Let's Shake On It

For the majority of the negotiation we were an informal coalition. We understood that it was in all of our best interests to help each other succeed.  Helping each other succeed meant more store traffic and as long as all three of us stayed in business lower rent.  In the majority of matters, we agreed on the middle ground that didn't any particular store a complete advantage or disadvantage.  There was one difficult issue that we could not agree on where we saw the coalition of three dissolve into a team of two.  The temperature was a strict divisive issue. Myself and Patrick (Baker and Grocer) could not agree to allowing the central temperature to be dropped to 14 C which would freeze out our customers. The lowest we were willing to agree to was a brisk 16 C.  However, Andres was a florist whose flowers would wilt once the store reached 16 C. Patrick and I teamed up against Andres and debated this issue alone for thirty minutes.  We fe...

      Perhaps this can be seen as  naive, but I aspire to adopt the idealist school of ethical bargaining.  If you believe that lying or deception are wrong in any other social interaction then why should it be okay during a negotiation?  People appreciate candidness, and maintaining honest interactions can help with future negotiations since deception can hurt your reputation as a dealer, business partner, government official, etc. Lies and deception within a negotiation exploit the other party for personal selfish gain and is in turn unethical behavior.  It's okay to try to to achieve the best agreement possible but it shouldn't come at the cost of losing your integrity.  I think back to the negotiation I had about a job offer working at a gym as a recreation assistant.  I told the hiring manager that as a part of the job, I would like to conduct group fitness classes, and he agreed.  I then accepted the position with that knowledge to...

 Never underestimate the power of silence during a negotiation. Sometimes the pause can feel uncomfortable but it can have a huge impact on the outcome. Beyond using the extra time to think, it’s a tactic that can make someone appear assertive and able to exercise proper restraint. In the best books negotiation, I was able to use this to my benefit so that best books wouldn’t have to pay the advance. It caused my partner to come up with another offer while I spent time quietly contemplating.

 A.  1. My goal is to obtain the highest overall score for Bestbooks using their negotiation scoring system.  This means lower royalties,  low contract signing bonus, and zero to no advance while pushing for high numbers of print runs for the book, more number of weeks Paige has to promote the book, higher number of books, more countries where the book will be distributed, and more book clubs that would adopt the book. 2. The issues are mentioned above. We earn more points from low royalties, contract signing bonus, and advance. High number of prints, amount of weeks Paige promotes the book, number of countries book is distributed, and number of bookclubs adopting Paige's book are favorable to Bestbooks. 3. Most important issues are getting a high number of bookclubs to adopt the book, negotiating whether advance is necessary, and paying a lower percentage for royalties.  4. Our scoring list provides all the BATNAs. If we aren't able to reach an agreement on iss...

     For our first negotiation, I was paired with Tejan. As it turns out Tejan is a hard-baller and natural negotiator.  While I did not leave with the worst deal of the class, I was close.  Hindsight, I should have walked away from buying the car, but by discussing what alternatives remained for me, I was able to bring him down from 10,000 to 8,700.  In the case, our alternative as the car buyer was a beater jeep worth 6,800.  I told Tejan that if we couldn't agree on a fair price that I would feel more comfortable buying the jeep that I said was worth "6,100".  This brought his price down (though still not a fair price as I discovered after the fact).     During my second negotiation with Baptiste, we were able to barter for much more agreeable terms.  I began a much more authoritative approach by setting the limits. I told Baptiste that we were meeting in the classroom next door, configured the desks, and asked that he sit across...