商务谈判英语:Dealing with Others Who Have More Power

Very little research has focused on how parties can deal with others who have significantly more power. We will provide some advice to negotiators who are in a low-power position. Several authors specifically address the problem of “dancing with elephants” (striking a deal with an opponent much bigger than you) and highlight ways that lower-power parties can deal with the big players in business deals and partnerships. Here is some of their advice:

1. Never do an all-or-nothing deal. Relying on a single party and creating a make-or-break deal with them leaves the low-power party highly vulnerable. For example, a small business that agrees to let Walmart stores be its only customer runs the risk of being completely controlled by Walmart. Low-power parties should attempt to diversify their risk by entering into deals with several other partners so that no single high-power player could wipe the low-power partner out.

2. Make the other party smaller. In dealing with a high-power party, particularly if it is a group or organization, attempt to establish multiple relationships and engage in multiple negotiations. By dealing with a variety of different individuals and departments in the high-power party, you may be able to “divide and conquer” by diversifying the relationships and the multiple interests that may be served in working with these different subgroups.

3. Make yourself bigger. Similarly, low-power players should attempt to build coalitions with other low-power players so as to increase their collective bargaining power. This has to be done carefully: research suggests that if a low-power player tries to “make itself bigger” by becoming more aggressive, he or she achieves significantly poorer outcomes than if he or she accepts the low-power position.

4. Build momentum through doing deals in sequence. Early deals can be done to build a relationship, strengthen the relationship with the high-power party, and perhaps acquire resources (information, technology, seed capital, etc.). Select those high-power targets that have the most to gain, and maximize visibility of those deals to other parties.

5. Use the power of competition to leverage power. This is a variation on the power of a BATNA. If you have something to offer, make sure you offer it to more than one high-power party. If you can get them competing against each other for what you want, some may actually do a deal with you simply to keep you from doing a deal with one of their competitors.

6. Constrain yourself. Tie your hands by limiting the ways that you can do business or who you can do business with. However, while these constraints might drive away your competition, they also have the liability of constraining you as well.

7. Good information is always a source of power. Seek out information that strengthens your negotiating position and case. Anticipate the information that would be most compelling or persuasive to the other side; organize it so that you can draw on it quickly and assemble it to be maximally persuasive.

8. Ask lots of questions to gain more information. Research shows that negotiators with less power ask more diagnostic than leading questions and constantly showed their willingness to cooperate-and that these behaviors resulted in better outcomes.

9. Do what you can to manage the process. If the high-power party controls the negotiation process (the agenda, the cadence, the timing, and the location), he or she will do it in a way to assure outcomes he or she wants. If the low-power party controls the process, he or she is more likely to be able to steer the deal in an advantageous direction.