This is part five of our negotiation
book, Distributive Tactics, and we're
going to look at the vocabulary. So let's
jump right into the vocab for this
chapter. Afford-- afford, afford of course
is related to money. Can you afford ten
dollars? It's how much you're willing to
accept or that you can accept. How much
can you afford? So you often use this in
your negotiation, by telling the other
side we cannot afford that much or we
can only afford ten dollars and fifty
cents. That's all we can afford. So this
word is very key in your negotiation to
help the other side understand what
you're ... trying to convey as
far as... (not your true target
because your true target is secret.
Remember always keep your secret secret)...
but what you want them to think. Approve--
approve, of course, is something you agree
with and something you're going to go
along with. Approve, so you use this in
your negotiation to tell the other side
that you approve or you don't approve.
And it's very normal to use this to say
we cannot approve or often you'll say my
manager cannot approve this or my
company cannot approve this, so that it's
not personal doesn't sound like a
personal issue. So approve can be
positive or with a not not approve, it
can be negative.
Authorised-- so authorised, meaning someone
in your company or some manager above
you is going to say this is okay. This is
a great word to use in your negotiation,
because basically you're telling the
other side, "It's not up to me. You're
talking to me, but I cannot decide. We can
talk now. We can negotiate now, and I need
to take this information, and someone
else must authorize it." This is a great
way for me to put off or to blame
someone else. "My manager cannot authorize
this. My manager will not authorize this."
That's a great word where you can use and
is often used in negotiation to try to
convey that message of don't blame me,
and I cannot do it. Commit-- of course
meaning to say something you agree with
or that is true and that you're willing
to go along with. You can ask the other
side can you commit to that price? or
vice versa. You could say we can commit
to this price. We can commit to the
shipping terms, that is we guarantee it.
We assure it. We're sure it's ok. We agree
with it, everything can move forward, very
positive. Commitment-- of course, the same
idea. That's the noun of it. The
commitment, what commitments can you make?
What commitments have you made? Are you
going to stick to your commitments?
"Concession" is giving something up, and
remember a negotiation cannot exist
without two sides having some things
they agree on, some things they don't
agree on. If they don't agree on anything,
you cannot have a negotiation, so the key
is the things you don't agree on. Those
few things that are left, you can make a
concession. I can make a concession to
you, meaning I give something up where
you can make a concession to me, meaning
you give something up to me, concession.
You can use this in your negotiation by
simply asking the other side, "Can you
give us a concession on price? Can you
give us a concession on shipping? Can you
give us a concession
so that we can have a longer
relationship?" Of course, in your
negotiation, the more specific you are in
asking for something, the more likely you
are to get something. Contact--- contact
communication, having communication
contacting another side. So we would use
this just to get ready for our
negotiation, asking the other side when
can we have contact? when can I contact
you? Exploit-- exploit, take advantage of. We
often think of this as a negative word.
But in business, I think, we often or in
economics, at least, it's not really a
negative word. It just means to use some
kind of resource to get something, to get
some kind of benefit. In negotiation,
however, exploiting the other side's
weakness or something that you know
about the other side means that you take
advantage of that. It's not necessarily a
bad thing. Now, of course, if you have some
secret information or you know something
about the other side, well, maybe you've
guessed something correctly about the
other side, and then you exploit it. That
is you use that information to get more,
to win in essence, then that's fine. But
if you use it and you make the other
side upset or angry, then, of course,
they're not going to be happy to work
with you in the future. So exploit does
not necessarily mean something negative,
although, it can easily be negative if
it's misused. It is our goal to exploit
...the knowledge we know. It is
our goal to exploit the information we
have, to make the maximum outcome. You
would not use this in a negotiation, and
if you did, it sounds kind of negative. So
I guess you could say something like are
you exploiting the situation? Are you
exploiting me? Are you exploiting our
situation? making the other side sound
like they're doing something wrong, but
mostly you would use this inside your
group for planning purposes. Final push--
final push is the part of the
negotiation where we're almost finished,
but there's still something, maybe one
thing left or two things left, and the
final push is we're going to take, we're
going to make a final push. We're going
to try to get this over with by this one
time, this one more attempt. Usually, it's
normal that in a negotiation, you have
many things you need to talk about, but
at the very end, there's one thing you're
stuck on. I mean if there wasn't one
thing you're stuck on, negotiation would
be over very quickly. But it's not that
simple because each side is trying to
maximize, so usually comes down to one
thing or a couple issues that can be
bundled together. The final push means
we're going to try one more time to get
it over with and complete the
negotiation. It's very positive. In a way,
you don't want to have the final push to
soon. You don't want to at the very
beginning say, "Now, let's have the final
push." No, this is really after a certain
amount of time has passed, and you're kind
of tired out. Now, "hold out" means that you
make the negotiation go on longer, maybe
longer than it needs to because you're
trying to get something, so you hold out.
