Negotiating with integrity is central to the Win Wisely™ approach; after all, if we are in search of positive leverage to artfully move the other side closer to our way of thinking, we must have integrity. Integrity gives us the foundation to make value arguments that are believable. However, there are situations in which being too forthright needlessly damages your position and erodes your leverage as surely as being untruthful would. Imagine that you are negotiating with a manufacturer whose specialty component is critical to your upcoming product. The week before, you dismissed an alternative provider after lengthy negotiations, leaving this manufacturer in the “sole provider” position. There is rarely anything to be gained by revealing that your entire strategy now hinges on this one provider, thereby offering your potential supplier a free boost up the leverage slope. Remember, you must protect your weaknesses when possible. This SlideShare looks at three options you might consider once you realize the position you are in.

1. Negotiation Mistakes:
Misguided Integrity

2. Negotiating With Integrity
Negotiating with integrity is central to the Win Wisely™
approach; after all, if we are in search of positive
leverage to artfully move the other side closer to our
way of thinking, we must have integrity.
Integrity gives us the foundation to make value
arguments that are believable. When we are perceived
as people who constantly play games with the truth
and are slippery during discussion of the challenges,
our leverage predictably erodes.

3. Eroding Your Leverage
However, there are situations in which being too
forthright needlessly damages your position and erodes
your leverage as surely as being untruthful would.
Imagine that you are negotiating with a manufacturer
whose specialty component is critical to your upcoming
product. The week before, you dismissed an alternative
provider after lengthy negotiations, leaving this
manufacturer in the “sole provider” position.

4. Revealing Your Entire Strategy
The fact that you are left with only one viable supplier
is an exposure and provides that supplier with leverage.
Remember, you must protect your weaknesses
whenever possible.

5. Options to Consider
Let’s look at three options you might consider to turn
this situation into a positive outcome:
1) Urgently re-engage with the supplier that you dismissed – with your hat
in your hand.
2) Bluff and posture to over-compensate for your sudden weakness: “We
can go with you or your competitors. It’s up to you.”
3) Present the situation to the manufacturer as an incentive: “Of all our
alternatives, you are our first choice. I am hoping to create a relationship
that makes further consideration of other alternatives unnecessary. This
would require your best terms and prices.”

6. About the First Option
About the first option: it is good insofar as you are
reestablishing contact with a potential supplier you may
need in the future. But this doesn’t completely solve
your leverage problem in the short term.
Your urgency to reengage may also be a clue to the
shrewd supplier that you have come back because of
your reduced options, making renegotiation even
tougher than the first time.

7. The Second Alternative
The second alternative leaves you without options if your bluff
is called. So, let us consider the third and best option, which is
an example of effectively managing information.
This allows you to offer the inducement of a “sole source”
relationship with the vendor, extracting better terms from what
is, in fact, a disadvantage. An additional argument for taking
option three is that you simplify your supply chain by having a
single vendor.
The downside is that you have no alternatives in the event that
your chosen vendor has problems. (This is a serious
consideration.)

8. Sole Sourcing
Sole sourcing is not something that K&R endorses if you
are a buyer. If you go down this path, know that it
requires very careful contract construction that protects
you and your organization.
View Other
Negotiation Examples
Here

9. An Artful Balance
To keep integrity and
leverage, you should never lie,
but you do not have to tell the
other side everything,
especially about confidential
negotiations with their
competitors. There is an artful
balance to managing negative
information while maintaining
credibility.
Find Out Other Ways
to Maintain
Credibility in Your
Negotiations Here
Learn How to Spot the Most Common Negotiation Tactics

10. Download our Complimentary
Whitepaper

11. Learn More
View the Original Post
Complimentary Whitepaper

12. About K&R Negotiations
K&R Negotiation Associates, LLC, is a consulting firm specializing in
structuring and negotiating business transactions around the world.
K&R’s clients include Fortune 200 companies such as IBM, EMC and Xerox, as
well as smaller companies such as Bristol Technology (now part of HP),
Priceline, SEI and others.
For more information, please visit www.negotiators.com.
K&R Negotiation Associates LLC Voice 203-431-7693
4 Island Hill Fax 203-431-1945
Ridgefield, CT 06877