My Utile Center

There’s more to turning a profit than income alone - it’s important to be bringing in money cost-effectively. This brings us on to the benefits of that great secret of successful businesses, performance management software. It is common knowledge that an efficient company streamlines its systems to the strengths of each staff member to get the best from them. Pinpointing and making this information ready for use tends to be where things can become challenging. Simply tracking employee appraisal and identifying progress in their performance is a significant task. First of all, you set up employee performance appraisal systems to evaluate and keep track of work done by each worker. Assessing this information is next. Before it’s ready to use determining goals and checking future progress you need to know what the pure data translates to. Employing performance appraisal software you know that this preliminary work is done for you and you only need to scrutinize the different analyses and factors to find what the right set of targets for this employee would be. It also makes keeping track of the employee’s advancement much easier. This takes away the need to spend time on analysis and is likely to be more useful. Of course, you can analyze all of the findings yourself using the process just to organize and record everything. It goes without saying that it isn’t employee effieciency alone that can benefit from advice from performance management software. You can also use the software to scrutinize your suppliers and clients. You’ll have a data analysis that can show which suppliers stock products with the best quality, at the lowest prices and also distinguish those with high loss rates or slow delivery times.

When it comes to affilates this kind of software can still offer a more detailed picture there, too, showing you just who sells the most of your products, any loss percentage and any similar fallout, and serving as a reminder of any payment issues. You can then adapt your orders and move products around to boost your income while reducing outgoings. Who couldn’t benefit from that? This information will allow you to determine a priority demographic. With this demographic in mind marketing becomes more effective and quicker to plan. You can track your sources to minimize costs and keep up with your market to make more money using performance appraisal software. It renders employee performance management straightforward and much more effective when encouraging employees using tangible achievements significantly. The sky really can be the limit when leveraging performance management software.

Click here and check out our comprehensive site for performance appraisal forms facts.

Today’s economy means that it’s easiest to ramp up profits by examining overhead, rather than by increase of income. A simple and frequently forgotten asset when doing so is employee performance management software. Everyone knows that making the most out of your business requires a knowledge of where each of your employees work best, and a knowledge of how to adjust your procedures to match. While this data is useful, it isn’t exactly painless to obtain.

Just keeping track of employee appraisal and identifying progress in their performance rapidly becomes a significant amount of work. First, you implement employee evaluation systems to evaluate and keep track of work done by each employee. The analysis of this information is next. After all, before you can put it to use setting goals and identifying future progress you have to know what the data means in practice.

Utilizing performance appraisal software you know that this assessment is taken care of and you only need to study the different analyses to discover what an appropriate set of goals for this employee would be. It also renders following the employee’s advancement much simpler. With more accurate information for less time invested, this is a cost saving measure before putting these findings to use. It’s also possible, of course, just to use the software to track raw data like performance reviews and to analyze these items yourself. It goes without saying that it’s not employee effieciency alone that can be improved by use of performance management software. Such software can also be used to keep an eye on your suppliers & clients. For example, when looking at suppliers you can pinpoint their weaknesses like slow delivery times, bad damage records, and so forth. When it comes to clients - retailers, affiliates, or similar - this kind of software can help there telling you exactly who sells the most of your products, any loss percentage and similar troubles, and serving as a reminder of outstanding payments. Then, you can customize your ordering and move products around to maximize your profits while reducing outgoings. Who couldn’t benefit from that? This information will allow you to identify a priority demographic. With this in mind advertising is free to become more effective and less difficult to plan. You can study your suppliers in order to reduce costs and watch your market to boost profit utilizing performance management software. It also makes staff performance management quicker and more effective when encouraging employees through viable achievements. All in all, what a careful user can achieve using this software is astounding…

There’s more to turning a profit than income alone - it’s important to be bringing in money cost effectively. With this in mind, let’s turn to the many benefits of employee performance appraisal software. Business optimization requires an awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of its staff: where is their best work done? How can your system adjust to emphasize their strengths and cover their weaknesses? This is the crucial question. Discovering and making this information ready to use is often where it gets difficult. Defining and tracking development through employee evaluation on its own can be a huge hassle. You first put employee appraisal systems into action in order to appraise work carried out by each employee. If this was done with traditional approaches, you will have to study all of this data manually in order to define goals, and measure further development. With performance management software, all you need to do is examine the various analyses to identify what these goals should be and then track the employee’s progress. Thus you ease a significant demand on your time and probably also receive more useful information as an added bonus. It is also possible, of course, just to use the software to record raw data like performance review forms and to examine these items yourself.