You hold out for a higher price or
you hold out for a lower price. You hold
out for better terms. So holding out is
quite normal. it is... a tactic you
can use to make the other side get tired
or get worn out, and they kind of give up,
sovyou keep holding out. The problem
with holding out is if you hold out too
long, the other side may withdraw or find
somebody else, so hold out. Now, you can
say this in your negotiation. You come
right out and say to the other side, "Are
you holding out for a lower price?
because I'm not going to give you a
lower price. If you're holding out for a
lower price, then, we should just end this
negotiation because we cannot give you a
lower price." You can accuse the other
side of holding out on purpose without
really trying to cooperate in the
negotiation.
Influence--influence means that you say
something or you do something that makes
the other side change their position,
change their opinion. Of course, very
simple, example, the most simple is when
you go to buy something and you ask for
a lower price, and the manager says
something like, "I can't give you a lower
price. ...I'll lose money. That's
already below my cost. I cannot sell you
this cup because it would be lower than
my price that I paid to buy it." And that
will make you think, "Hmm. That must be
true." That's influencing you. Of course,
all of the negotiation is about influence,
so i really emphasize to you to keep
this in mind. Now, you do not use this
word in negotiating. You use this word in
your planning. So when you're planning,
one thing you want to pay attention to
is how can you influence the other side.
Informal--- informal, meaning not formal.
Now, specifically, in negotiation this
would mean not written down or not in a
contract or informal means we just
talked about the price a little bit. We
talked about the product a little bit. We
didn't really negotiate formally. So
nothing we said is going to be you know
something we have to stick to. It's
something that we just discussed, so
informal. You can ask the other side, "Can
I speak with you informally or can we
have an informal negotiation?" meaning
just check things out. In view of-- in view
of, meaning that something.. I want to talk
about something, but related to other
things. So I want to talk about, maybe,
let's say this product and the price.
Maybe I want to talk about the price, but
I also want to talk about our
relationship. So i want to tell you that
if you can give me a lower price, in view
of our long-term relationship. We've been
working together for 10 years. I've been
buying from you for 10 years. So in view
of 10 years of buying from you, can you
give me a lower price? so in
view is a great word, a great phrase to
use in your negotiation because you can
tell the other side: Remember I gave you
something in view of that, or you can
tell the other side, "Give me something
now, and I'll give you something more
later..." usually based on relationship in
view of that. "Inventory" of course is how
many products you have that
are not sold yet, but they're already
produced, so they're waiting. "Inventory",
not a good thing, of course, in business
because too much inventory costs money.
You're not selling it. The best thing is
you produce and sell as soon as possible,
right away, so you don't have any
inventory costs. Now why is inventory
useful in our negotiation? Because the
word inventory, you can use to tell the
other side about your situation, so you
may say that this price, this product's
price needs to go up. Why does this
product price need to go up? Because the
inventory is all sold out. There's no
inventory. We need to wait for more to be
produced. That means the supply is lower
than the demand. It's so much in demand,
we can't produce enough. So there's no
inventory on the other side. You could
tell your your negotiators to say
something like, "I know that your
inventory is high. If your inventory is high,
you should give me a lower price because
I'm going to help you to sell some of
your inventory." So this can be used in
either way.
