How to develop strategic focus in business negotiation?

In business negotiation you get positioned in varying roles depending on the circumstances and the nature of other party. In most cases the perception you have over him dictates how you proceed with him. To counter this you must develop strategic focus that takes you out of subjective mind-set and prods you to go for objective mind-set. Here are the expert guidelines as to how you get strategic focus in place each time and every time:

1. Separate person from the issue: A person can be human being or a corporate. You have over the time built up feelings, perception and ideas about the person. Pause for the moment! Drive out the past! Stay in the present to be ready for moving towards the future. Now look at the issue at hand rather than the person behind it. Try to understand the issue in qualitatively and quantitatively.

2. Separate position from the common interest: The other party is an erstwhile competitor and you have every reason to be wary about him. You cannot give in for him to boss you around or steal your ideas and use it for himself. Still you have common interests that you share with him. If these common interests are threatened, both of you will be at the receiving end.  A good example is to get an erstwhile competitor to agree with you to safeguard industry standards common to both.

3. Allow the other party to take precedence: Give prominence to the other party by inviting him to place facts and figures before you do, discuss them over and bring your point of view to the table reinforced with your experience. Convey the impression that both share the same objectives and if a via media is not found it could result in both you and him going down the line.

4. Be open minded: If you find options and objectives of the other party have greater possibility of successful implementation then embrace them with enthusiasm and try to amend your options and objectives to go along  with the trend. Strategic focus does not mean that your options are always the best. If the need arises you have to amend them. Please remember your strategic focus is to stay in the business as a worthy player.

5. Win-win solution is always best: Finally you must strive for a win-win solution when both you and the other party are embarking upon a new unrelated product where both lack experience equally. A good example is when Pepsi unveiled mineral water “Aquafina” long before Coca Cola came with a competitor brand “Dasani”. Later on Dasani fell foul with EU authorities as it said to contain borate exceeding the maximum allowable limit with potential health hazard. This also had negative image for Pepsi too. Had both discussed the matter before launch this unfortunate situation could have been avoided.

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff Rajulu

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail:   cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist