A. Motivate to Negotiate...

Sometimes we need to motivate people to join a negotiation. It is likely that any reluctance to negotiate is prompted by a person’s preferred style (e.g. that of a pushover) and/or a lack of personal benefit from giving up their time for the necessary discussion. For instance, you want to agree with your brother and sister a means of sharing financial support for your parents (whom you have been supporting exclusively for the last year). Your brother doesn’t want to get drawn into any discussion (being a pushover) and your sister sees nothing but financial worry for herself if she offers any help.

How can you motivate them to negotiate with you?

When talking about parents, nearly everyone will have some form of emotional tie: loving, being loved, respect, obligation, guilt, duty, etc. We can use this to identify their:

WIIFM? What’s in it for me?

We might encourage the family to the negotiation with:

‘Mom and Dad are still very much in love and deserve to have many years together without worrying themselves over money – which we should try and help with.’ (Love, obligation.)

‘Mom and Dad never failed to come rushing in when we needed help – however difficult it was for them … now it’s our turn’. (Guilt and managing any reluctance to get involved.)

A positive WIIFM? “…is to be preferred over the negative alternative."

Motivating without a WIIFM?

It will be difficult to motivate people to participate and then adhere to a negotiation if there is absolutely no gain or benefit for them.

Look again for a WIIFM?

If that still fails, the only obvious alternative is to adopt a tough negotiating style, rather like the street mugger who negotiates to steal my wallet in return for not harming me. Hardly a formula for success in most of the negotiations you will be involved in!

Motivating to Gain Agreement

We can use the emotional negotiables to ease progress towards an agreement. We can also select a key motivator from the following:

• People are prepared to exchange (i.e. pay) more if they get the best service. This would also extend to organisations that have the highest reputation/image of service.
• People can be motivated to spend more to get what they want to meet their time-scale.
• Some will agree to an exchange to preserve or enhance a relationship.
• Most of us are motivated to make an agreement when there’s a competitive price.
• Many will pay more for higher quality.
• Some would be motivated to make an agreement based on the reputation of the other party. For instance, I might hire a lawyer who has the best success record. This might be motivated by someone wanting to enhance their own reputation through being associated with a highly reputable organisation.
• If the next-door neighbour has the latest computer technology, others may be competitive and want the same – or better. And potential competition from other parties over limited supplies will motivate a deal – that’s why things are sometimes marketed as ‘limited editions’.
• Innovation can motivate an agreement. How many people do you know who want to own the latest technology before the price stabilises at a lower level?
• Functionality – some agreements can be secured simply by advocating that it will do, reliably, whatever it is the party wants.
• And some of us will do a deal just to have our dreams or desires fulfilled – however irrational and expensive it may be!