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Ralph, my general
manager, had been caged for too long. A born negotiator, he had patiently
waited his turn to be let loose.
He had watched as I handled the company
negotiating chores. I would come back from a meeting, tell Ralph the end
result of the deal, and would listen to him growl about my softness.
At times he would lose control. I would
walk up to Ralph’s cage and the conversation would go like this:
Ralph: How did it go?
Me: Great. I bought it.
Ralph: How much?
Me: $2.750.
Ralph: Grrrrrrrr. Grrrrrowwf.
Grrrroowwwww.
Me: Down, boy, down. It’s ok. It was
a fair price. Good boy.
Ralph: Fair! Fair! You know how much
mark-up is in that thing. I could have got it for less than $2,000.
Grrrrrrrr. Grrrrowwww! Let me out of here!
Luckily, I kept a spare throat I
could fling into his cage in those situations. He’d gnaw on it for
awhile and calm down.
But now it was time to cut him loose. I
am finally admitting that I am not in the upper echelon of negotiators. It
takes a certain panache. Ralph’s got it. I don’t.
I have been living for too long
off my successful debut in the negotiating world. Fresh out of college, my
boss sent me to a seminar called "The Art of Negotiating," which
included a money-back guarantee if not satisfied.
I wasn’t satisfied so I asked for my
money back. They said no. I demanded my money back. They said no. Finally,
I negotiated my money back from the masters of negotiation. Not a
bad start.
I should have retired right then. But I
went on. Slowly realizing over the years, thanks to people like Ralph,
that it is not in my nature to be a gifted negotiator.
I believe there are three
characteristics you must possess if you are to become a great negotiator:
1) Patience; 2)
Arrogance; 3) Indifference.
By patience I mean
the ability to wait for a reply before upping the ante. By arrogance I
mean the ability to make an embarrassingly ridiculous offer, not caring
about the reaction it causes or their opinion of you. By indifference I
mean the ability to rationalize the potential failure of the negotiations.
My goal in a negotiation is to
see how fast I can bring it to a conclusion. That’s not good. I also
hate to disappoint people. That’s not good. And finally, I tend to
exaggerate the importance of just about everything. That’s not good.
That’s why I unleashed Ralph
the other day to negotiate a good deal for our company membership in the
local health club. He came bounding out of his cage and went right to
work, reporting back to me the same afternoon.
"I got them to drop the
entire initiation fee and also lower their monthly fee from $50.00 to
$35.00 for each employee," he said.
I was amazed. "Great work,
Ralph. Where do I sign?"
"Are you kidding," he
scoffed. "I’m just getting started."
Three days later, he announced
that the deal was off. "Why?" I cried. "You had a great
deal."
Ralph shrugged. "I made them
a final offer and they didn’t accept. And they also wanted some money up
front. I said no way. I’m looking at another health club, but it’s
three miles away."
Now I was incredulous. "You
had a great deal at a health club two blocks away and you’re dumping it
for an unknown deal at a health club three miles away? Gee, our employees
will be so proud of you."
Arrogance was oozing out of
Ralph. "I did what I could. They didn’t’ want the deal."
Another four days passed. I was
looking for Ralph so I could insist he accept the no initiation, $35.00
per month per employee deal. I found him in his cage, door open, curled in
a corner, licking his lips.
"The deal’s done," he said.
Then he burped. "I gave them a little money up front and they agreed
to drop the monthly fee to $23.00 per employee."
He had never even called the
other health club. I walked up to Ralph and patted him gently on the head.
He closed his eyes and purred.
"Ralph," I whispered.
"We’ve got a lease negotiation coming up soon."
One eye opened. The purring
stopped. I detected the beginning of a growl.
"Just testing, old boy," I
said, stepping back. "Just testing."
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