Marcus Evans has been advising us for over ten years and is also a senior instructor on our Red Sheet® advanced negotiation course. Before this, he spent 30 years in advertising, running agencies for Ogilvy, BBDO and TBWA, where he spent a good proportion of his time selling to enterprise clients. He makes no secret of the fact that he has never enjoyed his negotiations and interactions with his client’s procurement teams, so we thought – as he has now “come over to the Dark Side” as he puts it – we’d take the opportunity to find out why.   Long Ago and Far Away I think there are broadly ..read more

The Fact Is We All Negotiate Whether it’s with our partner, our parents, children, friends, suppliers, customers or even our colleagues, when we want somebody to do something, we may well need to persuade them. And this is very much what negotiation is – persuading somebody else to either see something our way, or to do something that we want. It is also true that some of us are better negotiators than others. The good news is that everyone can learn to become a better negotiator and one area that we can certainly improve is learning to read the other party.   Our Subconscious Mind Can Gi ..read more

Be yourself and play to your strengths, advises global negotiation master Jonathan O’Brien, and it is OK to bluff – provided you don’t get caught! Jonathan shares some tried and tested tactics guaranteed to make you a more accomplished negotiator. Negotiation is a game – a performance if you like. You can be completely honest and open, or you can choose to bluff (bend the truth). You can be hard-nosed and stubborn or friendly and accommodating. There is no “one size fits all approach” – the right approach is the one that suits your personality. Nice or nasty is too simplistic, it is more; ass ..read more

Jonathan O’Brien, CEO of Positive Purchasing, explores the concept of repertoire in negotiation and use of the decoy tactic. A negotiation is a performance of sorts. Unsurprising then that, along with process and personality, repertoire is often referred to as a fundamental component of effective negotiation. Usually associated with comedians or other performers, a repertoire is the entire range of material that can be delivered. Where a performer’s repertoire might include jokes and songs, a negotiator’s repertoire contains skills and behaviours. Effective negotiators build a strong repertoi ..read more

Positive CEO Jonathan O’Brien, considers the importance of language during a negotiation, and how tone of voice and phraseology can be used to help drive things in the direction you want. He explores the subtle nuances we use everyday, and considers ways in which we can proactively embrace these to gain competitive advantage. You might think that negotiation is about understanding our power, doing our homework, using good tactics and managing concessions. And you would be right…it’s all of those things. But there are other crucial components of negotiating well, including body language, what w ..read more

Antony Fisher of spend intelligence specialists, Mintec, explains how cost modelling can generate real advantage for procurement professionals. In a world of fake news, it’s easy for procurement people to make assumptions and take things for granted. But imagine if we knew exactly what it costs our suppliers to manufacture something or provide a service. Negotiation would be simple as we would understand exactly where to aim. If we also knew how prices would change over time we could work out when to buy or sell. Some people have spent lifetimes trying to figure this out. Imagine if we could d ..read more

Rapport building is a powerful tool in any negotiation, sales pitch or situation in life where we want to secure a positive outcome. It involves being intensely interested in the other party and becoming ‘just like them.’ While this may seem odd, it is an effective way to win people over to our cause. If we want someone to do something for us or concede to our position in a negotiation, the first step is to get them to trust us. Whom do you trust the most? The answer is simply yourself. Consequently, when we meet someone who appears ‘just like us’ we will, without realizing it, tend to trust t ..read more

‘Cameras on’. Remote negotiation is here to stay. Embrace the process and learn the skills to connect and communicate successfully. Let’s face it, remote negotiation is something we should have been doing ages ago. After all, we’ve had the technology in place for many years. But, for some reason, people have shied away from it. Now, COVID-19 has forced us to bite the bullet. We used to come together to negotiate face-to-face, meet in-person and see the whites of our opponent’s eyes. Suddenly, we don’t have that option. And that’s unlikely to change any time soon, because even when restrictions ..read more

Jonathan O’Brien, CEO of Positive Purchasing Ltd, internationally recognised expert on negotiation and published author, explains what we need to start to do differently to succeed and gain advantage in the future. Global economic contractions and widespread operational disruption are changing the way we do business in virtually all countries, industries, sectors and disciplines. As businesses attempt to navigate these unprecedented challenges, those that succeed will be those that strategize and plan effectively, while adapting business practices to suit conditions. Within this context, the ..read more

Consider the foremost attributes of a successful negotiator and you are unlikely to recognize the importance of subconscious power. In fact, intangible power represents the most important dimension to any negotiation because it shapes how we come across to our opponent. Our subconscious can be our greatest ally in a negotiation, yet it can also be our worst foe if we don’t learn to tap into it in the right way. Tapping into the subconscious dimension of negotiation Have you ever met someone who makes you feel instantly at ease, whom you are happy to trust from the outset? Whilst this ‘instant ..read more