Limit-- now, the word limit means that
there's a boundary you cannot go over.
You cannot go under. But this word is
really great to use in your negotiation
... with your counterpart. So when
you're talking to the other people, the
other company, you can tell them, "This is
my limit. I cannot go past this limit.
My limit is ten dollars per unit. That's
my limit." You make it very clear. You can
say higher limit, upper limit, lower limit.
Those are all great things to say. "My
upper limit is 550. My lower limit is 5.
10." Maximize-- maximize, meaning to get the
best outcome, to get the most for the
amount of input you do. The most output
for the minimum input-- maximize. This is
used in your planning. How do you
maximize your negotiation? Remember your
companies are going to have a position, a
starting position. That means a price or
product quality you can produce, a
shipping you can offer. How are you going
to maximize that situation? It's not used
in your negotiations. It's used in your planning.
Outcome--
outcome, meaning the last thing that
comes out, the final result. Of course, we
want a positive outcome, and both sides
want to feel that they have a positive
outcome. But that doesn't mean that it's
win-win, that everyone got what they want.
It doesn't mean that at all. It's just an
outcome. So you can go ahead and use this
in your negotiation, and say something
like, "I'm looking forward to a positive
outcome." or "I hope we can wrap this up, so
we can have outcome by next week." Payment--
money transferred from buyer to seller
or product transferred from seller to
buyer is kind of like a payment, but
usually payment, we're talking about is
just the money. So it's very
straightforward. Now we use this in our
negotiation, when we talk about are you
going to send the payment? how are you
going to make the payment? how are you
going to complete the payment? So there
could be many ways through our banking
system or through an electronic transfer
or through some kind of other system for
payment. And we use this in our
negotiation very normally. Priority--
priority, something is more important
than something else, priority. I can ask
you what is your priority? Is price your
priority? Is quality your priority? Now, of
course, we would all like to think,
"Everything is my priority. I want the
lowest price, the best quality, and the
fastest shipping, and the best product,
and the best service. That's my priority."
But, usually, priority means that some
things are higher than others. And in
your negotiation, you can say this: "It's
our priority to have a good relationship
over the next five years with your
company. That's our priority, so we're
going to compromise and give you a lower
price." That's one way to use priority.
Priority is very positive, and makes it sound
like the relationship is positive, a
great word to use, priority. Now, you can
use it to get something from the other
side. You can say, "It's our priority to
get a lower price." But it's not the same
as saying that we have to get this, that
it's our
limit. Production-- production is at the
company, they produce the product or the
goods that they're going to ship. So the
production is back at the factory
usually. Of course, we can produce
services also, but, usually, production is
related to physical products. Reconsider--
reconsider is a great word to use,
especially in your negotiation because
you can ask the other side to reconsider
their offer or reconsider their counter
offer or reconsider their position. "Can
you please reconsider your position? We
like your offer, but this price is too
high. Can you reconsider your position?"
You could even ask, "Can you reconsider
your price to just that one piece?" So
reconsider is a great word to use to ask
the other side to think again, and maybe
come up with another offer. Reduce--
meaning to lower or make smaller. So, of
course, when we're talking about things
like price, we're talking about increase
or decrease or reduce. Reduce your price.
We can also use reduce for things in
general, such as, "Can you reduce your
number of demands?" So you have asked me
for three things you want. Can you reduce
that to two? If we can keep this one just
the way it is, and then we work on the
other two, we can come to an agreement.