Performance appraisal software doesn’t just work for staff. It’s also worth studying suppliers and clients to be better able to reduce costs by precision ordering. Identifying which suppliers offer the higher grade or best priced products can cut costs greatly.

Clients can be analyzed in terms of how they impact your company, and as with internal matters and suppliers this information can be used to benefit your bank balance. This information is useful in minimizing expenses and boosting profits. Who wouldn’t take advantage of that? This information will allow you to determine a priority demographic. With this in mind marketing is free to become more effective and simpler to plan. Performance management software lets you study your sources so you can save money and scrutinze your market to customize your plans and develop your profit margin. It renders staff performance management straightforward and much more effective when encouraging employees by presenting them with viable goals and achievements greatly. How much you can achieve seems almost unlimited when using performance management software.

What makes a company ultimately decide to look into outsourcing some of the more crude tasks connected with verifying data for potential new hires? One reason may be, companies all over the world are perpetually trying to find ways to save time and money. Finding a service that does Employment Verifications may be considered one of those ways to possibly save on labor costs. Since this service exists online, there is no need for wasting time via snail mail or telephone. All you have to do to start the process is have the future employee sign a consent form, which is necessary in order to begin the search, enter the applicable information regarding the work history and prior employer, then sit back, and wait for the data to come back verified.

Many of these Employment Verification companies are available online so that you can do all of your verifications from your desktop computer. The typical info you will need is the applicant’s name, date of birth, social security number, and email. The system will also ask for the prior employer’s information. This means supplying the name of the company, address, phone, and email address of the company that the applicant previously worked for. Any other applicant employment info that you would like to verify will need to be given as well. The most common information that is regularly included within an Employment Verification is the start and termination dates, supervisor’s name, salary information, and position.

There are only a few of major steps which would need to be made before using this system. The current employment application would need to be altered so that it allows for a section where the applicant provides their background check and employment verification authorization. The hiring company would also need to create an account with VeraTrack to begin the employment verification process. A company that conducts under 100 verifications a month can expect to spend nine dollars per use. This means that VeraTrack pricing is highly cost-effective and is significantly lower than the price of having the employee track everything manually.

A prosperous business depends on the efficient management of employees. You may learn and improve these techniques. It can be a plus to have a innate affinity for people, but there are a lot of skills you can learn to make the process simple.

Forging relationships: Begin by memorizing an individual’s name. Speak to people; look people in the eye during a conversation. Have a respectful attitude, in addition do pay attention to everything the other person has to say, regardless of whether you are in agreement with them. Acquiring listening skills is among the best things you can do to develop your human resources management skills. Welcome any contributions from team members. Live up to your word: Don’t make promises you can not fulfill. If your word is broken, it can ruin trust, and people will not give you their best without trust. When you give a commitment or make a promise about something, you are squandering your time and effort unless you act with integrity. You’ll discover, when you can’t be depended on, you can be certain they will act in a similar way.

Encourage feedback: Feedback should be a reciprocal process. Human Resource management skills mean having an open mind to all feedback. Being approachable and open shows that other’s thoughts are important to you, and they will appreciate your ideas. Honest discourse in addition encourages fresh ideas, ways of achieving the goals of the company, and develops the team. If team members can express their opinion, each employee takes an interest in the results. Communicating is important: Managing individuals boils down to the same concept — good communication. Maintaining an open door policy, listen attentively to people, keep an open mind, and permit all your team to express their views. The team must be inspired to speak with each other as well as with you. The growth of a business depends to a great extent on the interchange of ideas, and in speaking with each other, you can discover problems at an early stage, and measures may be put in place before matters get out of hand. Developing these skills can take time, even so the rewards are worthwhile. By encouraging a good team dynamic and developing effective listening techniques, you can have the best in business success.

A flourishing business depends on effective people management skills. These skills may be improved and studied. Having a spontaneous affinity for dealing with people and forming relationships may be a plus, even so there are many skills you can do that will make the procedure simpler.

