Category archives: Negotiation

Company values and the targeted interview

26Jan09

One of the expectations of a recruiter is that the interviewee should have read the company website and conducted a google search on the company. Prior to your interview, you should find out the company vision, mission and values. When you look at the values, what core values do you share with company core values? When you read about the company vision and mission, how will YOU add value by helping the company achieve it? You may also want to conduct some analysis about the company, its competitors and where the industry is headed in the next 5 years.

E.g.1 Application to pharmaceutical company.
Pharmaceutical companies face the challenges of :-
1. Increased government regulation
2. Increased income from outside the United States
3. Increased competition from generic drugs
In view of these challenges, my background as a lawyer will be able to understand and communicate the increased government regulation. As an international business major, I will be able to work within the global marketplace. My experience managing a team of 50 people will allow me to effectively manage a sales force’s challenges while maintaining profitability.

This example demonstrates your ability to tie in your past experience with the company direction.

E.g. 2 Targeted interview
Interviewer : Are you a hard worker?
Interviewee : Yes, of course.
Interviewer : Are you an ethical person?
Interviewee : Yes, of course.
I learned the targeted interview method when I was interviewed by Johnson & Johnson. Almost every interviewee will tell you they are hard working and ethical. The targeted method is where you ask the following questions:-
Interviewer : That’s great. Please give me an example of a time when you worked harder than expected. Can you describe the :-
1. Situation that you were in
2. Task that you were given
3. Action that you took
4. Results of 3. above.
1-4 is the Situation, Task, Action and Result (STAR) approach.
Very few interviewees actually prepare in this thorough and detailed manner. This will enable you to stand out from your peers.

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To use Power Point or not?

14Oct08

During my one year as a brand manager, I learned how to use Power Point. I learned how people misused Power Point. I sat through  ”brief” presentations of 200 slides or more. I prepared slides linked to videos, jpgs and Excel spreadsheets and jpgs. 

Setting up my own business was a totally different ball game. As some entrepreneurs write, the change was as drastic as night and day. Presentations to clients were sometimes done in the lift or on the way to the car park. Surprise, surprise, these presentations were shock horror, without Power Point slides!

My business now has 5 trainers and we work with Petronas, Maybank, Johnson & Johnson, YTL, MIDF, IBBM and Kuwait Finance House. At the end of every month, as a good former MNC trained brand manager, I conducted an analysis of my business. I determined where the business was from (which company & industry and which was the most profitable). 

Around 8% of my business resulted from making Power Point presentations. 92% of the business resulted from meetings/presentations without using Power Point slides. In all the meetings, I did have slides prepared. It was just that the meeting went quite well without the slides. 

Not setting up a projector made the presentation feel a little more relaxed. Feedback from my clients showed that most of them were tired of endless slides. Most meetings would begin by questions on what exactly the client needed. To summarize, you should always have a set of slides in case, but you may find that more than 90% of the time, you may be better off without them. Obama’s Democratic national convention speech was over 45 minutes long, extremely riveting and given without a single slide.

Some of your clients may feel a need for slides and will want to sit through a Power Point show. If you do have to prepare some slides, take a look at  www.presentationzen.com and the post below on Pitfalls in Presentation. This is quite a comprehensive guide to presentations that advocates getting to the point and making a focused presentation.

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Should we use Power Point? Your thoughts please.

07Oct08

Seth Godin in his blog  talked about 9 steps to a great Power Point presentation. Step 1 tells you not to use Power Point. Does that make sense?  

Having closed new clients by cold calling, I would have to agree that sometimes you can do without a Power Point. One of the strongest openings is to do a brief (I mean 1 minute maximum) introduction of your company and then ask key questions about the other person’s business. Engaging my prospective customers in an interactive dialog helps me to understand their needs and better position our services and solutions.

Do you think Power Point is necessary?

Post your thoughts and ideas here. If you are someone who makes purchasing decisions, do you think that you must sit through a Power Point for at least 30 minutes?

If you are someone who is involved in sales, do you find that you need the Power Point to close the deal?

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Simplified Negotiation Grid – A tool to use empathy in negotiation

05Oct08

 empathy, noun

the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

This article will look at empathy and its application in negotiation. We will examine the basic selfish human nature that affects negotiation and how to deal with this to achieve a win-win solution.

 

We often only focus on what we want in life. We fail to take into account the other side and their point of view. In fact, Malhotra and Bazerman in their book Negotiation Genius have taken this concept further. They talk of overreaching optimism – viewing oneself through rose tinted spectacles. In a survey of husbands and wives they found that inevitably when they asked each party separately of their own contribution to the relationship, the sum was always more than 100%. This shows that we often overestimate ourselves and underestimate the other side. Empathy is one way we can overcome this.

