REAL-WORLD INSIGHTS

Published: Sep 16 , 2019
Author: Brian Buck

I asked my teenage daughter, the artist, “If you were offered a well-paid commission to paint a mural, but under the condition that you had to get every brushstroke approved before you applied it, would you take the job?” She laughed and said, “That’s not how creativity works. Besides, if you’re hired to do a job, you should be allowed to do the job.” Then she told me I was weird. Weird or not, she’s right — creativity does not work that way, and we should let people do the jobs they were hired to do. But every day at the dealmaking table, we kill creativity and value creation by how we constrain our negotiators. You want to improve your bottom line? Let your dealmakers do their job. Here’s how. . .

Published: Sep 09 , 2019
Author: Brian Buck

There I was, feeling pretty damn good about myself. And why not? As far as I could tell, I’d just nailed the sales pitch. After all, I was able to answer all of the client’s questions on the fly. I felt that our solution would more than address all of their needs. And the client was highly engaged throughout the conversation. Or so I thought . . . until I debriefed with my team . . .

Published: Aug 26 , 2019
Author: Brian Buck

I hate garage sales. The idea of lugging all your stuff out in front of your house so that complete strangers can attempt to steal it for cents on the dollar is painful. Nevertheless, this past weekend we had a garage sale. It was supposed to start at 7 a.m., but as we were pulling things out during the pre-dawn hours, people were already showing up to unapologetically scavenge. Then it began: They would ask, “How much?” I’d give them a price, and then they would ask, “Would you take [insert ridiculous price here]?” and expect to haggle until we met somewhere in the middle. As a professional negotiator, I loathe haggling, and the pain of it started to set in. That is, until I tapped into overlooked sources of power and leverage that ended these attempted haggles early.