Forging relationships: Remembering staff by name can be a great beginning. Encourage conversation; make eye contact when you are talking. Be respectful, in addition pay attention to everything the other individual has to say, even if you disagree or have another opinion. Developing the ability to listen is among the greatest things you may do to develop your people management skills. Be sure to receive any contributions from your co-workers.

Live up to promises: Do not give promises you can’t keep. When you don’t keep your word, the fragile bond of trust is violated, and without trust employees will not offer their best. Everytime you say something or make a promise about something, do be sure that you can follow through or it would really be more sensible not to give your word at all. You will discover, if you can’t be counted on, you can be certain they will behave in the same way. Encourage any comments: It’s a two-way street. Having an open mind with regard to other’s views is an important skill in effective people management. If you can show accessibility and receptiveness, you show that other’s opinions matter to you, and they should value yours. Frank discussion in addition encourages fresh ways of thinking, ways of accomplishing goals, and improves the team dynamic. If your team members can express themselves, the success of the company will become important to each employee. Communication is important: Good communication is the key to managing employees effectively. Maintaining an open door policy, listen closely to other people’s views, remember to welcome all sorts of feedback, and give all of your employees an equal voice. Encourage team members not just to communicate with you, but to speak to each other. The sharing of ideas is essential in the creative process, and through listening to one another, you can root out any issues at an early stage, and corrections can be implemented before things get out of hand. Developing these skills will require some time, even so the payoff is worthwhile. By building the bonds of a good team and developing good listening skills, you can easily accomplish the best in business success.

Crude oil costs are rising and as a result, business expenses are pressed short harder than previously. As the nations economic output lumbers along slowly and capital remains scarce, prudent directories realize additional expenses have to be cut. Business people throughout the nation must make more than a couple weighty decisions to shrink expenses. One of the best option to cut business costs is to make slashes in frivolous travel budgets, and the secret is Internet conference calling.

Web conference calls permit executives to communicate with clients wirelessly in a meeting in a far away town, in a far off state or most definitely in another continent. Typical Internet conference calling employ new streaming technology. Due to the fact that they are delivered over the net, they merely consume sunk organizational outlays. Just from using the Internet, may an executive conduct a international conference from almost any place with Internet access. Not only is it convenient, it can save travel costs five digits or more in a year.

Break throughs in digital technology make web conferencing calls a good choice for people to exchange presentations and information in real time. Web conference attendees can see and hear as though they were in the same room, despite the fact that on the other side of the planet earth. The detail of the presentations audio and video should be without flaw given the top in streaming video.

Obviously just about any business should increase profits by using web conference calling rather than spending thousands dispatching an executive on a big trip. A business shouldnt spend on hotels, meals or even transportation. These trimmings matter over a year. Any dollar saved translates to increased profit for a company. It’s not surprising that the smart organizations are implementing web conferencing to reduce overhead on low-priority sales journeys.

Following on from the last edition of The Organised Times where we spoke about developing the people in your business, this week we’re focussing on the importance of the continual development of your managers.

Leadership comes from the top down. Poor management skills is the cause of most employee dissatisfaction and results in their poor performance.

The following article by Nathan Chanesman from My Profile is worthwhile reading:

Poor management skills lead to poor employee performance

It’s disheartening to read that poor management skills is the cause of most business dissatisfaction. You’d think that with all the training and investment that has gone into this topic that we’d learnt by now to get it right.

Employees have lost trust in the companies they work for Kelly Services Survey published in October last year indicated that 47% of Australian employees believe “that companies do not have their best interests at heart”.

Dissatisfaction seems to be the order of the day. 50% of Australia’s workforce want to quit it’s job and nearly 40% reported that they often “woke up in the morning not willing to face the day”.

SEEK, the online job board survey of October 2003 reported that 75% of employees questioned are not happy with their current job.

Asked what they liked most about their job 51% said “the people I work with”. And what did they hate most? 60% said “the quality of management”. Not surprising, dissatisfaction with management increased as people got older.

The Solutions

Get Profiled

Visit www.myprofile.com.au They’ll help you find the right person for the job, and help you understand yourself and your employees and how you can work together as a cohesive team to achieve your business vision and goals.

360 degree Pirihi Productivity Profile

Discover how effective a leader you believe yourself to be and receive feedback from your people stating how they see you. This can be a real eye-opener and extremely beneficial.

You’ll be able to utilise that feedback and in areas requiring attention, we can help you become the best you can be. Email lorraine@office-organiser.com.au for more details or see our special offer below.

Ask for direct feedback from your people.

This can work however it may also be very confronting and you may not get the real truth. Often people will not voice how they really feel for fear of repercussions or because they know that whatever they say will fall on deaf ears!

Get coached

A good coach will help you enhance your skills to be the best you can be. Ensure whoever you use is external to the business. We can also help you in that area. Just send us an email lorraine@office-organiser.com.au for more details.

Be Aware

Take a look around you. Are your people happy? Do they enjoy coming to work? When you speak to them are they generally positive or negative in their responses? Is there a high turnover of staff or is your team stable? Consider the absenteeism rate. Are your people often away from work? These are a few questions to ask yourself.

Encourage regular feedback from your people. Ask them individually and as a group what they think & how can you be a better manager? What can be improved? What do they like about their work, the people, the industry, the management etc.

You can also choose to do nothing, which is not a good option. Don’t wait until a crisis occurs.

A business owner I know said everything was fine. He said his staff were happy although he never did anything to pro-actively ensure they were. His perception was that he believed all was well because no-one complained. He only acted if a problem was brought to his attention. One week, three of his key people resigned. They had enough of the owner’s poor leadership skills. The loss of those people nearly brought the business down.

So stay on top of things, be proactive, ask questions and take nothing for granted.

The success of any business is a reflection of its leadership. Lead from the top.

About The Author

Lorraine Pirihi, principal of The Office Organiser (http://www.office-organiser.com.au) is Australia’s Personal Productivity Coach

Lorraine specialises in working with businesspeople showing them how to dramatically boost their productivity, reduce the stress and the mess in their lives and have more time for enjoying their life.

We Offer a Broad Range of Services and Products including: Coaching for small business owners and professionals, keynote presentations and workshops, books, CD’s, DVD’s and on-line learning programs.

Take action today! Contact Lorraine to discuss your specific needs at lorraine@office-organiser.com.au

Let me teach you the unethical gambits that people can use to get you to sweeten the deal. Unless you’re so familiar with them that you spot them right away, you’ll find that you will make unnecessary concessions just to get the other side to agree with your proposal. Many a salesperson has had to endure an embarrassing interview with a sales manager who can’t understand why he made a concession. The salesperson tries to maintain that the only way to get the order was to make the concession. The truth was that the buyer out maneuvered the salesperson with one of these unethical gambits.

There’s no point in getting upset with the person who uses these unethical Gambits. Power Negotiators remember to concentrate on the issues and think of negotiating as a game. Unless the individual is Mother Theresa, he or she is simply doing what he or she is on this planet for, which is to get the best possible deal from you. You must be skilled enough to instantly recognize these unethical gambits and smoothly counter them.

The Decoy

The other side can use the Decoy Gambit to take your attention away from what is the real issue in the negotiation.

Several years ago, an association hired me to do a seminar at John Portman’s Peachtree Hotel in Atlanta. That’s a Westin Hotel and a fabulous place. It’s 73 stories high, one of the tallest hotels in the country and possibly the world. It’s like a round tall tower with only 15 or so pie-shaped rooms on each floor.

As I walked into the hotel I was wondering what I could do to provide an illustration to the people who would be in the seminar the following day, to show how effective Power Negotiating can be. A room had been pre-arranged for me by the organization that had hired me, and I decided to see what I could do about negotiating down the price of the room. Rooms at the Peachtree then typically cost $135. They had given me a very good corporate rate of $75. Nevertheless, I determined to see what I could do and within 10 minutes got them to reduce the price of the room to $37.50.
I used the Decoy Gambit on them. They told me that they only had a twin-size room for me. If they had said they only had a full-size room, I would have asked for a twin bed, you understand. It didn’t matter what it was, but I said “The association that hired me booked this room a month ahead of time. I am not going to accept a twin-size room.” The desk clerk brought out the manager. He explained that they have 1,074 rooms in the hotel. Guests already occupied 1,064 of them, so they only had 10 available, and I would have to settle for a twin-size room.

