Six Summary Reasons for Asking Questions

Helps you to avoid arguments.
Helps you to avoid talking too much.
Enables you to help the other party recognise what they want, then you can help them decide how to get it.
Helps crystallise the other party's thinking. The idea then becomes their idea.
Helps you find the most vulnerable point with which to close the sale - the key issue.
Gives the other party a feeling of importance. When you show you respect their opinion, they are more likely to respect yours.

Chapter 12: The Authority of Your Counterpart

Ensure Your Counterpart has the Authority to Negotiate

Negotiation can only succeed between equals who both have the authority to agree on any of the decisions that will need to be reached. If either party - buyer or seller - does not have that authority, the negotiation cannot be concluded. It is important to understand what authority levels exist in your counterpart's company.

Part of the necessary questioning process is to establish the real authority of your counterpart and any team members he or she may introduce. As a general observation it should be obvious that both parties must have the authority and the determination to change the various components of an agreement. In other words, there is no value in getting to the bargaining phase only to find that your counterpart does not have the authority to agree on the tradeable variables .

The first question is, what title does my counterpart have? Does that title clearly establish their authority? Even if they are a senior partner or managing director you can check by asking the innocent question, 'Beside yourself, who else is involved in the decision-making process?'

Where our counterpart's title is less clear, we must check whether they have the authority that the negotiation requires. State, 'We are going to move to the final negotiation phase next Tuesday; can I take it that you have the authority to agree the final terms?', or better still, 'Who else in your organisation needs to be involved in agreeing the final terms?' If there is anyone else, make sure that they are there. One tactical tip here is to ask a question in a meeting, such as 'Will your company policy support this?', and then watch their eyes and observe who everyone looks at - that is nearly always the real decision-maker or the prime influencer.

Check the Power Behind the Scenes

Often there are influencers and powerful contributors behind the scenes. We must uncover who they are by asking W questions:

What other individuals are consulted before decisions are reached?
Whose opinions help to set strategy, tactics and policy for our counterpart ?
Does the decision require an expert or technical specialist's approval?
Who are those experts, and what is the extent of their influence?

When we are pursuing this we should build a humanogram, a human map of who does what in the organisation. Get your counterpart to help you build it; let them draw on it with pencil or pen. You might even ask whether any of these individuals play sport together or socialise together, thus finding powerful pairings - which may be helpful information indeed.

Manage the Power Behind the Scenes

During the preparation phase we should have uncovered the existence of these individuals and either found a way to negotiate them out of the process, or, more likely, insisted that we meet them at an early stage so that we can build our knowledge of the factors important to each one.

We then ask for an informal meeting with all of them present. We have met or telephoned each one individually beforehand. We make an informal presentation that takes into account all their individual requirements. During this informal presentation we ask each one in turn if all their requirements have been satisfied. When we are clear that they have, we either move into negotiation, or agree to reconvene with our counterpart , to conduct the negotiation proper.

If we have not covered all their requirements, simply take responsibility and control of the next step. You might say, 'John and Peter, I will come back to you first with some revised calculations. When we are sure we have agreed them, shall we all meet again one last time, say next Wednesday here at 2 pm?'