{"id":12953,"date":"2020-11-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/be-careful-what-you-ask-for\/"},"modified":"2020-11-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T00:00:00","slug":"be-careful-what-you-ask-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2020\/be-careful-what-you-ask-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Be careful what you ask for"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

My wife is currently involved as an executor in the finalising of an estate and recently this has involved the sale of a house.\u00a0 As you do, she engaged three estate agents to value the property and then chose one of them to act on behalf of her and the other executors involved.\u00a0 The estate agent selected had suggested the highest market price and been very optimistic about the prospects for a quick sale at a good return.\u00a0 The advertising of the house led to a lot of interest and nine viewings were quickly arranged.\u00a0 However, before any prospective buyers had looked at the house someone called the agent and offered the asking price over the phone and without visiting the house.\u00a0 This all happened just a few hours after I had asked, purely out of interest, what the executors would accept as a price for the house \u2013 they didn\u2019t know, they were adopting a \u201cwait and see\u201d approach.<\/p>\n

I reflected on this and my recent experience of talking to negotiators about their current real-life negotiations.\u00a0 These discussions revealed a theme that I have found common in talking to negotiators \u2013 incomplete preparation.\u00a0 Not preparing is not, in my experience, a \u00a0problem for negotiators, the problem is that preparation is often a bit one-dimensional.\u00a0 If you ask negotiators what they want to achieve, they can usually tell you, often in great detail, but they are usually a lot more sketchy about a couple of other important questions \u2013 what does the other party want to achieve and, in the light of this, what outcomes might be possible and how do you optimise the outcome to get the best result for you?\u00a0 Add to this the data from Scotwork\u2019s Negotiating Capability Survey which tells us that negotiators are often negligent in preparing questions to ask their counterparty to fill knowledge gaps and to test assumptions and you have the makings of a deal which takes longer to achieve and leaves all parties to it thinking that they could have done better.<\/p>\n

When you next think about an impending negotiation, you should be able to articulate what you want and what deal you would agree to (not necessarily the same thing) and what it would take for you to modify your ideal outcome.\u00a0 But, you should also be able to articulate your counterparty\u2019s ideal outcome and likely area of agreement, too.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t do the latter, then you have work to do in the negotiation to get answers to some important questions.\u00a0 Clarity about where a deal can be struck is essential before you can have any real hope of an agreement.<\/p>\n

Yes, I know it sounds obvious, but you would be surprised how few people prepare really well and ask the essential \u201cwhat if\u2026\u201d questions: what if they say that something important to me is impossible?\u00a0 What if they ask me for that deal-breaking thing I know I can\u2019t agree to?\u00a0 What if they want to delay, impose new conditions or do any of a host of other things which might mean my ideal outcome is jeopardised?\u00a0 Clarity of your objective and your areas of flexibility around it as well as a clear understanding of the other party\u2019s key desired outcomes are essential to a good deal.\u00a0 As the writer, Robert Townsend once said in his book \u2018Up the Organisation\u2019, \u201cthe chances are if you don\u2019t know where you want to be that you won\u2019t end up there\u201d.<\/p>\n

Interestingly the offer for the house which my wife is involved in has resulted, predictably, in the need for the executors to clarify very quickly what outcome they want \u2013 they will test their estate agent\u2019s advice on the market value of the house by seeing what other bids may be made after viewing but they now are confident that they will be assured of what they originally asked for- even if it probably wasn\u2019t, in this case, the best possible outcome.<\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My wife is currently involved as an executor in the finalising of an estate and recently this has involved the sale of a house.\u00a0 As you do, she engaged three estate agents to value the property and then chose one of them to act on behalf of her and the other executors involved.\u00a0 The estate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":12954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_legacy_url":"blog-nz\/2020\/be-careful-what-you-ask-for\/","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBe careful what you ask for | Scotwork NZ Negotiation Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"World leaders in business negotiation training and consultancy with experts across 120 countries, with 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