 

Good negotiators think about the other side. The best negotiators eat, sleep and drink as well as walk in the shoes of the other side. As a lawyer, I was trained to prepare the other side’s arguments. Based on this I would prepare a rebuttal. By putting myself in the other person’s shoes, I was able to prepare a well-argued case that resulted in a settlement.

 

We will examine a few scenarios of how companies or individuals could look at “the other side” to increase value in negotiations.

 

Table 1. Simplified Negotiation Grid

 

  You Counterpart Common/shared
Positions     

 

      
Interests     

(in order of priority)

 

      
Possible outcomes     

 

      

 

Using the simplified negotiation grid, we are able to work out what the various parties’ positions and interests are. We can therefore focus on the key drivers for both parties. Skilled negotiators will also be able to revisit the common/shared interest to result in a win-win negotiation.

 

One of my favourite examples is the movie ticket role-play that we use in the juarezlowe negotiation class.

 

Example 1. Movie ticket role play summary

Ali

Ali has 2 tickets for the Gold Class Cinema show at 730pm costing RM60/each (USD18/each) for his date. Ali is 23 and has just started work earning RM2000/month (USD606). His date has just called him to say that she can’t make it. His boss has just called him to ask him to come back to the office. As the tickets are quite expensive, he doesn’t want to waste them. The time is now 715 pm and the line has around 30 people in it. He decides to sell them to someone at the back of the ticket queue.

 

Chong

Chong has his first anniversary celebration with his wife tonight. Chong works as a manager at a multi national company earning RM9,000/month (USD2,727). He has been really busy at work and forgotten to book the tickets that he promised to at the Gold Class Cinema. He manages to get out of the office and arranges to meet his wife at the cinema. She is not very happy as she expected to be picked up. Instead she took a taxi to meet him. During their brief conversation, she asked him “Did you remember to get the tickets dear?” to which he replied “Of course”. He arrives at the cinema at 710pm. To his horror, there is a long queue of 30 people. 5 minutes later Ali approaches him to sell 2 tickets. He looks up and the display above tells him that the seats for the Gold Class movie are “selling fast”.

 

Participants are given 3-5 minutes to conduct this role-play.

 

We find that price variance between participants can range from RM30/ticket (USD9) to RM120/ticket (USD36). Why is there such a huge variance?

 

Table 2. Application of Simplified Negotiation Grid to Movie Ticket Role-Play

 

  Ali Chong Common/shared
Positions Full price for tickets. Buy tickets at discount.     

 

 Tickets for sale and purchase
Interests (in order of priority) 1. Avoid losing money.     

 

2. Find a buyer fast.

 

 1. Avoid getting in trouble with wife.     

 

2. Buy the tickets at all costs.

  
Possible outcomes if no agreement is reached Lose large portion of salary and be late for boss.     

Find alternative buyer in ticket queue.

 Get into major trouble with wife.     

 

Buy roses and gifts to make it up to wife.

 

  

 

Key pitfalls in Movie ticket role-play

1. Most participants take a narrow one-sided approach and start talking first and don’t listen.

2. They don’t take time to talk to the other side to discover the other side’s interest. 

3. They fail to consider what will happen should neither party be able to reach agreement.

 

Key lessons from the Movie Ticket Role-Play

1. Take a deep breath and listen.

2. Focus on the other side by asking questions. What are the things that you are looking for in a product/service?

3. Consider both your possible outcome as well as your counterpart’s possible outcome. 

 

Application of empathy to real life situations

1. Focus on what the other party really wants. Ask key questions to find it out. A lot of the time the other party may want something that costs less to us than he/she values it at.

Example 2. Hotel Negotiation

When negotiating with a hotel, one of the things that they can give is a buffet coupon that doesn’t cost them anything (the buffet costs are fixed). This is a cost to the other party.

 

2. Take the time to develop a connection with the negotiating party. Ice-break and spend a short amount of time on “the courting period”. 

Example 3. Training negotiation

When chatting with one client, I discovered that one key factor in decision making was whether or not the vendor would organize the training venue. Had I not spent the time to get to know the client, I might not have found this out. 

 

3. Prepare both sides of the simplified negotiation grid before you enter a negotiation to the best of your ability.This allows you to realistically assess the negotiation.

Example 4. Vehicle financing negotiation

When negotiating with some banks for financing for a company I used to work with, I realized that the financial market was increasingly competitive. I therefore commenced negotiations with 2 banks that we had a relationship with and 1 bank that wanted our business. This knowledge enabled me to negotiate a competitive financing package for our commercial vehicles that resulted in meeting our annual profit targets within 5 months.

