The Negotiation Book: Your Definitive Guide To Successful Negotiating

6.7. TRUST, TACTICS AND EMOTIONS

Trust and respect in relationships allow for discussion and the opportunity to build agreements. The energy is spent on the deal rather than on positioning and managing the emotional needs of those involved. Between 9 o'clock and 12 o'clock this relationship state provides the ideal place to maximise value. However, where tactics are used and become obvious, trust dilutes, the negotiation becomes more positional and decisions become more emotionally driven and possibilities deteriorate.

Some negotiators say they want to work in a partnership and yet behave tactically back around at 6 o'clock. They will go as far as introducing demands that they don't even want. This is aimed at providing the other party the satisfaction of negotiating the demands off the table and 'winning'. The issues are usually built into the agenda to provide them with credibility.

I have seen the red herring used and work on many occasions. However, like most tactics, it can be transparent and be detrimental to your interests, especially if you need to maintain trust and integrity for the relationship to work. It can also result in the discussions being emotionally charged and most likely result in deals providing less value.

CASE STUDY An IT outsourcing consultancy, Data Search, introduced an agenda featuring 21 items. Three of the items tabled seemed out of line with the priorities that had been established in earlier meetings. The three items were made up of an extensive ...