You have a telephone appointment with your counterpart in a big negotiation at 2 pm. It’s going to be a critical conversation as you received your counterpart’s extremely aggressive first offer last week, and you have not yet responded. If you come across as too...
I apologize to anyone who doesn’t like Mel Brooks (is this even possible?) – but I found his negotiation stories irresistible. And we can all learn invaluable lessons from them. So here are 3 more in Part 3, the final chapter (I promise). For those who missed Part 1...
He swore at me in front of my client. I was really surprised. I was a young lawyer at the time, and he was the opposing counsel and managing partner of a prominent law firm. I had requested documents that his associate had promised, and that my client had flown in to...
I was surprised when this agent said he was not interested in listing my mom’s condo after he learned I was meeting other agents. He said he was pretty busy and the condo’s value – and his commission based on it – was just not worth his time. I told him I understood....
I recently had knee replacement surgery, and the post-surgery rehabilitation phase has been challenging. Everything went well surgery-wise, but the rehab – to be successful long-term – has required a surprising level of perseverance, dedication, discipline, and...
Shortly after being named Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger negotiated peace with then disgruntled and former board member Roy Disney (Walt’s nephew). Roy had just sued Disney over Iger’s selection and it easily could have derailed Iger’s effort to lead Disney in a bold new...
There’s one main negotiation reason procurement professionals/buyers send out Requests for Proposals (RFPs) – to create leverage by developing better Plan Bs to their Plan A (which is not buying or just sticking with its incumbent). Of course, sellers also seek...
How long has it been since you were speaking with a colleague and they glanced at their phone to check a text, notification or email? I bet this has already happened to you multiple times today. Or maybe it was your phone that buzzed while you were drafting an email. ...
“Hi – how are you?” my friend said to his teen daughter years ago after coming home from work. She erupted, yelled at him, stormed to her room and slammed the door. He turned to his wife and said “what did I do?” She replied “you talked.” This example, shared by...
