Impact and Influence in Negotiation – See How They Plan and Organise

For people to be influenced by you and for you to have personal impact in negotiations

, discussions and meetings they need to "buy" what you have to "sell". In reality this means they are buying you as much as what you have to offer. If they find your way of working uncomfortable, inconvenient or intrusive then they are much less likely to be persuaded by your thinking and suggestions. You want to create confidence and build credibility. Successful influencers and negotiators learn to devote some attention to how the others in the discussions operate so that, when they want to offer something for approval, there is a greater probability of it being accepted.

In previous articles the focus of attention has been on how the others operate in social situations, how they handle information and what criteria they use to decide. This article is about how they organise things and the amount of structure they seem to like. This is of vital importance not only in the meetings and discussions themselves but in any plans for the future what happens after agreement has been reached and the discussions move to implementation.

If you wait until the end of the discussions to notice how much structure and organisation is preferred it will be too late. You may not even make it to the end of the discussions and the decision point because you will have given the wrong impression, made the wrong impact and not been at all influential.

For some people, time needs to be controlled with clear structures, plans and methods which tell them where they are against clear goals, objectives and outcomes. For others time is not unimportant, it is a force in play but they are less interested in mapping out the future and prefer to let things evolve and take advantage of the options available or those which might emerge.

Uncertainty spells danger to some and opportunity to others and this shows in the way that they like to organise and structure events such as meetings, negotiations and discussions as well as how they make action plans and set objectives - or indeed how they don't do much action planning or objective setting and prefer to let things unfold.

The agenda for the meeting, the clarity of goals, outcomes and objectives will give you important data. Even more telling will be the attitude to the time set aside for the meeting or negotiation and how important the timetable is. Do meetings start and finish on time or is there more of an attitude of "it takes as long as it takes"?

With this in mind you will know how structured you must appear and how much your credibility in their eyes will be affected by your attention to plans and objectives. Being lax about your timing, not really having an agenda and leaving options open spells disaster for you if you are dealing with someone who is only comfortable with a clear schedule and concrete plans.

The best way to prepare for influence by design (rather than by accident) is to complete the ClearWorth Personal Impact and Influence Questionnaire (the PIIQ) and receive a fully customised 10 page report on your strengths and weaknesses and unique insights into how to work with the other person.

Impact and Influence in Negotiation See How They Plan and Organise

By: Clive Hook

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