In the vast majority of organizations, every negotiation is seen as zero-based and different from every other negotiation.  But, on a basic level, all business negotiations ultimately follow the same blueprint:

There's an element of creativity involved when you broaden the business deal and clarify the "it" you are negotiating.  A world-class salesperson looks for avenues to add value to the deal being negotiated.   

At the negotiating table, the pressure we feel from commoditization is both common and pervasive.  It can often be crippling because it limits our options.  You think less clearly and have a harder time focusing on your goals.  As a result, you make bad decisions - based on temporary conditions - that last, in some cases, forever.

Senior executives know that, beyond mergers and acquisitions, a company's growth is driven one deal at a time by the way direct and indirect sales people sell and negotiate.  That's why American corporations spend $7.2 billion every year on sales processes, account managment skills, negotiation, and opportunity management training.  That's an average of $347, 000 per company, according to SellingPower.  But beyond proprietary (and perhaps biased) consulting reports and high-level academic papers on change, there's little information available on whether or not those investing the money are achieving a return on their investment that's at least equal to -- if not better than -- their cost of capital.

Before you can understand the process, you're going to have to start thinking differently about what negotiation really means.  The traditional view of negotiation is promising, cajoling, threatening or using any of a wide variety of tactics to get what you want from another party.  Negotiation, however, begins long before you sit down with someone to work out the terms of a deal.  It starts as soon as you select an account and start selling and / or managing the account relationship.  This is all negotiation, and redefining it as a process is what leads to world-class dealmaking.

Would you agree that most companies believe negotiation is an organizational competency?  Of course!  But how many procurement departments (or companies) are clear in the steps needed to create this organization competency, versus individual experts?  And I'm not saying individual expertise isn't needed, but rather longer term results are driven by a negotiation process that is used by everyone.  Planning and teamwork are critical. 

I was struggling with a concept this morning and a friend of mine sent me this quote:  “When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce.

Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments.

That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh