Negotiation: Taking the High Road to Opportunity

Break down the psychological barriers that can hamper a good deal

By Tyler Davidson

While it’s easy to see negotiation like a football coach—“x’s” and “o’s” colliding with each other, with one side scoring a touchdown or the other side crushing the ball carrier into the turf—truly successful negotiating more often involves breaking down barriers real or imagined.

“The biggest thing with negotiation is that most people go into it assuming a battle, so they mentally prepare a ‘Why you should give me what I’m asking for’ [attitude], so this sets up a ying-yang philosophy—a me against you adversarial relationship,” says negotiation expert Anne Warfield, CEO of Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Impression Management Professionals (www.impressionmanagement.com). “When you think about that, the underlying assumption is they’re not going to want to do this, or they’re going to have some other trick up their sleeve. So it gets into a game.”

Warfield will present her “ProGOtiations: How to Get to More Yes With Less Stress” seminar at HSMAI’s MEET Mid-America, held April 3-4 at Navy Pier in Chicago, in addition to her “How to say the right thing at the right time” program.

“You need to see the negotiation from a higher level, so you can remove any barriers and influence outcome,” she says. “Instead of just calling up a hotel to ask about rates, think of it from the hotel’s position—what do they want to accomplish? I believe that negotiations are not a stumbling block; they’re actually building blocks for a relationship.”

A key is to keep an open mind, according to Warfield. Creating a dialogue with the person sitting across the negotiation table from you often results in untapped opportunities manifesting themselves.   Read more...

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Tips on negotiating with convention centers:

	Build a solid, meaningful business relationship with Center personnel…
	Study publicly owned Centers’ guidelines thoroughly…
	Inquire at your chosen hotel about “subsidized” costs.
	Flexibility with conference dates allowing the Center to fill in some gaps in their calendar is helpful.
	Select dates that need to be filled on the Convention Center’s calendar.
	Familiarize yourself completely with the Center website.
	Research hotels near the Center and call the sales offices to reserve room blocks on a first-refusal basis.

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