Never Be Afraid To Ask For What You Want

I just finished teaching a four day intensive workshop for film makers. We spent three days on Copyright & Clearance Law and one day on Fearless Negotiating. I thoroughly enjoyed working with this group of exceptionally bright producers and writers.

 When I facilitate workshops, I always want to make sure that the participants get a chance to practice the Wish Want Walk method of negotiating. We had a very interesting discussion during the debriefing stage of one of our mock negotiations about the importance of verbalizing your Wish. I divided everyone into pairs; one person played the role of the buyer and their counterpart played the role of the seller. Each pair negotiated the price for the same fictitious item. It is always amazing to see the price variance for the same exact item in these types of exercises. The range of the selling price was $25 – $100. Before we closed the debriefing session, I asked if anyone had a wish higher than the figures listed on the board. One student slowly raised her hand and said, “I asked for $1,500”. You could see the embarrassment she felt for having a Wish much higher than the rest of her colleagues. It created a great discussion about the importance of never being afraid to admit what you truly want.

            Your idea of the true value of what you are negotiating is the key factor in setting your Wish. As a seller, you would never place your Wish below your notion of the true value of what it is you are offering. It is legitimate to hope to sell something for more than you think it is worth. Never open a negotiation to sell something by asking less than the true value you put on the item. You will never get what you want, if you cannot verbally state what you want. Don’t worry about how outrageous you think your Wish is; always state it. Using the rest of the steps of the Wish Want Walk method will take care of the rest of the negotiation, but you always have to state your Wish first. If you wait until the middle or the end of the negotiation to admit what you really want, you have given away most of your negotiating power.

            I look forward to hearing about your progress using the Wish Want Walk method. Feel free to post your comments or questions in our blog.

Happy Negotiating,

Michael

Fearless Negotiating in Dallas

August has started with a bang… I just completed a very busy trip to Dallas that included speaking engagements at several conferences and interviews with multiple media outlets.

Although, I travel pretty extensively for speaking engagements, interviews and book signings; I still get pleasantly surprised with the variety of questions that are posed in regards to Fearless Negotiating. The questions ranged from how to get a raise, to buying property and getting the kids to do their homework. It was very gratifying to see how people quickly understood how they can apply the Wish-Want-Walk method to any negotiation. Including the kids!!

The simplicity of the method is very empowering and can be a sense of relief for people with an upcoming negotiation that is giving them anxiety. The more opportunities I have to teach Fearless Negotiating, I realize that it is very valuable information for everyone rather you negotiate multi-billion dollar deals or curfew time with your children. The average person has a sincere interest in learning how to get what they want and strike a fair deal. It is wonderful to provide the tools and techniques that will help anyone be a Fearless and Successful Negotiator.

August will continue to be busy with speaking engagements in the Los Angeles area. I look forward to hearing your experiences using the Wish-Want-Walk method of negotiating. Feel free to share your comments or questions in our blog.

Happy Negotiating,

Michael