Hostile Territory

So what do you do if you’re forced to negotiate in hostile territory? Traffic’s blaring at you and people are screaming, “Jump! Jump!”

Well, at the NYPD, we would try to control the scene as much as possible in pretty obvious ways, setting up barriers, moving people back, etc. The idea was to dilute the chaos as much as possible, and that strategy carries over to any negotiation. The trick is to remember that you’re creating a mental place as much as a physical one.

What you want to do is shift from the casual chaotic place to a focused, negotiating, business place. By initiating the shift, you can set the agenda briefly, which allows you to focus on what you think is important.

You’re at lunch, you’ve been chatting in a casual way about the details of a contract. This is your only real opportunity to discuss them and get them nailed down. How do you shift the space?

One way would be to take out a small notebook and say something along the lines of, “Okay, let’s just nail down these two or three points. . . .” Your tone of voice—and the paper and pen—have immediately created a place where the negotiations can continue. You’ve just set up a police line around the block and pushed everyone back.

The risk here is that your opposite number may not be prepared to negotiate or get serious. That’s not optimum, but it’s not a real setback. Because her hemming and hawing tells you that the casual talk that led to this point was just that—a scouting mission on her part prior to the real thing.

(Come on, guys, use some common sense: If you take out a pad and a pencil on a date, I don’t want to know you. It was just an example, for cryin’ out loud.)

Salesmen shift the mental space all the time as they prepare to close a deal. They have all sorts of tricks and shortcuts—car salesman takes out a bid sheet or whatever they’re calling them these days and starts putting numbers down; appliance guy in Sears starts talking about payment terms. Now the thing to remember when you’re on the other side is this: That shift is not the END of negotiation; it’s the START. You’ve just mentally walked from the bar to the table at the back of the restaurant. You are in a different place—but that place is not the finish line.