Last Month’s Feature: When Good Clients Go Bad, garnered some great feedback. The topic covered leadership lessons when a good client just goes bad – subscribers to this newsletter share there own ‘horror’ stories of being treated badly by buyers. Here’s one:
I have a supplier in China – in 2006 his business was on the verge of collapsing before winning my business. Within a year he was exporting 20 containers per month due to my patronage. However after 2 years he decided bypass me, go direct & cut corners in his quality. This cost him close to US$250,000 when he had to compensate clients for his shoddy goods . And yet he refused to accept that this was his fault , and he blamed others & continued to lie. I still believe in karma – the one up there rewards..honesty.
P/S; Enjoying reading your newsletter.
Cheers.
Adrian Lim | Director KHAL International (S) Pte Ltd
LEADERSHIP NEGOTIATION (PART 1)
What’s the skill most underrated in university syllabi, and in business? If you said NEGOTIATION, you win! If you think about it , our success in business and life often revolves around negotiating with our peers, clients and family members. Starting this month, you are welcome to not only the content of the Life Without Limits e-newsletter on leadership and motivation, but get access to The Asian Negotiator (see http://theasiannegotiator.wordpress.com) our new blog on negotiating your best and highest futures. This month, I talk about a negotiation skill called The Nibble:
In many common transactions, value is given, and the negotiations often then boil down to price/fee.
Great negotiators know that they can almost always get a small item thrown in by asking for it at the time they offer to close the deal. Both timing and the size of the concession are critical here.
At a key stage of a recent negotiation when it seemed like a deal would go through, I would ask at a late stage for a small concession or a ‘goody’ that was of value to me. Your chances are higher if this tactic of nibbling at concessions is done when the other side is quite keen on closing the deal, AND the nibble is from a piece of cheese of lower actual value to them.
….for the rest of the article, go to http://theasiannegotiator.wordpress.com