Long Term Negotiations
Cast your mind back to May 2010. Think of the negotiations between Labor and the Liberal Democrats following the UK General Election. Things appeared to be moving along reasonably and many commentators felt that a coalition between them was likely to be on the cards. The Conservatives appeared to be the dark horse. Then Nick Clegg delivered his ultimatum that he could not accept Gordon Brown as the leader of the government. The rest is history.
For many negotiators putting a list of demands on the table at the last minute is seen as a powerful negotiating strategy. Getting closer to the deal it seems that it’s at the last minute that people become deal focused, that the stakes are higher and that you’re the most likely to extract concessions.
There are problems with late demands as a tactic, and you need to think about using it for a number of reasons.
The first is that the whole deal may fall around your ears if the trust and mutuality you have been developing simply disintegrates. Trust, which takes years to build, can disappear in the blink of a negotiators eye.
Also if you are dealing with a skilled and trained negotiator on the other side who knows what they are doing, they will have recognized you may use this as a tactic, and will have prepared their own list in advance to block the strategy so it’s hard to use it productively.
More important, though, is the idea that maybe, just maybe, both sides are in it for the long haul. If the relationship is to persist, if you are in this for more than this one go round, it’s essential to recognize that brinksmanship costs both sides. It makes the pie smaller and it makes it more difficult for you to build something going forward.
Professional, long-term negotiations by grownups should avoid the last minute out of principle. It’s foolishly selfish, because i<