“When making decisions, take note as to whether you’re leading with your head or your heart. Based on your choice, you could end up at a different destination.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert
“How to Win More Negotiations By Making Better Decisions”
It’s a fact that negotiators win more negotiations by making better decisions before and at the negotiation table, but are you mindful as to what motivates you when making decisions? Even more, do you consider the impact your decisions will have on your future interactions? Always take note of your emotional state when making decisions. The emotional state you’re in when making decisions can cast a long shadow on the future. If such a shadow is cast too long, it may inhibit the sun from ever shining again.
What would you do?
Situation:
You’ve had a long relationship with a supplier that’s lasted for many years. Over the last year or so, you’ve begun to feel somewhat neglected. When you call the supplier, you usually can’t reach her. There’ve been times when you called several times due to an emergency, left messages, and did not get a return call promptly. When you raised your concerns about the supplier’s lack of availability, the supplier tells you how important your business is to her organization; she then goes on to say, they have other accounts that they’re addressing and they’ll get to you soon. You’re reassured that you’re still important to the supplier. This stretches on for weeks and then turns into months. You feel neglected but you don’t want to turn to another supplier because of the relationship you’ve built up over the years. When things were really tough with your organization and cash flow, the supplier extended discounts and longer payments in an effort to help you out. You’ve since extended opportunities to her organization, which has allowed it to enhance its business.
Now, you’re finally to the point that your present supplier has not been giving you the attention you need and you’re fed up. What level of importance do you give to your feelings? What emotions might you be experiencing? What does your intuition tell you about what to possibly adopt as your next action?
Points to consider:
- When it comes to intuitions, pay attention to them. Intuition is often the process of a subliminal sensation being moved to a higher state of consciousness. It’s a signal of importance about something that you should be giving more attention to. It’s something that could be very impactful on a negotiation and your life. Don’t dismiss it
- When considering a course of action, assess what concerns you the most and why. Then, prioritize your concerns. Realize, the vast majority of the time, what we worry about never comes to fruition. Thus, don’t give excess weight to a concern where such is not warranted.
- Think about your long-term strategy per your end-game (i.e. what overall outcome you’re seeking) and how your current decision will impact that outcome.
- Just like in a game of sport, be prepared to send in a replacement and/or adopt another course of action, if your current supplier can’t serve you, or fails to do so per what you’re seeking. In so doing, you’ll insulate your mind from thinking about the negativity that could come from counting on your current supplier too much.
- Here’s the point. Don’t allow yourself to mentally be held hostage as the result of not being able to get what you want and/or need from a supplier, especially one that no longer serves you to the degree you seek. Thus, you should always maintain a mindset that states you’ll continue to move forward because that’s where your success will await you. Doing so may not be easy, you may have to leave long-time relationships behind, but once you adopt a mindset to move forward … everything will be right with the world.
Remember, you’re always negotiating!