negotiation paper

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Negotiation

Negotiation is a communication where two parties seek to resolve their conflicts, by modifying their demands, to reach a mutually acceptable solution. This type of discussion is very crucial as it is usually intended to reach a certain fair deal of what has been laid on the table to be discussed. Due to the purpose laid out by negotiation, it can be noted that negotiation has a wide market of application due to its crucial impact. However, to gain an advantage when negotiating for a lower price when purchasing something, then you need to possess strong communication skills. Most people are easily intimidated by the skills of the opponent and may thus not utilize fully the advantage that negotiation could have brought before buying or selling an item. This implies that both the buyer and the seller should be conversant with each other to get something out of the negotiation.

Negotiation Partners

Negotiation in sales requires at least two or more partners. This is the buyer and the seller. In this context, I was the buyer and the seller was a retailer selling a refurbished laptop. Since I have, or at least I imagine to have strong negotiation skills, I noted a few things about the seller. Being a retailer in handling refurbished electronics, I had to know the product value before I went to the store. I set my budget to set the limit to the amount that I was to spend. This I had to achieve through knowing the motivation of the seller, in this case, to make a profit out of those seeking a cheap refurbished device.

Negotiation Subject

The negotiation subject was the purchase of a refurbished laptop. I had an issue with my laptop and since I was to complete my project in due time, I had to purchase another cheap refurbished laptop so that I could complete the assignment in due time. Due to the urgency of the need to get another laptop. I had to show respect to the seller and the business he was running to capture his attention so that he could sell me the laptop at a fair price. Therefore, the human aspect and the accompanying emotions was to play a great deal in the establishment of the subject and my subsequent purchasing of the laptop.

Agreement

The negotiation did not have very much of consistency. According to Baarslaget al., (2014), this is very normal for most negotiations to take a lot more time and lack consistency. Sometimes I found myself being at the verge of convincing the retailer to sell me the laptop at my “fair” price, but the negotiation would change and take a new path and strategy. However, we still reached an agreement and I bought the laptop at my perceived price.

Negotiation Process

The retailer initiated the negotiation process. Normally, the buyer is expected to initiate the negotiation by asking for the price of the commodity (Hao and Leung, 2014). This was my strategy to have the seller initiate it. When I reached the shop, I was staring at the laptops looking for the specifications that I desired. This took longer than the retailer must have expected which caught his attention. He came to me and proudly started bragging about the quality and the affordability of his electronics. The initial opening was, “It’s Japan refurbished, core i7 with 16Gigabyte RAM and 500 Gigabyte storage. Very few in stock right now”. The negotiation took around half an hour. This was due to the constant interruptions from the other customers who need attention too. However, the seller gave me adequate time to consider the specifications that I desired to have from the laptop thus I feel I wasn’t rushed into purchasing the laptop.

The classification of negotiations is usually determined by the stance adopted by the negotiating parties. The negotiation was integrative in nature. According to Korobkin (2014), integrative negotiation is one where all efforts are directed at increasing the total payoff through mutual cooperation. An integrative negotiation is a form of conflict management. I had to get a laptop to get to finish my project yet the seller had to get the money to get his business running. We therefore considered ourselves collaborators and deep friend to establish and benefit from the negotiation process. This was therefore integrative negotiation due to the win-win situation.

Obstacles encountered

I encountered a problem of communication to get the negotiation to come to a close within the shortest time possible. According to Folberg andGolann, (2016), communication mechanisms pose the greatest challenge towards a successful negotiation. However, I used this as a strategy to get my target to be met.I finally managed to get the laptop at 40 US dollars. This was within my budget as I intended to buy the laptop at between 40 dollars to 50 dollars.

How I felt about the seller

At the end of the negotiation I felt good to have done the business with the seller. Actually, the business went well because the seller told me to “spread the word” as he offered discounts and the devices he sold were very affordable. I felt I had done the seller justice because he did not complain about me offering extremely lower prices. The price was fair.

How I felt about my negotiation skills

At the end of the negotiation, I felt I had used my negotiation skills to full extent that had helped me to obtain the laptop at the price I had budgeted for. For instance, I had done my homework to determine the expected market price. I had also ensured the seller mentioned his price first so that I could establish my negotiation ground. Since I knew the limit and was constantly given the opportunity to ponder and give me a chance to walk away if the price was unreasonable, I had the negotiation under my control.

Lessons Learnt

I have been able to learn a lot about my negotiation tactics and strategies. For instance, I just realized that although I had good negotiation techniques, I failed when I became reasonable and started feeling reasonable towards the seller. I also made a mistake when I made it known to the seller that I needed the laptop for my project which exposed me and might have made the seller not to budge as expected during a negotiation. However, I had put my negotiation skills at practice and had somehow emerged successful. For instance, I felt for the seller when he said that he could undergo great losses and could even land his business to closure, this had me to pity the seller and I ended up not getting my full discount as I might have obtained it.

However, I had explored a wide and varied application of my negotiation skill. For instance, I had done research to establish the current market value for refurbished laptop and the brand. I also had explored and exploited the vulnerability of the seller. By allowing the seller to quote the price, I established my ground so that I could negotiate for a little discount and did not allow the seller to walk away feeling that he got something out of the deal.

References

Baarslag, T., Hindriks, K., Hendrikx, M., Dirkzwager, A., &Jonker, C. (2014). Decoupling negotiating agents to explore the space of negotiation strategies. In Novel Insights in Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiation (pp. 61-83). Springer, Tokyo.

Folberg, J., &Golann, D. (2016). Lawyer negotiation: theory, practice, and law. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.

Hao, J., & Leung, H. F. (2014). Cuhkagent: An adaptive negotiation strategy for bilateral negotiations over multiple items. In Novel Insights in Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiation (pp. 171-179). Springer, Tokyo.

Korobkin, R. (2014). Negotiation: Theory and strategy. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.