Sunday, April 4, 2010

Take 1: On Negotiation

I am currently in the process of opening a business franchise with a friend of mine. I'll discuss more once we're up and running, but right now I'm more interested in the topic of negotiation. My partner and I had to do some negotiation with our franchisors so that we could protect some of our rights moving forward. First, I want to know your opinions on the subject. How do you prepare for negotiations? Do you try to propose terms first, or wait for the other party to make suggestions? What are the most effective negotiation techniques in your experience?

More generally, what parts of your life do you think of as negotiation? Board room discussions at your job? Deciding what movie to see or where to eat on Friday night? Planning the next vacation with your significant other? Hit the jump for video of Stan Christiansen, one of my favorite academics to tackle the subject, talking about communication and negotiation.



I never had the opportunity to take Christiansen's class, but I did get to hear him speak on occasion. One of my key takeaways from those seminars was the importance of understanding the concerns on the other side of the table. If you focus on trying to "win" concessions on your behalf, it's easy to miss opportunities to propose solutions that are mutually beneficial for both parties.

In Take 2 of this post, I'm going to talk about the results of the negotiations we just completed with our franchisors and how we arrived at that outcome. Thanks in advance for your input!

1 comment:

  1. This message is for john. You are an idiot. please learn to read!!!!

    I SAID IT INCLUDED A MOVIE AND DINNER IDIOT!

    ReplyDelete