So, I used the Trading Off Gambit. I said, “Well, I might be willing to settle for a twin-size room, but if I do that for you, what will you do for me?” I thought possibly they might offer a free breakfast, or something like that. However, to my amazement he said, “We might be able to adjust the price of the room a little bit. How would half price be for you?”
I said, “That would be just fine.” Then, as they gave me the key to the room, the manager said, “Let me check just a moment. We may be able to do something more for you.” They made a telephone call and found out that they did have a queen-size room available. Maintenance had just finished redecorating it, and they weren’t sure whether they had released it yet. So, I ended up getting a $135 queen-size room for only $37.50.

The Decoy I used was that they only had twin-size rooms available, not king-sized. That wasn’t the real issue at all, of course; what I wanted to accomplish was a reduced room rate. The size of the bed took their attention away from the real issue.

Watch out for people who lure you away from the real issue with the Decoy Gambit. Let’s say that you sell custom made tools and dies, and your customer is insisting on accelerated shipment. Stay focused and isolate the objection. “Is that the only thing that’s bothering you?” Then go to Higher Authority and Good Guy/Bad Guy: “Let’s get something in writing, and I’ll take it to my people and see what I can do for you with them.” Then turn the tables: “We may be able to accelerate the shipment, but it’s going to increase the non-recurring engineering charges.”

The Red Herring

The Red Herring Gambit is a further twist on the Decoy Gambit. With the Decoy, the other person raises a phony issue to get concessions on a real issue. With the Red Herring, the other person makes a phony demand that he will subsequently withdraw, but only in exchange for a concession from you. If the Red Herring distracts you, it will deceive you into thinking that it’s of major concern to the other side when it may not be.

The classic example of the use of a red herring came during the Korean War armistice talks. Very early in the talks the parties concerned agreed that each side would be represented at the table by officials of three neutral countries, along with their own national negotiators. The South Korean side selected Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland as their three neutral negotiators. The North Koreans chose Poland and Czechoslovakia, but couldn’t seem to choose a third. They suggested that the talks start, and they would identify a third country later.

What they were really doing was leaving an opening for the Red Herring Gambit. When the time came and they had set the stage, they announced their selection for the third country: The Soviet Union. The international outcry was unanimous: “The Soviet Union? Now wait a minute. The Soviet Union isn’t a neutral country.”

The North Koreans responded by saying that the Soviets were not directly involved in the conflict, and there was no reason for them to be considered biased.

They waged the battle of the Red (pardon the pun) Herring for quite a while, until the situation became absurd. The North Koreans continued to insist that they couldn’t understand what the objection was to using the Soviet Union as a neutral third party, until the objections of the South Koreans seemed as ludicrous as the demands of the North Koreans. The negotiations had stalemated.

Just as it seemed that the pointless arguing would continue forever, the North Koreans announced that they would abandon their insistence on having the Soviets at the negotiating table, but they expected a reciprocal concession.

Both sides had agreed earlier that during the negotiations, neither side would rebuild their airstrips. The North Koreans realized later that this left them at a severe disadvantage because we could fly planes off aircraft carriers, but they needed their runways. So the North Koreans decided that it was time to use the Red Herring Gambit and suggested the Soviet Union as the third neutral country. Now it was time to name the price: They would concede and choose a different country to represent them, but only if the South Koreans would waive the restriction on rebuilding the airfields.
The North Koreans never seriously thought that we would agree to letting the Soviet Union be part of the negotiations. However they were able to magically create a bargaining issue out of thin air and then trade it off later for an issue about which they really cared.

When the other person is creating a red herring issue that she will try to trade off later, keep your eye on the real negotiating issues and don’t let her link it to a concession you’re reluctant to make.

Cherry Picking

Cherry Picking is a gambit that a buyer can use against a seller with devastating effect, unless the seller is a Power Negotiator and knows his or her options.

If you’re thinking of acquiring a new piece of equipment for your company, you can use Cherry Picking to your advantage. Shop around and accumulate information before you make a decision. Call up companies and have all their sales people come in and make a presentation to you. You’ll find that one has a good point in a particular area, perhaps a fast shipment. Another has a low price and a third has a good guarantee. So, from all these interviews, you piece together the ideal piece of equipment.