 

This has been a short article on how to apply empathy in a negotiation setting to avoid a narrow one-sided focus. juarezlowe Sdn Bhd conducts courses on negotiation as well as negotiation consulting. Unlike other consultants, our negotiation fee structure can be partly tied into the amount of savings or extra value of the contract. To find out more, please email negotiation@juarezlowe.com.

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Islamic negotiation

18Sep08

A contemporary look at Islamic negotiation and its application in the modern day business world

A Muslim participant asked me “Is there an “Islamic” method of negotiation? I was training an Islamic financial institution at the time. We talk a lot about Islamic Financing, but do we actually negotiate in an Islamic manner. This being the month of Ramadhan, I thought it an appropriate time to post my comments on this topic.

This article will look to answer the following questions:

1)    Is there an “Islamic” method of negotiation – if so what is it?

2)    Is it applicable centuries later, in particular to the business world?

My research has come up with a simple answer – Yes. When we look at the history of Islam, Islamic negotiation has 3 key principles: -

1)    Honesty

2)    Fairness

3)    Respect

These three principles are remarkably similar to modern negotiation theories such asHarvard’s Program On Negotiation, Fischer’s Getting to Yes and Nierenberg’s Negotiation.

1) Honesty.

“Truth stands out from error…And God heareth and knoweth all things.”

The Holy Quran, Baqara Sura II:256.

Malaysian Malay culture has an adaptation of the ”taqiyya” or exceptions to this rule and termed it “Bohong Sunat” (white lies). The exceptions to this rule are in cases of war, to facilitate a reconciliation, and in a husband and wife situation of conflict. We will not discuss this further as it is rare that any of us will be pressed to use these exceptions.

Modern day application

The key takeaway here is to be honest in your negotiations. Honesty puts you on the long road to gaining trust and respect with your counterpart. Lying loses hard earned trust and respect immediately. In my experience as a negotiator, I find that being honest has led to many long-term mutually beneficial relationships. My honesty in justifying the reasons for a price hike with my clients led to immediate approval as well as increased business. I had explained that this price hike was due to external factors and was necessary to maintain our levels of service to the client. In addition, I gave them data on what other firms were charging to prove that our rates were below the market rate.

2) Fairness.

“But if the enemy incline towards peace, do thou incline towards peace, and trust in God: for He is the One that heareth and knoweth.”

The Holy Quran, Anfal, Sura VIII:61

When we look at the Prophet (S.A.W.), we find that he worked towards being extremely fair, especially to his vanquished opponents. It was common during the time of the Prophet, peace be Upon him, that to the victors would go the spoils which included killing the men and raping and pillaging the survivors. The incident with the Quraish, where the Prophet (S.A.W.) told Abi Sufian, “He who shuts his door is safe, he who goes to the home of Abi Sufian is safe.”

Modern day application

We may find ourselves in situations where the balance of power is overwhelmingly in our favour, where we have a proprietary product. The example is of Johnson & Johnson in the stent market, where they had first mover advantage and allegedly “exploited its monopoly”. Johnson & Johnson reportedly did this by gouging their customers and refusing any discounts.

This backfired when a competitor, Guidant emerged and took a 70% market share from Johnson & Johnson. Had Johnson & Johnson taken a fairer (“just”) approach, it is would probably have been more difficult for Guidant to take that 70% market share.

3) Respect

“To every People have We appointed rites and ceremonies which they must follow, let them not then dispute with you on the matter, but do invite (them) to your Lord: for you are assuredly on the Right Way. If they do wrangle with you, say, “God knows best what it is you are doing. God will judge between you on the Day of Judgment concerning the matters in which you differ”

(Al-Hajj 22:67-69)

Islam teaches tolerance and respect of all people regardless of color, race or even religion. During the persecution of the Jews by the Christians, many Jews sought and received refuge in Muslim communities and countries.

“It is a fact of history that when the Jews were being persecuted in Europe during the middle ages they found peace, harmony, and acceptance among the Muslim people of Spain. In fact, this was the era of Jewish history that they themselves refer to as “the golden age.”

Modern day application

Robert Sutton, professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University, wrote a book entitled The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t, New York: Warner Business Books, 2007. His work documents the high cost of not respecting people in organizations. The famous example of Patterson, CEO of Cerner, where he told employees that he expected the car park to be substantially full between 730am to 630 pm and all employee benefits were frozen with immediate effect, led to Cerner’s stock price declining by 22% in 3 days when the email was leaked.

