The Art Of Negotiation

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a confrontational kind of guy. And hence it's always with trepidation that I went into my negotiations for the US transfer. What they had given me as the first offer was a bit light on the transfer allowance...actually super light on the transfer allowance.

I was planning to talk to my financial controller (who is the one arranging this transfer and he was the one who gave me the initial offer) but was pulled aside by my CIO to ask what's wrong with it.

The funny thing was that I had prepared all these answers, but in front of the CIO, they just didn't come out! What came out was putting numbers on the table, discussion of things that I was training myself not to talk about ie Bec's transfer. I'm just glad I didn't sign anything!

Still, all is not lost, and I subsequently had my meeting with the financial controller and have made my requests (without giving away all my numbers yet). Fingers crossed!

The things that I have learnt from this experience:

• It definitely takes practice. Things have the potential to get heated, and it takes a calm mind to argue logically through it and emphasise the points that I want to.
• I may not have been 100% with the arguments they were going to raise, but it was good to have gone through and thought out what objections I needed to be able to reply to.
• I suck in terms of standing up or not divulging information to my boss! I don't know if others have the same issue, but when he says "name the number", or "tell me what your partner will most likely get" it's very hard to not say anything concrete. Much like when he says "jump", I would say "how high?"
  
• The less numbers the better. Or rather, don't name a number until the other side has named one. Even then they may name another one first before you have to say anything.
• Clarify assumptions that they have made, or else they may be basing their offer on information that is incorrect.
• Silence is golden whilst looking people in the eye. It shows you mean business.
• Have a laugh once in a while! Negotiating should be an enjoyable exercise, because in the end, both parties should be happy.

And a point that was told to me: leave something at the table, because there is no doubt that you will have to deal with the other party again in the future.