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G E T P R O F I T A B L E U P D A T E!
August 15, 2001
The
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WHERE
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July
9,10 – E-Branding Strategy Asia 2001, Global Connections
Conference,
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register at: http://www.globalconnection.com.hk
October
1,2 – American Express Travel Conference, Orlando, FL
Speech Topic: How To Uncover Your Hidden
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November
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IN THIS
ISSUE:
1)
MARKETING:
Winning At Negotiations, The Ultimate Success
Formula, Part
1
2) INTERNET MARKETING: 5 Reasons Why Your
Web Site Is Not Doing
Well On the Search Engines by Sage Lewis
(Do you
have a great web site to recommend to our readers?
If so,
please email mailto:kevin@getprofitable.com )
================================================================
MARKETING:
Winning At Negotiations, The Ultimate Success Formula
Part 1
================================================================
In our
last issue we addressed the research report recently
issued
by ActiveMedia Research LLC, that addressed the title of
their
new report titlted, “Real Numbers Behind Successful Web
Site
Promotion. Their report listed the most popular ways of
marketing
both online and offline. An
interesting read for sure.
If you
missed it, you can view it at: http://www.getprofitable.com/SpecialReports.html
under the July
issue.
Today
I want to deal with a pet passion of mine: Negotiations.
One prominent
and common trait about many business owners I have
noticed in
my management consulting over the years is the lack
of
negotiation skills. Not just lack
of skills but many people
don't even
know when they are involved in a true negotiation
encounter
until it is too late and they have given away the farm.
This is
largely due to their lack of understanding about the
negotiation
process itself as well as the strategies, tactics
and
techniques employed by their counterparts. Negotiations are
not
something used just in business but we engage in nego-
tiations in
our everyday life.
You can
negotiate on so many more things than you ever thought
and
probably haven't because you just didn't know you could.
I have
personally negotiated for discounts on clothing, jewelry,
cars,
catered meals, hotel rooms, mortgage interest rates, real
estate,
office leases, contractor services and a host of other
things.
In fact, I
always ask. Some things are next to impossible like
stores
owned by a chain or franchise operation, hospitals, etc.
But you
will never know unless you try, right?
So come
with me now as we walk through the traits common to
successful
negotiators as I attempt to provide a few insiders
secrets to
those of you who want to win more in negotiations.
If you were
to boil down the bubbling pot of negotiation
strategies,
techniques and skills of all the most successful
business
negotiators you would find that it all comes down to
two
factors. These factors have been
found to be the foundation
for all the
individual success you can use from which to build
your
negotiating strengths.
The key
thing to remember here is that winning is not contingent
upon
someone losing. In fact it is the very hallmark of success-
ful
negotiations that both sides emerge as winners. This also
means do
you want to win bad enough that you will exert a little
extra
effort to plan out your negotiation agenda?
Or to
estimate your counterpart's desired outcome and strategy?
A
compelling desire to win means exactly that. That you will go
the extra
mile to go through the preparation stages and do the
work
necessary to insure success.
Some people
may be born with the skills of a successful
negotiator
but evidence suggests it is not natural talent as
much as
acquired skills through observation of, or participation
in
encounters that make the most successful negotiations.
Moreover, the
bottom line determines the winners as those who
will put
enough effort into research and practice that become
the
winners. This means minimizing the
importance of luck in
your
negotiations by learning at least as much as the other
fellow
knows about the art of negotiating.
If you are
truly serious about becoming a successful negotiator
then you
will decide to expend the effort necessary to make
yourself
skilled in this area.
There are
seven main stages that make up the negotiation process.
Each one
has its own degree of importance towards the overall
character
of every negotiation encounter.
Knowing and under-
standing
this will help give you an advantage over your counter-
part. So let's get started.
The first
thing to consider about a counterpart in any nego-
tiation
encounter is that of their personality.
We've all heard
about the
various personality stereotypes and how each person's
personality
inflects how they think and act.
Next is to try to
identify
that person's attitude.
