Assessment negotiation skills
Unequal negotiation competence
At the end of each project, residual points remain. Now it is possible to agree on working these off or compensating for them. After tough negotiations, an agreement was reached with the customer that the last open points would be crossed off when a color plotter was delivered.
Back at the head office, the responsible department was instructed to procure such a device. The surprise was complete when an order for €15,000 was then submitted for approval. Costs of around € 2,000 had been planned. The inquiry then resulted in the following answer: "The customer is known to be a strong negotiator. If we offered the small plotter first, the customer would argue until he finally got the big plotter."
The employee was convinced that he had actually saved the company money because there would be no time-consuming discussion if you delivered the best right away. He had experienced in the past that his customers would argue with him until they finally got what they wanted. So by delivering the maximum plotter from the start, he saves the time spent negotiating.
In fact, the customer ended up accepting a plotter priced at €1,500.
Good technicians are not automatically good negotiators
In connection with the enforcement of additional claims, it can often be experienced that many technicians have a big problem with presenting a monetary claim to the customer. The discussion about money is exhausting, often very emotional and not infrequently accompanied by threats.
Customers routinely apply pressure by threatening not to issue required design approvals without the change or not to consider the contractor for future awards. To avoid this stress, many engineers and technicians develop avoidance strategies. They hope that the customer will somehow honor the free trim. However, customers assume that a contractor who delivers for free is simply fulfilling his contract. Either the price was so good that he can afford the extra, or the contractor has realized that the customer has a right to demand it. I have personally never experienced the hoped-for set-off or other concessions when the contractor himself wants a change.
Assessment: Who can best cope with mental stress in claims negotiations
The experience that an important factor of negotiation power is also based on the mental strength to endure conflicts has led to our systematic negotiation assessment. It is recommended that employees who are regularly confronted with negotiations in your company undergo such an assessment. This allows strengths and weaknesses to be identified so that they can be further developed.
