1. QBook UNIT 2 Setting Goals

2. QBook INTRODUCTION  During a negotiation, most people have a general idea of what they want:  higher pay, lower price, higher quality, faster shipping, or just to make more profit.  A good negotiator needs to have specific goals.  Rather than a general goal of a pay raise, a better goal would be a 20 percent pay raise.  With a measurable goal, a negotiator can plan better and then judge how successful the negotiation was.

3. QBook DIALOG (Personal Planning Meeting)  Fred and Jane planning.  Fred: I’m going to ask my boss for a raise tomorrow.  Jane: How much are you going to ask for?  Fred: Well, the more the better.  Jane: If you want to be persuasive, you need to have an exact amount in mind and then convince your boss you are worth it.  Fred: Okay. I won’t give in until I have at least a 15 percent increase in my compensation. I’ll convince my boss I’m worth by emphasizing the work I did last month. On that job I made a big profit for our company.

4. QBook DIALOG (A Business Planning Meeting)  Fred: We cannot assume the Zeno products we purchase will be successful in the market.  Bill: Our marketing department predicts strong demand for this product. The implication is that Zeno will try to ask for a higher supply price.  Fred: Forecasts are not always reliable. We don’t want to pay high and sell low.  Bill: This is going to be a tough negotiation.  Fred: Before the negotiation, we need to be clear on what our goals are.  Bill: Any price over 120 USD we will have to reject.

5. QBook DIALOG (A Business Planning Meeting)  Fred: That is our upper limit. I understand, but we also need to emphasize production cannot be delayed.  Bill: What is the latest date we can accept?  Fred: We cannot postpone Christmas sales. Supplies must be delivered at least two months before the Christmas season.  Bill: Give me an exact date Fred.  Fred: We need to take delivery of the goods before September first.

6. QBook DIALOG (A Business Planning Meeting)  Bill: We should consider stressing a price of 100 USD. If Zeno threatens to withdraw, we can suggest they guarantee delivery time in return for a price of 110.  Fred: They may accept that if we are persuasive about our ability to increase their sales with the implication we would cooperate with them in the future.  Bill: Of course, but we must test their lowest price. Let’s put off the delivery issue and first deal with the price issue. After we test their price, we can submit the delivery proposal.

7. QBook DIALOG (A Business Planning Meeting)  Fred: That all sounds good, but we need a fallback plan.  Bill: Yeah; I’ve seen Zeno people negotiate before, and they are tough.  Fred: Zeno negotiators often renegotiate points that were already settled.  Bill: Tomorrow we will have a meeting with all the people on the negotiation team. At that time, we can brainstorm and come up with a good fallback plan.

8. QBook VOCABULARY  Accept (v): Approve of or find satisfactory.  Assume (v): To take for granted; accept some information as true without proof.  Brainstorm (v): Creating many ideas, even crazy ones, in order to find at least one good solution to a question.  Compensation (n): Payment for service or work.  Consider (v): To think carefully about; compare two or more alternatives in order to find the best choice.  Convince (v): Move someone to agree through argument or evidence.  Cooperate (v): Work together for a common benefit.  Delay (v): Put off to a later time.  Emphasize (v): Stress as important.  Fallback (adj): A backup or secondary plan.  Forecast (v): Estimate a trend in the future, such as supply and demand.  Give In (idiom): Agree to something after opposing it.

9. QBook VOCABULARY  Goal (n): A result that is desired.  Implication (n): A likely relationship or implication of some preceding event.  Persuasive (adj): Ability to convince someone even though they originally did not agree.  Postpone (v): Put off until later.  Predict (v): guess how an event in the future will turn out.  Put Off (v phrase): Delay or postpone until a later time.  Reject (v): Refuse to accept.  Renegotiate (v): Negotiate again an issue that was negotiated before.  Stress (v): Emphasize a point as being important.  Submit (v): To formally put forward or present an idea of proposal.  Suggest (v): To informally bring up and idea or suggestion.  Test (v): Try to find the other side’s negotiation resistance points.  Threaten (v): Pressuring the other side by offering to do something they will not like.  Withdraw (v): Give up on or leave a negotiation.

10. QBook FOLLOW UP  Goal setting starts out with individual goals.  This can be a single goal or many goals.  Goals need to be clear, easy to understand, and measurable.  A student who wants to buy a new cell phone may have a single goal: save money. Another student may have the single goal of getting the most up- to-date features. Most people have both of these goals in mind when shopping for a new phone.

11. QBook FOLLOW UP  Setting a clear goal will help the negotiation be a success.  Saving money can be changed to spending less than one month’s pay from a part time job.  This can then be made clearer by stating exactly how much less: “50 percent of my part time job monthly pay.”  Combine this with a feature goal, “I want to be able to listen to MP3 music.”

12. QBook FOLLOW UP  Next, each goal can be judged as to its importance.  Fifty percent of monthly pay may be the upper limit with no possibility of going higher, and a price of 30 percent would be better.  Ability to play MP3 is a minimum, but the memory size is not so important.  Priorities are set next.  “If the price goes over this limit, I won’t buy.

13. QBook FOLLOW UP  Next, MP3 playing ability is required, as long as the price is under the 50 percent limit.  Lastly, a lower price would be nice.  If there is a phone with this feature, and a lower price, then an agreement can be reached and all three goals met.  This is the goal package.

14. QBook Forming Goal Package

15. QBook FOLLOW UP  The goal package can be made up of specific goals dealing with issues of:  Price  Size  Design  Contract Wording  Service Package  After Sale Support  Shipping  Quality, and many others.

16. QBook FOLLOW UP  Other goals will be less specific, but no less important.  These intangible goals can include such issues as relationship with the buyer or seller, reputation, pressure to get a deal no matter what, preparing for future negotiation, and what the competition will do.  These goals are more difficult to make specific, but no less important.

17. QBook Intangible Negotiation Goals