The second idea we agreed on is that the arrival of millennials and centennials The workplace has put many of us who already have a certain number of gray hairs in check. Young people with a memorable technological vocation, learning abilities that attract attention, but on the other hand leave the university with few tools for emotional maturity, tools to manage frustration and temper when things do not go as expected. For those of us who hold leadership positions in companies, this generation presents us with important challenges regarding how we should behave to ensure that we reach the goals set. Today knowing that in the next five years these generations will be 70% of the labor force, it is better that we learn to adapt quickly.
But definitely what we absolutely agreed on is that trading is not the same as it used to be years ago. I share some route guides:
Know who you will negotiate with
Today there is information of all kinds about who you will sit with, you can check LinkedIn, Instagram or even Tik Tok. You will be able to have valuable information about what the person is like, what they like, if they have pets or not. Having this data gives you an important competitive advantage to generate enough trust and create “rapport” and empathy. Ask about your children or start the dialogue on the soccer result of the weekend to know your favorite team, For exampleit will lower the defenses and will warm up the atmosphere for a conversation of trust.
Active listening
Just the one in which there is a conscious effort to understand your interlocutor in a genuine way that will also help to decipher their deep desires, needs and interests. The great advantage of this skill is that it helps to build not only professional but also personal and long-term relationships. If you practice it frequently you will find the great benefits that it brings to the negotiating table.
not everything is price
This element is the great differentiator from the negotiation styles of a couple of decades ago, where discussions were focused on getting the best possible price. Today we know that there are a variety of benefits and agreements that can be achieved. When I was a purchasing manager for a direct selling company we set up deals that were completely out of the box, innovative and initially faced a great deal of resistance to change from all levels of the organization.
Some of our partners had low turnover inventories, we committed to significant purchase volumes and in this way they gave us extremely attractive prices for their low-performing products with the intention of selling them out. We used these inventories so that the members could acquire “award” products at extremely reasonable costs. With other partners who had advertising companies, if we met purchase goals, they would “free” us five billboards and/or billboards for three months per year.
The partners that we bought textiles from them offered us a large batch of monthly face masks, if we agreed to reduce their payment terms a bit to maintain the liquidity and viability of the company in times of financial crisis.