Peach Computers Negotiator:
Campus Computers Negotiator:
Negotiating Background
Before reading the Peach Computers information, before even being assigned the Simulation, it was my goal to focus on collaborative negotiation strategies. I have been involved in a huge number of negotiations in my career, from sales, to salary, to contracts, etc.
However, my strategy was more competitive. I grew up in a competitive household and continued into various sale and business management positions. I saw negotiations as an opportunity for me to win, to gain the biggest piece of pie, and for the other side to, perhaps not lose, but not win as well as I had. It was typically easy for me to “win” because I was usually the person in the power position. Also, I was in prime practice; when you are constantly selling, negotiating, and training others to do the same it becomes second nature and all the customers have very similar “issues” that you must negotiate around. When my negotiations failed I had the power to walk away from a deal.
Despite this competitive nature I was always aware of leaving the customer happy. It was no surprise to me that one of the key learning’s from the book on solving joint problems and claiming value is to be “assertive and empathetic” (pg 105). Ultimately, people want to feel that you understand them and want what’s best for them even when they are giving thousands of dollars to you. If you are a good negotiator, they won’t feel like they have paid you or your company thousands of dollars, rather they have invested in their future happiness. Never the less, it was always me gaining the bigger slice of the financial pie.
Once in business school I learned more about the collaborative theory, the win-win rather than the win-lose. Mostly, I was just tired of being competitive and the idea of building a bigger pie, rather than slicing the existing pie appealed to me. However, teaching a competitive dog