In summary, these principles of Islamic negotiation:-

1)    are relevant and applicable to modern day negotiation in any country

2)    have stood the test of time of over 5 centuries, and

3)    are also applicable to modern day business situations.          

Juarez Salih Lowe is a negotiations trainer, coach and consultant. His team of trainers has trained people from Maybank, TM, Ambank, Petronas, MIDF, YTL, Johnson & Johnson and L’oreal.

For further information about how your organization or team can implement these negotiating principles contact juarezlowe Sdn Bhd at negotiation@juarezlowe.com or 03-22614248 

 

 

 

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Key Pitfalls in Presentations

19Aug08

Key pitfalls in presentations

 

The 5 common pitfalls in most presentations are:

1) Too long

2) Too much information

3) No clear point

4) No clear flow

5) No audience benefit

 

1) Too long

How do we feel when we see the presenter has over 200 slides? Most presentations are too long. This is partly due to our Malaysian culture that favours indirect communication. Our culture moves to the boardroom, with presentations that skirt around the point and take 30 minutes before the key message or proposition is put across. We need to put the key proposition across, and the sooner we do so the better. For an example of saying a lot with few words, check out Rix Quinn’s book, “Words that Stick” available on Amazon.com.

 

2) Too much information.

Someone told me that a PowerPoint presentation would not be complete without 20 or 30 charts. I disagree. In my experience in making presentations, less is more. The best test for putting in any information is to ask “So what?” or “Why did I put this piece of information there?” Ask yourself if it is relevant. Also ask if the message can be put across without that piece of information. Be brutal when you edit your presentation material. If you must show a chart, make sure that you want to make one point with that chart and keep the chart simple. Only put information that is absolutely necessary. Check out Dick Hardt’s presentation where he doesn’t use a single bullet point or chart and yet conveys very complex concepts in a simple manner within 15 minutes.

 

3) No clear point

Many of us have left presentations asking, “What did he/she want?”. At the end of a presentation, the audience should know exactly what you are talking about AND what you want. When Carlos Ghosn from Nissan talks, he makes 2-3 points that he outlines at the beginning and summarizes at the end. To make our presentations more effective, we should clearly establish what we will talk about, ideally keeping a maximum of 5 points and summarizing the points at the end for emphasis.

 

4) No clear flow.

Another sin of presentation is jumping around from point to point. Some presentations tend to go from macro to micro and back again resulting in a confused audience. Decide on a flow structure and stick with it! It also helps to map out what you want to achieve before you start preparing your presentation. This will make your flow clearer.

 

5) No Audience Benefit.

Presentations also commonly focus on features instead of the audience benefit. We need to know what’s in it for us. In a presentation on a gated property for sale by the developer, the focus is on the features, e.g. 24-hour security and a pool. In terms of the audience benefit, the presentation should have focused on the peace of mind due to 24-hour security, and the pool that will help ease your working stress.

In creating a presentation, we look at how to get the audience to an “ah ha”. This requires some thought as to what would be in it for the audience. We need to find a key driver to make people listen. We need to ask “Why should the audience be listening to this presentation?” and “What’s In It For You?”.

 

To learn more about the five pitfalls above and how to make your presentations stand out, come for the 2nd Power Presentation Skills Program on 22-23 September 2008 at

RezZen (M) Sdn Bhd,

Suite 2B-5-1,

Plaza Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral,

Kuala Lumpur 50480.

 

Participants receive a DVD of themselves together with a development plan. The cost is RM2,200/participant which is HRDF claimable.

 

Comment from a participant to the July program.

 

“I attended the presentation course 2 weeks ago, and in my opinion the course was outstanding, enjoyable and 100% effective. I truly believe that this course has added significant value to me. It fully addressed my needs and I am actually looking forward to delivering my next presentation. The course was very practical and I would like to thank Juarez who was definitely an inspiring facilitator!”

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Power Presentation Skills 22-23 September 2008 @ Plaza Sentral

08Aug08

Power Presentation Skills is back by popular demand! Our first public program received ratings of 4.8 on a 5 point scale. This program is highly interactive. Participants conduct 5 presentations in 2 days. They will also watch some of the best presentations from around the globe. After the course, each participant gets a customized development plan and DVD.

This is a radically different program, shaped more like a consulting session than a regular training session. Applicable for every department at all levels.

When : 22-23 September 2008

Where : Rezzen office 2B-5-1, Plaza Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 5, Kuala Lumpur

Investment : RM2,200/participant (inclusive of training materials, development plan, DVD, tea breaks and lunches – Muslim participants get a “buka puasa pack”)

Call – 03 22614248 for further details (9am to 6pm Monday to Friday)

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