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Hello everyone, welcome to the 5 Minutes Podcast.
All of you know that negotiation is one of the top skills that we need to practice and we need to improve if we want to be effective and not only as a product manager, but as a business professional. And there is a stereotype always around negotiation, that negotiation is mostly related. When you buy something or when you sell something, it's very much related to buy gain, asking discounts, asking the other side to move, making threats. But I want just to tell you one thing. If you want to succeed, you should never take a note on that, never, ever go straight to making offers and claiming value in a negotiation. For example, most of the time when you sit with other people and people start talking about the weather, start talking about whatever, any other topic that is not related to the negotiation, many times people start feeling that this is just a waste of time. Why we don't go straight, absolutely straight to the offers and counteroffers, and why you should never go straight. Because that I would say that small talk or that talk about the wheather is this, it's a wonderful opportunity for you to learn more about the other side, to learn more about his or her values, behaviors, what the other company gives value, what is relevant for them, how do they build their interest. And then you can be far more prepared to identify roads, to identify paths for a possible agreement.
And this is why it's so critical that you ask people because, for example, let's suppose that you are a realtor and you want to sell an apartment. You need first to understand what the buyer is looking for, what is the value? Is the buyer buying for him or her is buying as an investment? What is the driver of the other side? Because with that, maybe when you say, oh, this house has a gorgeous view is something very valuable, but for others, maybe this house is in an excellent price and you can make a huge profit by selling it in a month from now. So both are very valid arguments. But if you are looking for a house for you to live for the rest of your life, maybe the resale value is relevant, but you are not very concerned because the resale value will only affect you maybe ten years ahead, but the view will affect you tomorrow when you move to the house. And this look very simple but effective negotiators, they know exactly.
So when you are negotiating a conflict or when you are negotiating a deadline, you should never start, I need three more days. I need four more days. You need to understand why you need this amount of time. What is the rationale and what is the impact on the other side? Because when you are prepared for that, you drive to better decisions. Most of the time, haste makes waste. When you start rushing and going there, you reach many times at deadlock and then you don't know. Then it's very hard for you to move to a side that will be an agreement most of the time, when negotiations go nowhere, it's exactly because people did not spend proper time discussing, trying to analyze their interests, their views. And this is why the rapport and exchange of information is so critical.
Finally, I want just to provide you with an example, simple example for you to understand. Imagine that you want to discuss the best football team or the best basketball team or the best soccer team in the world. And probably if I ask you this question, you will come straight with the team of your heart, the team you cheer for. But if I want really to make a clear decision, maybe I should move from this discussion to a more practical discussion saying, okay, what would be a criteria for me to choose the best basketball team? And then we may, for example, decide, okay, the winner of the largest amount of NBA's, if it's in the US or the team with the highest amount of results, positive results the team with the largest numbers of players that were selected for the national team, you know, and then you discuss these items and then you become more pragmatic. And then when you decide that the best team will be the team with the largest number of single victories in history. Okay, if this is the criteria, then it becomes much easier for you to pick the team that meets these criteria.
Did you see that? Why I'm doing this? Because if I don't do that and I rush without discussing this combination of criteria, trying to understand and get, I would say, at least places where I have a common ground. I will not succeed on my negotiation. So always think about that. I have a course on negotiation. This is not the sales pitch, but where I talk exactly about this, because many times people just mess up negotiations and then to fix at the end, it's just a nightmare.
Think about that. Have a fantastic week. And you next week with another 5 Minutes Podcast.
