NEGOTIATIONS

Text 1

Negotiations are a special type of meeting in which the parties (usually two) need each other's agreement in order to achieve an effective result. Effective negotiations promise some of the biggest prizes — the right deal for the company, a salary rise, a budget increase, etc. Negotiating is sophisticated activity because it requires competence in both communication and language skills and ability to maintain the performance under pressure.

The ability to negotiate is something that everybody ought to acquire. Everyone — from the world statesman negotiating trea­ties that affect the lives of millions, to the company employee asking for a pay rise — needs certain talents and skills to reach the agreement with other people. This calls for a mastery of the skills of persuasion, compromise, diplomacy, clear speaking, and attentive listening.

"The shortest and the best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote you," commented, somewhat cynically, the 17th-century French satirist Jean de la Bruyere. It is certainly true that one of the basic secrets of persuasion is to convince other people that what is good for you is also good for them. The skilful negotiator is the one whose opponents also come out of the talks feeling well-satisfied with the outcome. Your boss is happy to give you an eight per cent pay rise in order to keep your services and goodwill - and you are happy too, having banked on no more than seven per cent.

Selling and negotiating have much in common. In one you are selling products, in the other ideas. Both usually come down to money. And both involve selling yourself. Once other people view you as reliable, you are on the way to success. To become a successful negotiator one should stick to the following guidelines.

Always take the long-term view in negotiations. See them as a campaign, not as a one-off battle. It is possible to lose individual battles and win the campaign. It is equally possible to win individual battles and lose the campaign.

Prepare your case. First of all, you must know your subject. The strongest weapon in your armoury of persuasion is detailed comparison. Collect and set out all facts and figures neatly in tables, or where helpful, in charts and graphs. If you are selling something, you should know what rival products other companies are selling and how your product compares for price, reliability and service. All this takes time and effort a lot of ploughing through dry documents and extracting what is important. But without evidence you will not convince anyone of anything.

Try to know the other person's subject too. Put yourself in his or her position. Imagine the counterarguments you might face and have your replies ready. Practise out loud the answers you will give. Find reasons why agreeing with you is in the other person's interests. What precisely can your product or idea do for him or his company? During the negotiations be direct about this. Don't waste time, as some inexperienced negotiators do, by going over your early struggles or other irrelevant details. Get to the point and stay there.

Decide on and jot down the order in which you intend to present your arguments — but be prepared to be flexible. Sometimes you may have to change your order, as one tactics is un-fruitful and another seems more promising.

Be absolutely clear about what exactly you hope to get out of the negotiations, and what, realistically, you think you are likely to get. Write down beforehand a list in three sections: your minimum demands; your actual demands; your most optimistic hopes. Remember this key point: very seldom both sides get absolutely everything they want from negotiations. So it is useful to have a claim that you are prepared to give way on, to show that you are reasonable and willing to compromise.

Comments

party - сторона (на переговорах)

sophisticated - сложный

to acquire - приобретать

persuasion - убеждение

to convince — убеждать

armoury Fr. — арсенал

rival product - конкурентноспособный товар

evidence — доказательство

irrelevant - не касающийся, ненужный

to jot down - кратко записывать

to have a claim - заявлять

1. Summarize useful information from the text above in a form of tips. Compare them with the tips below.

1. Trade something for something.

2. Try to succeed by cooperating with the other party.

3. See negotiations as a long-term activity.

4. Do not use tricks.

5. Think about each other's interests.

2. Complete the gaps in each sentence a-f below with one of the words from the box below.

negotiable persuasive concession

compromise proposal confrontation

a He will do anything to avoid a............................... .

b I found his reasons extremely............................... .

c The union has made an important...............................on overtime pay.

d Management says that the issue is not............................... .

e We can reach a…………………… if both sides are prepared to give and take.

f We are ready to listen to your revised…………………………. .

3. Complete the sentences below by choosing between the words in italics.

1 After hours of discussion we finally managed to overcome / come over our differences.

2 I managed to beat them up / down from $60 a tonne to $55.

3 You can't expect to get out of / through to the contract as easily as that.

4 It was a tough negotiation but we reached / decided a compromise.

5 When he heard how high the price we agreed was, he found / lost his temper.

6 I had to take / start the initiative because their representatives were so quiet.

7 We were satisfied with the outcome / income of the negotiations.

8 She managed to talk her boss into / out of the contract even though he wanted to sign it.

Text 2.

Read and translate the text.

Types of business negotiations.

Some negotiators will try to use all the possible tricks, ploys, and bluffs to gain the advantage. They tend to be confrontational rather than co-operative and think in terms of winners and losers. Any manipulative form of behaviour is acceptable to such people including displays of temper and bullying, unreasonable ultimatums, and walking out of meetings. By contrast, principled negotiation is co-operative rather than confrontational and recognizes the interests of the other party. Principled negotiators focus on interests and don't get locked into one position. They will also avoid getting personal and are successful in separating issues from people. However, there are some common traits to all negotiators: for example, one feature of most negotiating situations is that both sides will try to 'nibble', i.e., take little bites from the other side.

A business negotiation is similar to a discussion between friends arranging a social engagement. Two parties have a shared objective: to work together in a way which is mutually beneficial. Proposals and counter proposals are discussed until agreement is reached. Both sides hope for repeat business. This is an agreement-based negotiation, sometimes referred to as a win-win negotiation.

Two other types of negotiation are less founded on mutual benefit, but on gaining the best deal possible for your side. In the first type, both teams negotiate to independent advantage. This means that each team thinks only about its own interests. In this type, a seller typically seeks to sell a product but is less concerned about repeat business.

A third type is the negotiation to resolve conflict, for example in a contractual dispute. Here, it is possible that each party regards the other as an opponent and seeks to win the argument. This is a win-lose negotiation.