customers, I fully expect them to be competitive in their dealings with me as I sell to them. These are cultural issues that can give us some valuable predictability.”
Dr. Pat also recommended looking at public information on the organization, such as websites and published articles. “If they are openly sharing useful information, that approach is consistent with collaboration. You can also look for words like cooperation, value, relationships, and even collaboration in their mission and vision statements. Conversely, if they are secretive beyond address and phone number, that assessment signals the selection of a competitive strategy.
“You certainly have to be aware of the inherent differences between public and private organizations with regard to the amount of information they share, but I feel that, with a little effort, you can begin to assess which way the organizational culture leans. You can also talk to people in other noncompetitive organizations who have negotiated with this company in the past to get a read on where they tend to fall on the negotiation strategy matrix. All of these inputs just take a little bit of effort, but the insights are often extremely valuable.”
A Parting Warning
“Before we leave this issue and take a break,” Dr Pat told the group, “I want to take one minute to plant a final thought in your mind.
“When my assessment of the other side leaves doubts in my mind, I always lean toward anticipating a collaborative encounter. As you will come to see, it takes a bit more planning to negotiate this way, but I can usually readily switch to a competitive strategy if I start out carefully using collaboration. It is much more difficult, and frequently impossible, to make the opposite switch due to the walls that are put in place when my strategizing has me opening competitively. If anyone is going to be responsible for missing what was a collaborative opportunity to generate superior outcomes, I want it to be them and not me. I don’t want to have to look in the mirror and admit that by my own lack of preparation and information sharing, a quick move to a position, or a lack of flexibility, I steered this negotiation down the more limited competitive path. I do not want to show all my cards at the start of the conversation, but I will share an overview of where I stand and see what sort of sharing I get back from them in return.
“Now that we have brought the topic into play, we will fully move into the third EASY treatment step of strategizing in the next session.”
Jay could tell that this approach was well received by his colleagues in the room as they made their final notes and moved to grab a beverage and a snack.
1. Our success in negotiating is dependent on our ability to correctly assess the strategies being used by others.
2. Many negotiators are highly predictable because their negotiaphobia leaves them feeling comfortable repeatedly using the same strategy time and again.
3. Knowing the behavioral style of the participants, as well as the culture of their company, can help predict the negotiation strategy they will use with us.
4. When the assessment of the other side leaves doubt, we should strategize to open with a careful collaborative strategy, as it is easier to move from collaboration to competition than vice versa.