Negotiation is not just a matter of haggling over price or terms. It is also an opportunity to create value for both parties by exploring their interests, needs, and preferences. In this article, you will learn how to use creativity to find hidden value in negotiation and achieve win-win outcomes.
Hidden value is the potential benefit that can be generated by finding solutions that satisfy more than one interest or need of each party. For example, if you are negotiating a contract with a client, you might discover that they value flexibility, quality, or reputation more than the lowest price. By offering them options that address these aspects, you can create value for them and for yourself.
While reaching an agreement is traditionally the primary goal of negotiation, a better target is an agreement that both parties will live up to. Particularly when negotiating from strength, it is normal to try to extract every concession and leave nothing on the table. You may strong-arm the counterparty into an “agreement”, but one will frequently find that the counterparty realizes it gave up too much and will try to renegotiate or break the agreement. A better approach that increases the overall value of the agreement is letting the weaker side have something they can save face with. This type of agreement is much more likely to be lasting and yet relatively little is given up by the stronger party to achieve this result.
Always be respectful, likable and trustworthy, when negotiating with your negotiation partner. This kind of communication does not cost you anything and it has a huge benefit. The risk of possible struggles can be reduced, the potential to move the negotiation partner towards cooperation can be increased. If it works in crisis negotiations performed by FBI, it will work in business negotiations for sure. As it was explained during the international negotiators conference NegotiCON. This concept was created by Gary Noesner and is called BCSM. It "opens the gates" to explore the true motives of your business negotiation partner and to seek the hidden value. However it has to be trained regularly to brush it up to mastery.
Here is one technique to using creativity to discover hidden value. Start the negotiation off by assuming that both sides get exactly what they want. Then ask why this is impossible? Just thinking about its impossibility and what to do to change it may help.
Be aware of how your customer presents itself to the market. What do they want to convey to their own client base? Align what you can supply as a Company, to what adds to their own proposition to the market. Approach them as a trading partner, jointly presenting a combination of both your Companies strengths to improve your trading proposal
To creatively find hidden value in negotiations, look beyond positions to uncover underlying interests, collaborate on problem-solving, explore opportunities to expand the value, bundle or unbundle issues, identify trade-offs, build strong relationships for future negotiations, share information, and think creatively, even considering unconventional solutions. These strategies can help create mutually beneficial agreements that maximize value for both parties.
Creativity is the ability to generate novel and useful ideas that can solve problems or improve situations. In negotiation, creativity can help you to overcome impasses, break deadlocks, or avoid conflicts. By thinking outside the box, you can find alternatives that expand the pie of value, rather than fight over a fixed slice. Creativity can also help you to build rapport, trust, and goodwill with the other party, which can lead to more cooperation and satisfaction.
There are negotiation concepts Harvard's PON, according to FBI and some more. Creative and critical thinking has to be applied by any negotiator to overcome dogmatic approach of any negotiation training. Actually people negotiate with each other, not negotiation concepts. If you dive deep into negotiation concepts, you realize that negotiation is actually multidisciplinary. There's part of behavioural psychology, cognitive psychology, communication studies, conflict management, and much more. You do not have to have a major in all these subjects. However you decide what individual mix of this knowledge, strategies and tactics you will use. This will keep you flexible and creative during your negotiations as these are very contextual.
Creativity is not a trait that some people have and others don't; it is a skill that can be developed and enhanced. To stimulate your creativity in negotiation, ask open-ended questions to uncover underlying interests, needs, and motivations. Brainstorming is also effective for exploring different possibilities without limiting yourself. Additionally, seeking feedback from different backgrounds, experiences, or viewpoints can help you to improve your ideas and identify potential flaws or risks. Lastly, experimenting with options can help you to evaluate the feasibility of your ideas and anticipate the reactions of the other party.
If you wish to be creative during negotiation, you will have to do what has to be done: network in negotiator communities, attend to negotiators conferences, take part in various negotiation trainings, read negotiation literature, and first of all negotiate regularly to implement these insights. It is possible that you will find out that THE "value" does not have to be hidden to be found. The value can also be created during negotiations. Trust can be converted into an excellent value to be monetized. It is possible that you will start enjoying your experiments during negotiations by treating biased information, establishing trust by building rapport/bound, deescalating conflicts or making conflicts visible to negotiation partners.
Creativity is essential for creating value in negotiation, but it needs to be applied strategically and effectively. To do this, you should focus on interests, not positions. Interests are the underlying reasons, needs, or desires driving a position, which is a specific demand or proposal. By focusing on interests, you can find common ground and create value by satisfying them. Furthermore, you should generate multiple options to increase the chances of finding a mutually beneficial solution and avoid premature closure. Lastly, use objective criteria to evaluate the options or justify decisions. This will help you to avoid subjective bias and influence the other party. For instance, if you are negotiating a contract, objective criteria such as market rates or industry norms can support your arguments.
?Show courage, compassion and curiosity while negotiating...“ (Phil Andrew from PAX Group, LLC at his workshop at NegotiCON the negotiators conference). By showing curiosity you build trust with negotiation partners and get flexible freedom to explore the their true motives without making any concessions. Showing compassion about the situation of the negotiation partner costs you nothing. Besides building trust you explore and evaluate more options for shaping an agreement. Showing courage is necessary on the way to close the deal and to reach the agreement.
Creativity can be highly beneficial for both parties in negotiation. It can help to boost your confidence, credibility, and reputation by displaying your ability to think innovatively, adaptively, and constructively. Additionally, it can enhance your relationship, communication, and trust with the other party by demonstrating your willingness to listen, understand, and collaborate. Moreover, it can lead to increased satisfaction, happiness, and motivation as you experience the joy of discovering, creating and achieving something new and valuable.
Creative and critical thinking make also a great and trustworthy communicator out of you. Creative and critical thinking give you support to manage yourself to be able to deal also with emotionally charges situations. Creative and critical thinking make sure that you listen to them and they listen to you. Creative and critical thinking helps you with What to say and How to say it. Scott Tillema at his workshop at the NegotiCON, the negotiators conference.
Negotiations enable creative and critical thinking. Besides logical facts you have to be able to handle emotions, conflicts, biased attitudes, deceptions, unpredictable, irrelevant and not logical statements and naughty requests. It is possible that you will find out that some negotiation partners tend to rush for a solution or apply pressure in competitive strategy just because they are afraid of conflicts. People usually do not ask for what they choose, they ask for what they fear at least. (Jack Nasher). As a negotiator you have to show the "professional tenacity", which is the balance of showing empathy and respect and to show the drive to score. It is a lot easier by applying creative and critical thinking.