The Kookaburra Effect©

Google

By Stephen Kozicki

What signals are you missing at the negotiation table?

Some 5 years ago my wife and our 3 daughters purchased a farm 2 hours north of Sydney.

The farm has been a place of hard work, reflection and joy in seeing the soil enriched with compost, the water working harder producing fruit and vegetables.

At the beginning of this year, I was slashing the paddocks on the farm and a permaculture friend looked up in awe when he saw 3 Aquila audax (wedge-tailed eagles). Once he stopped saying ‘wow’ he quickly assured me that we have a very healthy eco system to have such higher order predators using our farm for its prey.

So as time passes, at the beginning of May this year, I was up at the farm slashing again. This time of year as I slash I also make sure our 6 water tanks are full. So on a beautiful Australian autumn day, I hopped off the tractor and started to walk towards the top tanks to shift values and water. As I walked into the grass clearing 2 kookaburras flew over my head and up very close to me and into the trees.

It was so odd seeing them fly over and so close to me that I stopped and started to work on ‘why and this does not make sense!’

The message for us all in negotiation is the better prepared we are, the more intuitive we become during the actual negotiation. You are more aware of everything when you are not focused on yourself.

Back to the Kookaburras, as I started to look around I found just in front of me that there was a 1 metre red belly black snake sunning itself near my water tank. I stopped, stepped back and quickly got my ride on mower and looked to see which neighbour wasn’t home and gently chased the snake onto his property.

What signals are you seeing at the negotiation table, over the phone or through emails that gets your senses moving to feel that something is amiss? If your observations do not make sense, it is a good time to call a ‘time out.’

So the message here is clear, kookaburras are the good guys and we all need to prepare better for each negotiation.

Preparation can include:

• Listing all key stakeholders in the negotiation;
• Mapping all stakeholders and determining the decision makers on your list;
• Identifying their negotiation style;
• Preparing creative ways to persuade them during the negotiation;
• Looking for ways to reach agreement;
• Focusing on ways to ‘close’ the deal and ask for the business;
• Focusing on the next steps when agreement is reached.

Preparation means that you behave in a more confident way at the negotiation table, because sadly in major negotiations there are people who will be focussed on their outcome at your expense. You will at times during those major deals, like at our farm, encounter ‘snakes in the grass’ that are not focussed on a mutually beneficial outcome.

The message is don’t run, revisit your preparation, make changes and continue to negotiate!

If you want to improve the outcomes of your negotiations then contact us on +61 2 9450 1040 or  mail@gordianbusiness.com.au.

How prepared are you for your negotiation meetings?

Google

By Stephen Kozicki

Have you ever arrived for a negotiation meeting to discover that there are people whom you have never met from the client’s side ready to be involved in the negotiation?  Have you ever been given a specified time period (usually 1 hour) for the negotiation and find that almost all of the time is spent on the ‘wrong’ discussion?

These are just a few good reasons why preparation for the negotiation meeting is so necessary.  While you may have been involved throughout the lifecycle of the deal, preparation for the negotiation meeting is critical.  No doubt you do know a great deal about this negotiation.  Preparation for the negotiation meeting differs from the effort you have made throughout the deal.  This effort is very important to help you to prepare effectively for the negotiation meeting.

Preparation needs to include:

• to the best of your ability, confirmation of who from the client organization will be involved in the negotiation meeting;
• ensuring that you understand the role of each person involved in the negotiation meeting;
• preparing and forwarding an agenda for the negotiation;
• completing all internal negotiations in advance of the negotiation meeting;
• being fully aware of the time allocation for the negotiation;
• rehearsing how you will present your multiple equal offers (meos), after developing and titling these;
• carefully practicing how you will link the value of each offer to what is important to the client;
• knowing what ‘trades’ you have in reserve;
• rehearsing to ensure that the presentation of your offers is clear and concise;
• leaving time to discuss / negotiate with the client;
• assigning everyone from your side a ‘role’ during the negotiation;
• ensuring that one of the assigned roles is Scribe to capture all key discussion points, particularly any points made by the client representatives;
• anticipating any client push-back or concerns;
• considering the decision criteria for each key stakeholder;
• rehearsing and being ready to discuss each point;
• practicing how you will summarize the negotiation meeting discussion;
• being ready to ‘close’ the deal.   

Preparing for the negotiation meeting is just as important as the preparation that you give to understand the client’s needs and your determination to link your value to what is important to the client.  Excellent preparation can make all the difference to the outcome of your negotiation!

If you want to improve the outcomes of your negotiations then contact us on +61 2 9450 1040 or  mail@gordianbusiness.com.au.

Do you need to Persuade Faster?

Google

By Gary Peacock

During one session with a client, on a flip chart we summarized the pressures acting on their buyer:

1. More Results
2. Less Time
3. More Problems

This client’s buyer was under pressure to produce more results: higher sales and higher margins. The buyer was expected to deliver better results in less time; they wanted results faster. However, the buyer has less personal time to deliver more results because fewer buyers do more work. Finally, they are facing more problems: from outside their business, competitors and governments make their tasks harder and from inside their business, other departments are not cooperating or have different priorities.

Given these three pressures— more results, less time and more problems— our client must find ways to persuade faster. Presenting data in the traditional way would take too long. Without getting the buyer’s attention and action, our client would not get results and the buyer would not get results either. Many businesses face similar challenges. Do you need to persuade faster?