"Can you reduce your demands?' Secret--
here's this word secret again. We're
always talking about our secret
information, aren't we? Ofcourse, secret
means not to tell someone, to hide away
from the other side. And, specifically, in
negotiation, it's very important that we
keep our information secret because we
don't want the other side to know what
our target is and what our limits are, so
we need to keep information secret. You
would not tell the other side, "This is my
secret".. either. You would not say, "Oh my
target price is my secret. I won't tell
you." No. Usually, you go ahead and tell
them, but you don't tell them the truth.
If your target price is 70, maybe you're
going to tell them something like 80, and
then they're going to compromise and
come down and give you 70, and you get
your goal. So your secrets stay secret.
"Shipment"-- meaning to send the goods, send
the product, and so one of the key points,
in a negotiation, is you talk about
shipment, how that's made. In our RPG,
we're going to be talking about shipment.
We make it a little bit simplistic. We
have slow, medium, and fast shipping
speeds. And, of course, customers would
benefit if they can get their products
sooner to market, so the shipment. And
in your negotiation, you often talk about
the shipment. How will we manage the
shipment? When will the shipment be made?
We have to have the shipment before
January, something like this. "Special
offer"-- now we hear this all the time. In
English, this is some kind of special
price we have or a special.. maybe buy
one and get something, buy 100 and you get
10 included or something like this, a
special offer. So special offers are not
necessarily about price, but they can be
about price. Now, here the great thing
about it is the special means kind of
feels like one time, meaning we're going
to make this one time, and not again. So
you can use this in your negotiation
very effectively, by telling the other
side, "You know what? usually we would not
give you seventy dollars, but we're going
to make a special offer just for you, for
this one time." So using this word special
offer, this phrase, special offer, is
really great to give something, to
compromise, but not promise to always
give it. And the other side will feel
that it's a one-time special offer. In fact,
in English, you can even say a one-time
special offer, meaning never again. Split--
split you break something into smaller
parts. Now, when we negotiate, we often
split up the negotiation into different
parts. And you can use this word
in your negotiation, when you say
something like can we split the
difference? or can we split this into two?
We can we split this problem into three
negotiations. So it's a very good word
you use, meaning taking something bigger,
making it smaller. Terms-- the terms of the
agreement are all of the details of the
negotiation. What is the price, what's the
quantity and the shipping, and all of
these kinds of things-- those are called
terms. You use this in your negotiation
when you're speaking because you just
come out and say, "These are our terms." Or
you can ask the other side, "What are your
terms? We agree with your terms or we
cannot agree with your terms at this
time." "Tough stand". So, in our chapter, we're
going to talk about this-- tough,
making a stand tough or easy. So a tough
stand tough, meaning hard, not easy to
change, stubborn, just really tough to
move, hard to move, tough, tough. We also
can use tough of many things, like meat.
"The meat is tough".., meaning not tender, not
soft. So a hard, something hard. In
negotiation, a tough stand means I'm not
going to give up. I'm not going to give
in. And a very tough stand, a tough stand
could be I tell you one price and I just
won't change. Or I tell you one
package, one offer, and I just won't change
that at all. I just stick with it over
and over again, no matter what. That's a
tough stand. Upper limit-- upper limit
limit of course, meaning you cannot go
past that. Upper, meaning on the top side,
so the upper limit I cannot go.. I cannot
accept the deal that goes above that. My
upper limit, upper limit as opposed to
lower limit. Upper limit, lower limit
cannot go below this upper limit. Cannot
go above this, and you use this in your
negotiation very normally, because you'll
tell the other side, "That's my upper
limit. Seventy dollars is my upper limit.
Valuation-- valuation is the value of
something, and usually, it's an estimate.
So you will think what is the value or
what do my company think is the value of
this deal? or what is the value of this
product? and you give it a valuation. Now,
you can use this in your negotiation, by
telling the other side that you feel the
valuation is too high, or you feel the
valuation is too low. You just come right
out and say that. That's quite OK. OK. That
is the vocabulary for part number five.
Thank you!