Creating Alignment with Challenging Internal Customers
Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is a highly important part of negotiation and success. In procurement, professionals tend to excel at strategy and following process and downplay the magnitude of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence has been linked to career success more than intelligence alone, proving EQ a critical tool to have. Luckily, unlike IQ, EQ proficiency can be developed through exercise. On a recent episode of Negotiations Ninja I spoke with... Read more
From Singing To Sourcing
When examined, two different careers can have similarities. Procurement, in particular, is a linear move, rather than a parallel, to careers that seem opposite at first glance. Life experience renders skill sets that are transferable, even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time. On a recent episode of Negotiations Ninja, I spoke with Jason Cammorata, the strategic sourcing and procurement lead at MDC Partners. We spoke about his... Read more
Deadlocks Begin Negotiations
We all fear conflict, we fear rejection, we fear ridicule. In negotiation, conflict is inevitable and trying to avoid it could hinder your ability to reach your desired outcome. In a recent episode of Negotiations Ninja, I talked with Matthias Schranner, former hostage negotiator and founder of the Schranner Negotiation Institute, about conflict in negotiations. Matthias says the biggest mistake in business negotiation is the avoidance of deadlock scenarios forcing... Read more
A Systems Approach to Negotiations
Everybody goes into a negotiation with emotional baggage. We can expect emotions from those being asked to make sacrifices – there usually is at least one party in a negotiation who will be making sacrifices. As negotiators, we don’t often think about the emotional baggage we are bringing to the table as negotiators. In a recent episode of Negotiations Ninja, I chatted with war-time and hostage negotiation expert, Cal Chrustie,... Read more
7 Steps To A Successful Sales Meeting With Procurement
I’ve been getting a lot of questions on how to conduct a successful sales meeting with a procurement team or procurement person. In a recent episode of Negotiations Ninja, I outlined the ins and outs of a successful sales meeting. What happens once you secure that first meeting? What do you say? How do you set it up? To start, it is essential to ask good questions and actively listen... Read more
Donald Trump’s Negotiating Tactics
Negotiations play a large role in politics. Currently, President Donald Trump is one of the most polarizing political figures on the planet. Whether you love him or hate him, we can learn a lot from his negotiations. In order to improve our negotiation skillsets, we need to look at the underlying nature of his skills, regardless of our political views. In a recent episode of Negotiations Ninja, Marty Latz, author... Read more
Developing Authentic Listening Skills
The act of listening is a skill that is frequently overlooked, however, it is of utmost importance in all professions. Active listening is a skill we should develop not because of what people can offer us, but because we owe it to everyone. In current times, we have been starved of the genuine act of listening. With the fast-paced nature of life, we make up the excuse that we don’t... Read more
3-D Negotiations
When you look beyond the win-win and win-lose mentality of negotiation, it becomes clear there are multiple dimensions that make up the skillset. In order to be successful in the practice of negotiation, it is necessary to understand what goes on beneath the surface. David Lax, co-author of 3-D Negotiation explains that it is very common for people to spend all of their time and energy focusing on surface-level negotiation... Read more
Influence in Negotiations
Stalling for Time is the riveting memoir of Gary Noesner, the first chief of the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit. Hostage negotiation was a budding discipline when Noesner was starting his career with the FBI in 1972 and was something he was interested in learning and wanted to “become good at.” For Noesner, negotiation became a skill to be honed and developed over his 30-year career and he worked to learn... Read more
Negotiating International Trade
When approaching the topic of negotiation, it can be challenging to understand how it is practically applied to international trade. Not only do negotiation and politics coincide, negotiation lays the framework for much of what goes on behind the scenes of international trade deals. On the March 4th episode of Negotiations Ninja, Hampton Dowling, Managing Partner of The HCB Group, explains how negotiation is present within all political activity. “Negotiation... Read more