‘We must go fast, because the race is against time.’ Anna Held

Persuading With Data Faster

In some businesses, a critical part of persuasion is to give insights from data: tables and graphs. For many of us Excel, Word and PowerPoint are part of our business life. Anyone can produce a table or chart. Even my teenage daughter regularly produces tables and charts.

Yet, most people just accept what appears from Microsoft or from their data provider. Typically if it looks professional: that will do. However, in business presentations most tables and charts I see are unpersuasive. In many businesses, how to make data persuasive is a neglected competitive advantage.

‘Concentrating on the essentials. We will then be accomplishing the greatest possible results with the effort expended.’ Ted W. Engstrom

Once you see how fast you can persuade with data, you will understand why the companies who know keep it a secret. Also why the companies that know the secrets stand out from the competition?

Try this simple test: take 5 of your slides, show them to a colleague and ask:

1. What are the messages of the five slides
2. Rate the slides on a scale of -10 to +10, where -10 is boring, 0 is neutral and +10 is exciting. 

Then just listen.

•          How fast do they get the messages?
•          How often do they get a different message to the one you intended?
•          Which slides were rated as exciting?

If you want to see a more persuasive version of your data, send us your most boring data slide and we will send back a version that will help you persuade faster, send it to gary@gordianbusiness.com.au.

‘Footprints on the sands of time are not made by sitting down’.  Proverbs

Don’t just retain your key accounts – Grow your revenue and profit as well!

Google

By Peter Browne

One critical aspect of managing accounts more strategically is to retain them by increasing barriers to entry against competitors. However, what companies’ often overlook and misunderstand is the potential to grow revenue and profit.

Typically when companies begin a Strategic Account Management program, their objective is retaining their most important accounts. This includes defending share against aggressive competitors, reducing margin erosion, and creating a compelling value proposition that differentiates them from the market. However managing accounts more strategically also helps grow share of wallet and grow margins.

This is supported by the Strategic Account Management Association's (SAMA) 2012 Report on Current Trends & Practices in Strategic Account Management.  SAMA surveyed 700+ global respondents across 30 industries. In the report, SAMA  noted that “the average revenue growth in the strategic accounts surveyed in 2011 was 14%, up 2% from 2009”. Even with low growth in the economy, these accounts are beating the economic trend. SAMA reported improved profitability – showing growing revenue was not caused by discounting prices. If improved profitability was not enough, customer satisfaction scores also increased.

These findings make sense. Companies who manage accounts strategically understand their customers more deeply. So, they can identify problems that need solving for their accounts. Then they can solve the problems with their products and services, or find other ways to help their account solve the problem. Solving problems creates new revenue opportunities that would otherwise not have been obvious. Opportunities identified in this way are also unlikely to be offered to the market. So typically companies achieve better than average margins.

Also, companies that segment their customers using best practice segmentation tools can identify the small accounts most likely to grow. Small but fast-growing accounts get less focus from competitors, so you benefit from revenue growth and good profitability. In addition, you can position your organisation as a critical business partner. As a partner, you can provide fast-growing companies external expertise and insights to manage the challenges they encounter during their growth.  

So when you consider a Strategic Account Management program, don’t just view the initiative as a way to defend key accounts. Also consider the potential to grow revenue and grow profit from the accounts that are most critical to the future of your company.

We have work with many companies in many industries and many geographies to help retain key accounts and grow revenue and profit. If you would like to discuss how we can help, please contact us on +61 2 9450 1040 or www.gordianbusiness.com.au.

How you Say No is as important as how you say yes!

Google

By Stephen Kozicki

A few blogs ago I shared with you some negotiation lessons that jumped out of the trees at me, whilst at the Daintree forest on holidays.

I spoke of “obligate mutualism!” and explained that most scientific definitions refer to obligate mutualism as a type of mutualism in which the species involved are in close proximity and interdependent with one another, in a way that one cannot survive without the other.

I used the blog to make the connection between the negotiation, the other people involved and how to look for joint gains.

I want to use this blog to focus on the part of your negotiation planning when you and your team have to ask this question, “What is the consequence of not reaching an agreement?” I use it when planning for live negotiations just before the team leaves the meeting to start the negotiation.

It is a powerful question because it helps you determine when you would call a time out to reflect on your decision and when you would say no to a particular deal.

This is important because as a negotiator you are dealing with the rational and emotional behaviour of the other side as well as the substantive issues in front of you. My experience is people often react harsher when you say no, then when you can’t reach an agreement.

So from a process view, if I sense that I am going to say no, I would take a time out, leave the negotiation and then come back in one day, one week etc, and share why I was saying no. I would frame it in such a way that the other person/s could understand why I was taking this decision. The key is to do it in a respectful way without blame for their behaviour or lack of a decision.

Over the past 2 years, when this scenario occurred, in the last 4 out of 5 negotiations, this careful approach allowed the negotiations to restart and end in an agreement that was better than either side thought possible. Interestingly by having prepared the answer to the original question, “what is the consequence of not reaching an agreement,” this part is easier because you have considered possible scenarios.

I frame using the loss/gain approach and here I tend to focus on the loss, this helps the other person/s truly understand the consequences of not reaching an agreement.

Your action plan from this blog is always ask the consequence question before you start negotiating, it will help you get better outcomes and you will be able to say no and not feel ‘guilty.’

To improve your negotiation planning, contact us on +61 2 9450 1040 or at mail@gordianbusiness.com.au . Refocussing your negotiation planning can help your company grow revenues and profit.