Negotiation Determines Success - Classics of an Excellent Life

Author: Wang Li
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: We may all experience such situations: After waking up in the morning, you find your rebellious teenage daughter dressed in trendy clothes, which displeases you. You demand she change her outfit, but she dismisses your concerns, believing you don’t understand the latest trends among young people and ignores your words. Originally, you had agreed with your neighbor to alternate dropping off the children of both families to school on Mondays and Tuesdays, with the neighbor taking them on Thursdays and Fridays, and both sides alternating on Wednesdays. Today is Tuesday, so the neighbor was supposed to drop off the children, but they had a last-minute issue and asked you if you could take them instead. This disrupts your plans. After work, you attend a meeting to discuss a new project. You present the project proposal you prepared overnight, highlighting its advantages, but it is rejected. In the afternoon, since you’ve been covering for a recently departed colleague, you ask your boss for a raise, explaining your contributions and value. On your way home, you pass by a jewelry store and think of your wife’s upcoming birthday. You enter to pick out a beautiful brooch for her, but since it’s a sample, it’s covered in dust. You discuss with the clerk whether the price can be reduced due to its condition. In reality, whether in shopping or at work, negotiation occurs every day. Negotiation runs through the daily life of every individual. We are all seated at this vast table of life, playing various roles as negotiators, engaging in negotiations with others every day, though we often fail to realize it. Negotiation is the starting point of modern social interaction and holds a pivotal position in people’s lives. For individuals, it is an effective way to meet personal needs, helping you achieve the outcomes you desire through negotiation. For organizations, it is an important method for making collective decisions and ensuring those decisions are accepted by the majority. Negotiation should be a fair competitive activity, with the goal of fostering cooperation among participants to reach agreements or contracts that benefit all parties. In reality, when someone wants something from others and is prepared to negotiate, the process begins. In the U.S., a seller placed an ad in the newspaper offering a car for sale at $30,000. After the ad was published, a few interested buyers came to inspect the car, hoping to make the deal. During the negotiation, one customer offered $28,500 with a $500 deposit in advance. Since the offer was significantly higher than others, the seller readily accepted it and rejected all other buyers, eagerly awaiting the deposit to be paid and the remaining $28,000 to complete the transaction. However, when the seller eagerly awaited the buyer to come and pay for the car, unexpected changes occurred. After waiting for several days without any news from the buyer, the seller, in frustration, waited for days more. Finally, the buyer called, expressing regret that due to disagreements from his partner and wife, he couldn’t proceed with the car purchase. Moreover, the buyer mentioned that they had researched and compared the general market price, believing the car was worth no more than $25,000. They feared being ridiculed if they bought it at $28,500. Additionally, they worried about other aspects of the car, such as the engine, tires, and whether it would meet their satisfaction. Hearing this, the seller naturally felt very angry and felt cheated by the buyer. Since he had already rejected all other buyers and even thrown away their contact information, it would be very difficult and pointless to reach out to them again. The seller’s emotions fluctuated, and he felt extremely frustrated and annoyed, believing he had been tricked by the buyer. Subsequently, he began to doubt his original pricing, wondering if the market price for similar cars was actually only $25,000. On top of that, if the deal fell through, he would have to post the ad again, negotiate with the buyer, and endure the tedious back-and-forth of haggling. In short, everything would have to start over. Moreover, what if he encountered another buyer like this? Due to these cumbersome considerations, the seller reluctantly decided to sell the car for $25,000. He then called the buyer, informing them he would accept their offer. In this way, the seller completed a very unpleasant transaction, while the shrewd buyer seized the opportunity to get the car at an extremely low price. In the story above, although it involves something as small as buying a car, it contains profound negotiation skills. Setting aside the buyer’s false offer and the unfairness of the transaction, the essence of negotiating for one’s own interests and desired outcomes is something we all encounter. To reach agreements with others and meet personal needs, we must negotiate. Everyone constantly negotiates over big and small matters. Negotiation has become one of the most important decision-making methods, and even if we haven’t personally participated in a negotiation, our lives are affected by the outcomes of various negotiations. P3-5