Chapter 14: Dos and Don ts

This chapter contains a number of practical points or easily absorbed summaries of skills or attributes that can be quickly acquired.

Do Always Maintain the Initiative

This is one of the golden rules. If you don't maintain the initiative, you will lose three things. First, money. You have spent money leading up to this moment. If you throw away the initiative now it will be wasted. Second, control. By applying your skills you will have generated a certain momentum; the negotiation should be moving, and moving in your direction. The moment you lose the initiative you have lost that control; you will bring the negotiation to a grinding halt and both your counterpart's interests and yours will be lost. The third and most damaging thing you will lose is business. As you well know, not all negotiations are finally concluded when we meet. In fact in one recent survey, 50 per cent of sales negotiations were not concluded within six months. Things crop up, changes occur and we must be ready for those eventualities.

Maintaining the initiative means you predetermine the next point of contact and take responsibility for it. You will finish any conversation or any phase of the process with a closing sentence that predetermines the next point of action. 'As promised, I will make a point of contacting you next Tuesday to agree our next meeting.' You make a similar statement in your confirming letter. Agree the next step if more than one meeting is likely to be necessary. You take the initiative in the first place and you don't give it back.