Session #2 Blog #1
Filling out and scoring the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument revealed that my dominant negotiating style is Collaborating. Compromising was the runner-up, followed by avoiding. As presented in the lecture, it appears that I already have the style that is mainly being promoted in the class. However it appears that I will need to learn how do deal with people who do not have this style, espcially those who are competitive as was revealed in the negotiation sessions on the second day of class.
The Bestbooks case (I played the role of Bestbooks Senior Representative), I thought, would be pretty straightforward. However it turned out to be harder than I thought. I believe I was prepared to use the process as outlined in the text as I had just read the chapter on "inventing options for mutual gain". However from the onset, Paige's agent was spelling out his positions. I tried to indicate that we spend some time on creating option before locking ourselves into position too early. This was agreed upon but it appeared that those options were being confused with position that I might consider accepting. This happened throughout the negotiation as we used up a lot of time trying to deal with the process of the negotiation.
From the onset Paige's Agent stated that he was entitled to 15% royalty. I indicated that we can look at some options. For instance, the royalty could be 15% of wholesale price; 15% of retail price; 15% of publisher net, 10% of retail price for first 5,000 books sold, 13% for next 5,000 books, and 15% thereafter.
It was good that we did agree to discuss options. However making the choice proved difficult. When I indicated that my boss may fire me if I gave the 15%, the agent relented and accepted the 13% with 15% if 10,000 books were sold in the first week.
There were some areas of the negotiation that we agreed on readily. For instance we agreed readily on the following:
Number of weeks that the book would be in publication
Number of countries where the book would be sold
Number of book clubs that will adopt the book
I believe if we started discussing these items that we would most likely mutually agree to easily first then the other more contentious points may have proved easier to resolve.
The areas that proved difficult were the royalty, the contract renewal options and the number of weeks of promotion. In these areas Paige's agent was very inflexible and spoke from position mainly. Unfortunately did not have any good objective standards to use for the renewal options and the number of weeks of promotion. Also, unfortunately I had to read the chapter on negotiation jujitsu. I believe if I had read this chapter I would have been better prepared for a hard bargainer.
What I believe made the negotiation more difficult was the Success Table. Naturally both sides would use it make sure that not only would they get a good deal, but that at the end of the class they could say that they also got a lot of points, and possibly a good score for the negotiation.
The Bestbooks case (I played the role of Bestbooks Senior Representative), I thought, would be pretty straightforward. However it turned out to be harder than I thought. I believe I was prepared to use the process as outlined in the text as I had just read the chapter on "inventing options for mutual gain". However from the onset, Paige's agent was spelling out his positions. I tried to indicate that we spend some time on creating option before locking ourselves into position too early. This was agreed upon but it appeared that those options were being confused with position that I might consider accepting. This happened throughout the negotiation as we used up a lot of time trying to deal with the process of the negotiation.
From the onset Paige's Agent stated that he was entitled to 15% royalty. I indicated that we can look at some options. For instance, the royalty could be 15% of wholesale price; 15% of retail price; 15% of publisher net, 10% of retail price for first 5,000 books sold, 13% for next 5,000 books, and 15% thereafter.
It was good that we did agree to discuss options. However making the choice proved difficult. When I indicated that my boss may fire me if I gave the 15%, the agent relented and accepted the 13% with 15% if 10,000 books were sold in the first week.
There were some areas of the negotiation that we agreed on readily. For instance we agreed readily on the following:
Number of weeks that the book would be in publication
Number of countries where the book would be sold
Number of book clubs that will adopt the book
I believe if we started discussing these items that we would most likely mutually agree to easily first then the other more contentious points may have proved easier to resolve.
The areas that proved difficult were the royalty, the contract renewal options and the number of weeks of promotion. In these areas Paige's agent was very inflexible and spoke from position mainly. Unfortunately did not have any good objective standards to use for the renewal options and the number of weeks of promotion. Also, unfortunately I had to read the chapter on negotiation jujitsu. I believe if I had read this chapter I would have been better prepared for a hard bargainer.
What I believe made the negotiation more difficult was the Success Table. Naturally both sides would use it make sure that not only would they get a good deal, but that at the end of the class they could say that they also got a lot of points, and possibly a good score for the negotiation.