Deception In Negotiations

            Negotiating, this would be one of my weak points in life because sometimes I feel that I am just too nice to be a good negotiator. It is hard for me to lie or mislead a person yet I know that it has to be done from time to time to get an advantage when trying to make a deal. During negotiations there are many ways to try and evaluate information, it is important to evaluate all of the information so that others do not take advantage of you. I know that I am not the type to mislead someone in a negotiation but I do know that I have learned many lessons in life and I do not let others take advantage of me during a negotiation.

            In our Wharton text it talks about the different ways to evaluate information during negotiations; one that I found very important was establishing trust. This in my opinion might just be one of the most important techniques, I feel that this is important because if we do not trust the person we are making a deal with than nothing will get accomplished. This is why when you go to those small used car dealerships many times deals are not completed unless the buyer has their own issues like horrible credit and they need someone to sell them a car.

            Paying attention to non-verbal cues, so it is said that some people are able to detect when others are lying. This would be a very great tool to have when in the process of negotiating, clues to look for would be increased blinking or changes in respiration. If we had the power to tell if someone was lying this would increase the chances of establishing trust and it would also increase the probability if making good deals throughout life.

            Keeping records and getting things in writing, if we lived in a perfect world this would not be necessary. Unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world and it is very hard to establish trust with a complete stranger during a negotiation. This is also a way to keep future negotiations from going sour, if everything is in writing than there is no confusion and no room left for arguing about a past negotiation.

            Ask direct questions, this technique might have saved me a lot of grief in the past, sometimes it is important to drop the barriers and ask direct questions. We all try to be as polite and as nice to people during negotiations as possible but there does come a time when it is best to ask honest questions no matter whose feelings get hurt.

            I recently purchased a 25,000 dollar car from a used car lot, they seemed credible and they only sold high end cars which made me feel more comfortable. As soon as I drove twenty miles off of the car lot my brand new car showed the transmission was malfunctioning. I was told that this repair would cost me 8,000 dollars, I was very upset by this. The person who sold me the car at the used car lot was unwilling to work with me at first, this made me even more upset. The next day I called the owner and told him that they were not going to rip me off and I told them that I would have every news station from the Dallas area in front of their lot and that they would never hear the end of this.

It seemed that my negotiating tactics worked and they decided to fix my car, I did have to go to great lengths to get my point across but it seemed like I was left with no choice. Negotiating can be difficult but sometimes it is a necessity, to avoid situations like the one from the used car lot I will keep these techniques in mind to get the fairest deals possible.   

 

 

Reference:

Hooch, S., & Keunruther, H. (2001). Deception in Negotiations. In Making Decesions (1 st ed., Vol. 1, p. 196-197). Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons.