I\u2019ve been going through some old notes on negotiation and came across some materials from a negotiation retreat that a former employer sent me and many of my co-workers to in the \u201990\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t miss updates on Procurement & Supply Chain, Subscribe here!<\/p>\n
At that time, I was working for an employer that had an alliance with a British company. So our Head of Purchasing and our top Purchasing Director were actually employees of the British company.<\/p>\n
They liked to preach the \u201cBritish style\u201d of negotiating. And the culture dictated that Brits negotiate with a lot of emotion.<\/p>\n
They sent us to the aforementioned negotiation retreat where the training was being conducted by a couple of British consultants. One of the acronyms that was introduced during this session was NIGYYSOB.<\/p>\n
NIGYYSOB?<\/p>\n
Yeah, they said it stood for \u201cNow I\u2019ve got you, you son of a b**ch.\u201d You gotta love the Brits, huh?<\/p>\n
OK, I know, it\u2019s weird.<\/p>\n
But the concept was that you should be careful not to have your supplier hate you too much when a negotiation concludes \u2013 along the same lines as the \u201cbe hard on the problem, not the person\u201d and \u201chelp your counterpart save face\u201d tactics mentioned in the book \u201cGetting To Yes\u201d (or was it \u201cGetting Past No?\u201d Anyway\u2026). Inspiring too much hate, they posited, would manifest itself in some way of your counterpart getting back at you (either personally or in business dealings) when it\u2019s an opportune time.<\/p>\n
They proceeded to tell a true story of how a buyer was always tough in a personal way with a certain supplier\u2019s salesperson over a period of years. Then, one day during a tough negotiation, the salesperson stands up and punches the buyer in the face, breaking his jaw.<\/p>\n
As the buyer slouches in his chair with blood pouring from his mouth, the salesperson smiles and says \u201cI\u2019ve wanted to do that for 10 years.\u201d The salesperson then exited the building and retired that same day.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, that\u2019s never happened to me. I did think it was going to happen to a boss of mine one time, though\u2026<\/p>\n
My boss had responsibility for some categories and the folks at my level had responsibility for others. One day, my boss (let\u2019s call him Rajeev) was complaining about there being a lot of maverick buying for one of his categories and said that he was going to ask our contracted supplier\u2019s president to remove the rep (let\u2019s call him Jody) from our account.<\/p>\n
Jody had been working our account for something like 10 years. Rajeev told me that he thought that Jody \u201cintimidated\u201d the admins because he was a \u201cbig guy\u201d and they didn\u2019t like him for that reason.<\/p>\n
So Rajeev told Jody\u2019s company\u2019s president. I\u2019m not sure what he told the president (probably not the \u201cintimidating big guy\u201d rationale), but Jody was not only removed from the account \u2013 he was fired completely (we were a pretty big customer)!<\/p>\n
Jody was crushed and ended up being admitted into a mental institution due to his self-destructive devastation. I\u2019m not sure if he became suicidal or not, but it wouldn\u2019t surprise me. Sadly, I don\u2019t think that Rajeev felt one bit of regret.<\/p>\n
I kept fearing Jody coming into our offices and going postal or one day finding my boss in a nearby dumpster. There was an aura of wrongness in our department for some time after that.<\/p>\n
There is a line in being a tough negotiator. When you cross that line, it\u2019s good for no one.<\/p>\n
Ever heard the expression \u201cIt\u2019s nothing personal, it\u2019s just business?\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all personal when someone\u2019s career and future can be affected by the outcome.<\/p>\n
Just ask Jody or the broken-jawed buyer\u2019s salesperson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve been going through some old notes on negotiation and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procurement"],"yoast_head":"\n