You’re probably familiar, if not personally, then at least conceptually, with the notion of “F.U. money” – having enough money that you can simply walk away.
That concept, whether you have the money or not, applies directly to your negotiation strategy.
Have you ever simply stood up and walked away from the negotiating table, saying to your teammates, “let’s go, we’re done here”?
As I’ve espoused many times before, for example, see here and here (and, by the way, it’s the subject of my upcoming webinar on June 25, 2020, How to Deploy the Secret Sauce of Opportunistic Strategy) negotiation is far, far more than what takes place at a negotiating table.
But the overall ability to walk from a deal requires either the actual ability to walk away from the deal because you don’t actually need it, or the guts, strategic thinking, and the ability to project your power to do the same, even if it’s your only deal, the one that you need to survive as a business.
The true power in any negotiation is the ability to project that you do not need the deal, even if that “not needing” is not true.
That power can be developed in multiple ways. It can be developed in the sense of “F.U. money,” by the size of your bank account. It can be developed even if you don’t have enough money to make the initial deposit into a bank account by having a high enough “deposit” of confidence that you can project the same power to the opposite party.
You want a concrete example? OK.
I’ve guided clients through a strategic process whereby start-up physician groups have adopted and implemented a position against large healthcare systems that we would negotiate from our documents, from our position, and have achieved tremendous results.
The secret? Besides the proprietary strategy, those clients were coached on having supreme confidence in themselves and on the strategy, and on how to project their power through their demonstrated willingness to walk away.
They had the willingness to invest in themselves by controlling the drafting of the documents – they knew that sitting back, pinching pennies, and waiting for the opposite party’s documents was a fool’s position, one that would have put them at a disadvantage before the first shot was fired.
Develop and project power.
