“He just wanted me to get the deal done. “It’s time to stop the back and forth,” he said. “Just sign the deal.” “Patience,” I told him. “We’ve got strong leverage here, a very good alternative, and I believe we can save a significant sum of money with one more move...
I once sold an ordinary $20 bill to a lawyer in New York City for $83. How? By getting his ego involved. Here’s what happened: I announced in a seminar for about 100 New York lawyers that “I’m going to auction this $20 bill off to the highest bidder. “You are free to...
“She was angry and vindictive,” he told me. Her husband had betrayed her love and trust by having an affair. Now it was payback time – and she wanted a chunk of his flesh, which she figured meant 75% of their joint assets in their divorce. Unfortunately for her, the...
“He was demanding, unorganized and he didn’t know what he really wanted. And he took a shotgun approach to the issues, all of which needed to be resolved immediately. It lasted six months, and it was incredibly frustrating.” This comment by a client sums up a...
William Shatner in his Priceline commercials portrays a caricature of the aggressive, adversarial, competitive and slightly sleazy negotiator who wheels and deals to get you the best prices. And he gets them – in the commercials. But do these characteristics in...
What do the NFL, NBA, and federal budget negotiations all have in common? Highly successful parties at the table, many of whom over their careers have developed significant egos. Since we all have egos, why should you care? Because you should use certain techniques...
“How can we evaluate the negotiation ability of our managers, sales people and others who negotiate on behalf of our company?” I was recently asked by a client. “After all, we only rarely get the opportunity to really find out what they left on the...
Ron told me to put up my dukes. So I did. And we went at it. It was in our basement. Ron, my older brother, was 11. I was 10. My dad, a former Golden Gloves boxer, had taught us to box so we could defend ourselves. Ron and I occasionally fought over the usual sibling...
I was surprised. Instead of working with me to resolve the challenge we unexpectedly faced, he immediately said he would see me in court and didn’t express any regret for partially contributing to the situation. His seemingly knee-jerk reaction was not a smart...
