Have you ever allowed the negotiating rug to be pulled out from under you?
Or even worse, have you helped the other side pull the negotiating rug from out under you?
Let’s say that you’re negotiating a contract with a hospital. You think you’ve come to terms on some of its provisions, but not on all of them.
Then, the hospital begins putting pressure on you.
“We have to have this agreement signed by next Tuesday.” Or maybe something like, “if it’s not signed by next Tuesday, we might send this thing out to an RFP”.
Alternatively, perhaps you’re told things like, “how could you be demanding these points? They’re very minor. In fact, it’s insulting for you to bring these points up.” Or maybe, “the agreement is fine like it is. So why are you just going back and forth on this when we have better things to do? We should be moving forward with the deal.”
But if you bite on one of these, it’s like a fish biting on a hook with a nice juicy salmon egg on it. In fact, it’s worse than that; it’s biting on a shiny lure, there’s not even any salmon egg to swallow before you’re hooked.
You’ve basically fallen prey to pressure, to a scare tactic that makes you think, or rather feel, which is worse than thinking, that you might be losing the deal.
The tactic works even better on you if you have no option to the deal, if you’ve ignored my longstanding advice to have multiple deals in place so that no one deal is required for your group’s continued existence.
Don’t fall prey to being divided and separated by yourself.
Do you press for provisions that you know you need, or do you cave because the deal is going to be yanked, or so you’re being told?
Don’t negotiate against yourself.
