Chapter 9: Sometimes It Only Takes Three Cigarettes

The end game: closing the deal.

Negotiations always have their own individual flow; no two are exactly alike. Still, many of them, maybe even all of them, follow the same general pattern: They go on and on and on, talking talking talking, until at last you end with maybe one or two little nagging points as the last hurdles. They’re the last little points you need to clear out to reach an agreement.

Did I say little? Most times they’re big, at least in the minds of the people involved in the negotiations. They’re stumbling blocks, deal breakers that are the final obstacles to an agreement. Maybe it’s price: Isn’t $35,000 really too much to pay for a new pickup truck? Maybe it’s an amenity: Shouldn’t there be a fireplace in the master bathroom suite? Maybe—often—it’s something you didn’t anticipate being an issue when you sat down at the table: How exactly should the liability clause in the new contract be worded?

That last hurdle can be the worst. It’s the doorway at the far end of the hall—the one on the other side of the alligator pit. You can see the ending in sight, you know what you need to do—but, bust a gut, getting past those snapping jaws of death is going to take some serious vine swinging.

Why?

Exactly.

You need to look at the alligator pit—the last hurdle, the hang-up point, the deal breaker, the stumbling block—whatever you want to call the thing that’s keeping you from an agreement, and ask: “Why?”