Is it
hostile or open-minded? Is it willing or defensive? Even
though it
may be easy to tell a person's attitude, it is
important
you stop and recognize from what frame of reference
are they
dealing.
Like that
of value programming, this may be harder to detect
but
probably the most important of the three.
Value programming
has to do
with morals, ethics and values that make up a person's
character.
For
instance what part of the country/world were they raised in,
What is
their religious upbringing, what about family and home
life, education,
life experiences, etc? When you
add all these
things together
in a big pot and stir them all up you get the
set of life's
values that have been programmed into that person.
These
values make up the deck that person will deal from when
negotiating
an outcome. Try to understand that
person and use
this
knowledge to help you on the approach you take in the
course of
your negotiations.
There are
at least two hidden agendas to every negotiation; one
for each
participant. A hidden agenda is
pretty much what it
implies. That is every person in a negotiation
has an open
agenda of
topics for discussion with even a probable view of
their
expected outcome.
But just
like you, they have the ultimate desired result hidden
away at the
bottom of their bag of tricks.
Your job is to be a
Sherlock
Holmes and through whatever discovery and investigation
means, try
to identify their bottom line expectations ahead of
time.
Once you do
know this or feel like you know this then you begin
to deal
from a stronger base position.
Along with this strength
comes
increased confidence in how you structure the negotiation
process
leading your counterpart towards your projected outcome.
You as,
well, should have a hidden agenda that is your bottom
line never
to be revealed.
Perception
is not hard to figure out. It is
the way we observe
and
evaluate our surroundings. In
addition, our communication
is many times
based on our perception of our surroundings. The
surroundings
where the negotiations are conducted are very
important.
They can
reflect the strength of one person or the other. For
instance,
if it's your office or theirs: it can be tense, open,
noisy,
uncomfortable, set for a power play, etc.
These factors
all play a
role and should be thought out ahead of time.
You should
not be influenced by impressions, surroundings,and
other
psychological devices an opponent might create to
intimidate
or psych you into being more pliable. And conversely,
you should
not automatically expect to be able to similarly
psych your
opponent. But always try if the situation calls for
it.
Perceptions
and feelings are closely related, however, feelings
are expressed
in our communications and many times reflect our
perceptions. Also incorporated into our feelings are
our
emotions. An
urgency for a negotiated outcome or an impending
event can
have great bearing on the communication expressed
during the
heat of exchange.
For
example, let's say you are desperate to sell your house.
When
potential buyers walk through you may let out too much
emotion
rather than projecting a professional or cool image.
The sellers
will probably sense this urgency and emotion in your
voice and
make a lower offer than they otherwise would have.
This
negotiation exchange could be costing you thousands of
dollars. Don't let your emotions rule in a
negotiation
encounter.
This is the
stage where the actual face-to-face negotiation
takes
place. As well, this is the point
where each of you uses
the
strategies, tactics and disciplines that you brought to the
negotiation
table.
Your
approach to starting the negotiation should not be that of
beginning
with primary issues and leading to secondary issues.
Rather, it
is proven that it should be based on:
1) Your strategic perceptions of the
possible linkages and other
concession - inducing
possibilities inherent in the nego-
tiation encounter
2) Your opponent's psychology, his or
her enthusiasm, criteria,
rationales, needs, etc. Once determined,
then order the
issues accordingly.
Obviously
this is the point where an agreement is made and each
person's
primary goals have been met. This
may be a compromise
but in the
most important ways fall somewhere between your
minimum and
maximum guidelines.
Without an
agreement, negotiation is only conversation.
This is how
each party performs on their agreement.
An example
would be if
you were a salesman negotiating to sell a product or
service. If you only want one order then you can
say anything,
promise
anything and do anything.
But if you
want return business, or if you will ever be looking
for another
job in this same industry, then be mindful of your
promises
and follow through because there's little tolerance
for
one-shot Charlies.
Negotiating
style has to do with: 1) the way you conduct your-
self; 2)
your charisma; 3) your expertise; and 4) the methods
you utilize
during the course of the negotiation process to
achieve
your desired outcome.
