Why negotiate on value?

I recently ran a four-day negotiating skills conference in Australia for a group of senior marketing managers and representatives; the group were highly motivated. They were working in an interesting market, and they were keen to find creative ways to negotiate. The conference was as stimulating for me as it was for them.

During a break, one of the participants approached me “What you say is interesting,” he said, “but I have to ask something. Why do you bother to go on with a negotiation if the other side is stuck on price and won’t move?”

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Toughen up your people and do more

If many of your customers are “sitting on their hands”— citing Brexit and Trump and Iran and US-China trade war—then your sales are flat, or declining; you must downsize your costs or upsize your productivity. Upsizing your people’s productivity is easy to say, hard to do. It’s always been tough to do, but now many of your people face constant change and face constant stress.  For example, imagine working in one of the big four banks urgently completing many recommendations of The Royal Commission.

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Impossible Problems can be solved if you see a different future!

In the last blog, we looked at the Impossible Problem Innovation Model® and started to deconstruct the concept of an impossible problem.

Let’s continue that focus because too quickly, people bypass the concept of clarity around a problem or opportunity. If you want to innovate and solve an impossible problem or leverage a fantastic opportunity you need to put in the work upfront to make that happen.

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How will you make Ai and digital transformation a positive change?

Machines will, in the future, replace some of most people’s working tasks, replacing repeatable, ordered tasks. But machines are weak at understanding people’s mood, and developing and building trusting relationships. So, you will need to build and leverage the soft skills of your people to give you a competitive edge. You need to build your value proposition on the human skills in your company to provide differentiation.

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Are there Negotiation Archetypes, and why should I care?

Twenty years ago, one of the favourite words used by business gurus and keynote speakers at conferences was – a paradigm shift. Today you would think it is a button on a Tesla motor car. Now, a new hot word has appeared – archetype!

People ask at conferences or meetings are there negotiation archetypes? The answer is yes.

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Disagreeing Agreeably in Contract Disputes

More than 20 years ago, I got involved in a long-running contract dispute.  The work had been completed in the tiny country of Brunei, population of about 400,000 living in an area equivalent to 75km by 75km.  With any contract its not unusual to have disputes, commonly about the scope of the contract. 

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Gary PeacockComment
Persuasion Requires Endurance!

Most of us can remember where we were when events, both good and bad, have happened in the world. Or remember being in the audience for a great or inspirational speech. Some remember a show or musical that fed the soul or just made you laugh to the point of tears. I still remember how elated I was seeing the Lion King for the first time in London. Or more recently being dragged by my cousin to see the Book of Mormon, irreverent, but very funny.

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The pace of change produces problems for you to solve - locally and globally!

Global industries and local communities struggle with the pace of change. Typically, the pace of change is reducing resources like time, money and people. Reducing resources creates difficult problems that appear to be impossible to solve, what we call impossible problems. In local and global marketplaces, impossible problems occur for organisations and for individuals. For all these impossible problems, we need brave individuals to take action to solve the problems and then implement the solutions.

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Dear Amazon, New York doesn't want you: Negotiation Know-how

In case you missed it, the Guardian headline in November 2018, told the story in just seven words.  Amazon had announced, with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo, they would open a major office in New York. This office would bring 25,000 jobs paying more than US$100,000. With a deal negotiated with the two decision makers, what could go wrong?

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