Chris Voss says that's right is what people say when they feel understood, and once you hear it any negotiation is heading somewhere good: landlord, tenant, employee, employer, a business deal. He is right. What he skips is the part that matters most to an owner. Voss walks into every room knowing exactly what he needs to walk out with. Most owners walk into a price conversation with a feeling. You cannot get to that's right on a price you have not worked out.

CHAPTERS
0:00 The number you walk in with
1:06 Loss is on your side of the table too
2:30 You are the board
3:49 Stop handing out answers
5:05 Write the lines down
6:16 Work with me

LOSS IS ON YOUR SIDE OF THE TABLE TOO
People's thoughts are most dominated by loss, he says, and loss looms larger than gain, at least two to one. Every good negotiator uses that on the other side of the table. It works on you too: it is the reason your most loyal client is on your oldest price. Count the loss both ways, the margin you give up in a year by keeping them where they are against what you would lose if they walked. Once both numbers are on the page, the fear has a size, and a fear with a size is a decision.

YOU ARE THE BOARD
The great CEO negotiator blames somebody who is not in the room: I have a board of directors, I have to be careful what I commit to. You do not have a board, so every no you give is personal and so is every discount. Build the person who is not in the room. Write the policy down. We review prices every January and every July. New work is quoted from the current sheet. Rush jobs carry a surcharge. The policy never gets tired, never feels guilty, and never needs to be liked.

STOP HANDING OUT ANSWERS
If your counterpart discovers the answer, it is their idea and they do it. If you offer it, it is advice and they are less likely to. The same thing happens inside your business every day. For one week, when someone brings you a problem, ask three questions before you answer. What do you think we should do? What would it cost? What do you need from me? By the fourth time they bring you the answer instead of the problem.

WRITE THE LINES DOWN
The mirror, repeating the last one to three words, is ridiculously effective. Try it on the next client who says your price is too high. But a technique only you know is not a system. Write three answers to the three things clients push back on most, word for word, on one page by the phone.

Voss is right that everything is a negotiation. The owners who win them are not the best talkers. They are the ones who did the arithmetic before they sat down.

SOURCE AND CREDIT
Reacting to Chris Voss on The Diary Of A CEO. Every clip in this episode is his own footage, credited on screen, with his words captioned as he says them. This is a commentary and reaction episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bUGVETockI

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WORK WITH ME
https://mrjttaylor.com

The Operator Reacts is created, hosted, written and produced by JT Taylor MS, MBA.