One element
of style includes your appearance and dress, and
whether
you, believe- it-or-not, are a valid element to consider
before
engaging in any negotiation.
Numerous academic and bus-
iness
surveys conducted over the last decade or so have revealed
without
question that a definite cause and effect relationship
based on
dress and appearance exits between sellers and buyers
and the
financial outcome of their exchanges.
When I am
trying to negotiate to buy a house from a seller it’s
Levi’s
and sweaters because I'm usually trying to portray a
regular-guy
image. The regular-guy image
allows me to bargain
from a lack
of money to meet their price position.
When I am
negotiating with an investment banker or lender to
secure a
low interest rate then it is a suit and tie for the
image of a sophisticated
businessman with the potential to bring
them repeat
business.
Remember
this as you set out to develop your own style: It has a
lot to do
with how you adjust your appearance, your verbal-
ization (big
two-dollar words or street talk), your tactics and
the forcefulness
you use in the negotiations at hand.
Also, how quickly
you can read those same characteristics in
Your counterpart.
You zero in
on them and their style and then like a chameleon
adjust your
style to whatever will be most successful in dealing
with that
person.
Watch for Part II
in your next Get Profitable Update!
================================================================
3) INTERNET MARKETING: 5 Reasons Why
Your Web Site Is Not Doing
Well On the Search Engines by Sage Lewis
================================================================
We
have found that there are consistent reasons sites are
not
doing well on indexing search engines. A search engine
that
sends out a spider to determine what your site is about
has
difficulty with specific situations. If you are having
difficulty
doing well on the search engines see if it is
because
of one of these situations:
1.
Flash
If
you have a Flash intro or use Flash within your site, the
engines
are not reading these pages at all and are not
indexing
your pages. The solution? Don't
use Flash, or
create
extension-type, content-rich doorway pages that are
optimized
and submitted to the search engines.
Unfortunately,
the best page within a site to rank well is
always
going to be the site's home page. So the unfortunate
part
comes when a home page is a Flash intro. But using
effective
doorways (not the spam kind) will significantly
help
getting you registered online.
2.
Frames
More
and more engines are reading frames than previously.
However,
a common mistake is not using the "no frames" section
of
the index page. Many html editors often put in that section,
"Your
browser does not support frames." That is the only text
Search
Engines are seeing on that page.
Simply
taking the text of your front page and putting it in this
"no
frames" section will give the search engines much more to go
on
for indexing the site.
3.
Dynamic urls
Search
engines can not read url's that have non-alphanumeric
characters
in them (Such as &, +, %, $, ?). Nor can some
read
.asp pages. This problem has a few
solutions. Once
again
a site can create extension-type, content rich doorways,
or
for this problem there is another solution -- change the
names
of your urls.
This
can be done by modifying how the server calls or
'serves
up' these pages.
4.
Heavy JavaScript
Rollover
buttons, interactive date scripts, banners, and
things
along those lines are created typically by putting
JavaScript
in the head section of a web page.
This pushes
down
all the text in the code of the page.
Search
engines are only looking for text and links. And text
that
is higher in the code, is more valuable in the search
engine's
eyes. So, consequently, the buried text is given less
merit
than the JavaScript at the head of the page.
The
solution here is to either place JavaScript at the bottom
of
the page or create external JavaScript files.
5.
No external links
Link
popularity -- how many related links are linking to your
site
-- is key in good search engines rankings. This is not
simply
a matter of getting hundreds of arbitrary links.
Search
engines are looking for related sites that link to
you
and vise versa.
You
can not be an island unto yourself online and get indexed by
engines. So, make connections with related sites
and take the
time
to establish valuable link exchanges.
This
article is contributed by Sage Lewis of SageRock.com. For
anyone
interested in learning more about how to get ranked
higher in
the search engines, I have arranged a special discount
with
Sage for Get Profitable Subscribers.
Simply
mention Kevin Clark, Clark Marketing Group, Inc. or
GetProfitable.com
to receive your special discount.
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Copyright 2000, 2001 Clark Marketing Group, Inc.
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