Then you go back to the one you like best and say, “I’d like to buy your equipment except that I want to get the longer guarantee. Or I want to get the faster shipping.” In this way, you create the type of deal and the kind of contract that you want.

So, buyers should push for itemized contracts whereas sellers should avoid it. Because Cherry Picking is to me an unethical gambit, the perpetrator is less likely to do it to someone he knows and trusts than he is to a comparative stranger. So, sellers can forestall this tactic by building a personal relationship with the buyer.

Another way to handle people who might want to Cherry Pick you is to forestall the Gambit. Let’s say that you’re a contractor who is trying to sell a remodeling job to a homeowner, and you know she’s going to talk to all the other contractors in town-how do you forestall it?

The answer is to know more about your competition than they’ll ever learn. So the homeowner says, “I want to check with some other people before I make my final decision.”

You respond, “I absolutely agree with you.” Always agree up front, right? Salespeople should always agree with any objection however ridiculous it is and then work to turn it around. “I absolutely agree with you. You should check with other companies before you make a decision. But look, let me save you some time. Have you talked to Ted Smith over at ABC Construction? He uses XYZ cabinets that have this feature, this feature, and this feature; but they don’t have this. Then if you talk to the national department store company down at the mall, the sales person who’ll come out will be Fred Harrison, and he’ll tell you about model number such and such . . ..”

By the time you’ve gone through letting her know how much you know about the competition, she’s going to think, “Why on Earth do I need to waste my time talking to all these other people, when this person knows more than I’ll ever learn.”

To defend yourself against Cherry Picking always consider the alternatives of the other side before making a concession. The fewer alternatives the other side has, the more power you have. If you as a seller refuse to budge on your price, then you force the buyer to pay more from another supplier or use multiple suppliers. In the case of the home remodeling job, this would mean that the homeowner would have to bypass you as the general contractor and contract with each sub-contractor separately. This may require more knowledge or expertise than the other side possesses or may create extra work and pressure that it is not worth the savings.

The Deliberate Mistake

The Deliberate Mistake is a very unethical tactic, and as with any con job, it requires a victim who also lacks ethics. The seller baits the hook when she prepares a proposal and deliberately leaves out or under-prices one of the elements. For example, the car salesperson who runs an adding machine tape on the cost of the car but includes only the price of a tape player, when the car also has a CD player. If the buyer takes the bait, he starts thinking that he now has an opportunity to put one over on the car salesperson. He becomes eager to close the deal before the salesperson spots the mistake. This eagerness makes the buyer a sloppy negotiator, and he may end up paying more for the car than if he had pointed out the mistake. Apart from that, the salesperson still has the option of “discovering” the mistake before the buyer consummates the sale and, with an accusing look, shames the buyer into paying the extra amount.
The counter-gambit may sound high minded, but it’s obvious. Never try to get away with anything. If your greed doesn’t cost you at that moment, it will certainly catch up with you later down life’s road. Instead, point out the mistake and say, “I assume that you’re not charging me for the CD player because you’re trying to get me to make a decision now?”

The Erroneous Conclusion

A variation of the Deliberate Mistake is the Erroneous Conclusion close. Using this method, the salesperson asks a question of the buyer, but deliberately draws an erroneous conclusion. When the buyer corrects the salesperson, she finds that she has made a commitment to buy. For example, the car salesperson says, “If you did decide today, you wouldn’t need to take delivery today would you?” The buyer responds, “Well, of course we’d want to take it today.”

The real estate sales person says, “You wouldn’t want the sellers to include the refrigerator would you?” The buyers hadn’t been thinking of doing that, but the refrigerator looks better than theirs does so they reply, “Do you think they would include it?” The salesperson responds with, “Let’s include it in our offer and see what happens.”

The boat salesperson says, “You wouldn’t expect us to include a CB would you?” The buyer sees an opportunity to get something for nothing and responds, “I sure would.”

The Default

The Default Gambit is one that involves a unilateral assumption that obviously works to the advantage of the side proposing it, such as the company that sends a payment check to a vendor after having deducted two and a half percent. Attached is a note that says, “All of our other vendors discount for payment within 15 days, so we assume you will too.” Or the salesperson who writes a potential buyer, “Because I haven’t heard from you on your choice of options, I will ship the deluxe model unless I hear from you within ten days.”

