In an earlier BLOG I referred to the importance I place on sustainable relationships. Sadly I did not receive feedback or ideas from anyone so I have ploughed on to explore further.
Sitting in a MasterClass on negotiation, as a participant I started to challenge my thinking on differentiating negotiation from collaboration – and what could I learn to take away in creating sustainable relationships. One concept I learned about was creating a “wish list” – things that were going to provide me with value in the relationship and might not cost the client very much if anything at all – for example a personal testimonial for the work we complete that we can use on our website.
The other concept was that of the “bargaining arena” and making sure we find a mutually agreeable space. This requires full disclosure from both the buyer and the seller. To make this happen we need to listen and we need to ask good questions to make it easy for full disclosure to happen. This is challenging – because neither party may feel they want to give too much away!
I am still playing with the concept of collaboration and negotiation – and putting my previous conclusion that they were mutually exclusive aside until I find a way to see how they meld and align. Any thoughts from others are highly welcomed.