The Default Gambit preys on busy or lazy people; it assumes that rather than take action the other side will take the easy way out and let you get away with it. Once you have failed to respond, the law of precedent comes into play. When you finally do object the perpetrator is able to say, “But you’ve never had a problem with it in the past.”

As with all unethical gambits, call the other side on it and gently explain that you expect to see a higher level of ethics from them in the future.

Escalation

I once knew a man who became very wealthy after he sold his real estate franchise to a large corporation. He had been one of the original purchasers of a territory when real estate franchising was new, and the founder of the company was running around the country trying to sign up anyone who believed in his concept. Many years later a huge New York corporation had bought the master franchise and was starting to buy back the territorial franchises. After attending one of my Secrets of Power Negotiating seminars, he asked me to join him for a drink and asked me, “Roger, have you ever heard voices speak to you when you’re negotiating?” Not wanting to admit it if I had, I asked him what he was talking about. He told me that after he had agreed to sell his territorial franchise to the new corporate owners for what he first thought was a huge amount of money, he started to have second thoughts. Because his was the first franchise the corporation was buying back they flew him to New York for a signing ceremony to be followed by a press conference at which they would announce the corporation’s plans to buy back all the franchises. “The night before the ceremony I had trouble sleeping,” he told me. “I lay on my bed wondering whether I was doing the right thing. Suddenly I heard a voice talking to me.”

“What was it saying,” I asked him, half expecting a humorous punch line.
“It said, ‘Joey, you’re not getting enough money.’ So the next morning I went down and asked for another half million dollars and got it.”
What Joey was describing was a classic case of escalation-raising demands after both sides have reached agreement. Of course it’s outrageous and unethical, but just as Joey thought he heard voices telling him to do it rather than accept responsibility for his actions, the perpetrators often don’t see any harm in cutting the best deal by any means possible. So, why is anyone ever allowed to get away with such outrageous behavior? All too often, the other side swallows its pride and concedes just as easily as that corporation conceded the extra half million. In that case, the corporation paid rather than faces the humiliation of having to call off the press conference. In other cases, the other side has simply become too emotionally involved in the purchase to back out.

The history of big business is full of stories of people who extorted a little more out of a deal simply because they had enough leverage to do so. Frankly, I have mixed emotions about how to respond. My heart tells me that if people do that, you should call their bluff and walk away from the deal on principle. However, I also believe in keeping emotions out of a negotiation. If that New York corporation was able to pay the extra half million and still have it be a good deal (and it was still a very good deal) then they were right to swallow their pride and pay the money.
There are some responses to escalation other than swallowing your pride or walking away. You might try these:

o Protecting yourself with Higher Authority. Tell them that their suggestion does not offend you, but that your board of directors will never renegotiate a deal once it has been made and they will force you to walk away. Then Position for Easy Acceptance by telling them that although you cannot budge on the price, you might be able to offer them something of value in another area.

o Escalating your demands in return. Tell them that you are glad that they want to reopen the negotiations because your side has been having second thoughts also. Of course, you would never renege on a deal, but since they have chosen to negate the original proposal, your price has now gone up also.

It is better to avoid Escalation than to have to deal with it. Avoid it by using these techniques:

o Tying up all the details up front. Don’t leave anything to “we can work that out later.” Unresolved issues invite Escalation.

o Building personal relationships with the other parties that makes it harder for them to be ruthless.

o Getting large deposits so that it’s harder for them to back out.

o Building win-win negotiations so that they don’t want to back out.

Planted Information

Returning from a speaking engagement, I was discussing that day’s Presidential press conference with my seatmate. “I don’t believe he’s telling us the truth,” he told me. “I met a man who knew someone who works at the White House, and he told me that the President did know all about it all along. He’s covering something up.” What amazed me about this was that I found myself believing what this man was telling me, rather than believing what I had earlier heard the President of the United States say at the press conference. Why? Because we always tend to believe information that we have obtained surreptitiously.

Planted information can be an astoundingly powerful influencer.

A salesman is making an impressive presentation to a board of directors. Flip charts and audio visual aids surround him. He is fervently making a plea that they go with his company because it offers the best value in the marketplace. He believes that no competitor can undercut his prices and feels confident that he can close the sale at his asking price of $820,000-until he sees one of the directors pass a note to another director who nods and lays the note on the table in front of him. Curiosity gets the better of the salesman. He has to see what’s on that note. He finishes his presentation, then approaches the table, and dramatically leans toward them. “Gentlemen, do you have any questions?” Out of the corner of his eye, he can now see the note. Even reading upside down, he can see that it says, “Universal’s price is $762,000. Let’s go with them.”

The chairman of the board says, “I do have one question. Your price seems high. We’re obligated to go with the lowest price that meets our specifications. Is $820,000 the best you can do?” Within minutes, the salesman has lowered his price by $58,000.

Was the note real or was it Planted Information? Although it was just an unsubstantiated note scrawled on a piece of paper, the salesperson believed it because he obtained the information surreptitiously. Even if they had planted it, could the salesperson cry foul later? No, because they didn’t tell him that the competition’s bid was $762,000. He obtained the information surreptitiously, and he must accept responsibility for his assumptions.

Simply knowing about planted information will help you to diffuse this unethical tactic. Any time that you are negotiating only based on information that the other side has chosen to tell you, you are extremely vulnerable to manipulation. When the other side may have planted the information for you to discover, you should be even more vigilant.

The best advice I can give you about unethical negotiating tactics is the same advice as I would give you if planned to walk down an alley in a third world country:

Learn the swindles and the tactics that unscrupulous people use.

Be alert to them and when you see the first evidence of a scam being pulled, don’t hang around out of curiosity or a desire to outsmart the perpetrator-just run away from it as fast as you can.

Never let your greed get the better of you. All con artists need a co-conspirator to pull off a con game. If the tactic doesn’t sound right to you, pull away as quickly as you can.

Roger Dawson

Founder of the Power Negotiating Institute

800-932-9766

RogDawson@aol.com

http://www.rdawson.com

Roger Dawson is the author of two of Nightingale-Conant’s best selling audiocassette programs, Secrets of Power Negotiating and Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople. This article is excerpted in part from Roger Dawson’s new book - “Secrets of Power Negotiating”, published by Career Press and on sale in bookstores everywhere for $24.99.

Personally this is my favorite disability. Perhaps many of you will agree with me. Others know the frustration all too well and won’t want to agree but will acknowledge frustration with a quiet nod!

As we have described management disabilities over the past in this mini series, the faults or problems that can easily befall us all are put to the test in the management team. This group has to battle the demons that surround the organization and still come out smelling like roses!

In larger organizations, managers feel a need to look good and protect their own credibility. They hire people similar to themselves or people not as smart so they can ‘coach’ them. They look good and their subordinates keep it that way. Wittingly or otherwise. An appearance is created of a well oiled management team, the frog is being boiled. Decisions are compromises and as democratic as a third world government. Decisions are seldom thought through and dialogued, seldom is one voice heard above the others when something doesn’t seem quite right. Disagreement is about laying blame, learning’s are lost, differences hidden, opinions are diverse. Poor frog.

Management teams remind me of the prisoners’ dilemma - the Economics of game theory. When you hold two accomplices and give them the option - talk and walk, send your partner away or your partner shops you for the whole deal. If you both say nothing you are home free. Tough call. How well do you know your partners?

Management teams that are not learning teams will fall over themselves when issues get tough and they have to apply themselves. Teams split, make irrational decisions or support the wrong team mates. With Sarbanes Oxley in effect, this could mean a jail sentence. Pressure kills faster. mmm, is that poor frog in a pressure cooker?

Management’s approach to surviving the top floor has often been to talk fast and talk often, never listening to others that may throw you off your stride or interject with facts.

We reward those that solve the problems not those that pose the problems…

Posing solutions under the guise of being proactive or to be seen as a ‘hero’ manager makes business management even worse, but managers often use this approach to win favor and gain PR points.

Does this seem like a learning organization in the making?

Get out, learn, dialogue, evaluate, share understand the system

How’s your management team?

Graeme Nichol, Principal Arcturus Advisors (http://www.arcturusadvisors.com), has worked on 4 continents gaining experience through Big Six consulting companies and boutique firms. Working with management to learn and achieve the impossible. In areas including; Business strategy, project management, change management, systems thinking, developing learning organizations, team development, productivity and quality improvement, and large scale ERP implementations.