The art of negotiation: Learn to say NO

In negotiating parlance, "win-win" is a commonly upheld virtue. If both parties win, both parties are happy. So why is it so often that one party in a so-called win-win situation gets stiffed? And why is it so often that the party who extols the virtues of win-win is the one who's the real winner in the end?

Jim Camp, world-renowned negotiation coach, states that win-win doesn't exist. It's simply an illusion for those who are uncomfortable with the reality of deal-making: both parties can't win. While the least experienced deal maker has had the wool pulled over their eyes and thinks that they're getting a good deal, the wolf sitting across from them has already eaten their grandmother! We got to face it!

The quicker you understand that win-win is actually win-lose the more deals you'll find will tip in your favor. Here's a better framework for more profitable deal-making. Strategies and concepts are largely from Jim Camp's teachings.

"No"

This two-letter word is the tenant of effective deal-making. "Yes" is so often associated with subservience, being easy and being desperate. No one wants to work with someone who has no respect for themselves. Our society somehow has been conditioned to feel that "no" is a bad word that should never be uttered in negotiation. It's quite the contrary.

"No" actually gets things moving. "Yes" doesn't always mean "yes", "maybe" is useless and leaves you with nothing. "No" gets questions going and allows further explorations into a compromise that benefits both parties as much as possible. "No" gives you back respect and makes people see that you don't need them, which can make them want you more.

The Big, Bad Negotiator

If you tell someone that you're a chief negotiator for a publicly listed, Fortune 500 company, you would probably be met with a variety of responses. Fear, Perhaps. Awe, Maybe. You'll have a certain image in their eyes. You should be:

·         physically big and overbearing,

·         have a quick-fire temper,

·         be manipulative.

In reality, these people may not fare so well against someone who clueless, unimpressive and naive. Yes, someone who doesn't have experience negotiating will get eaten alive, but you definitely do not have to be "the whole package" to always get your way. When Bill Gates was negotiating with high-level executives to get them to have his Windows systems installed on PCs many moons ago, he was a gangly, young drop-out who came in, casual as anything and is now one of the richest men in the world.

Again, it comes down to what you actually say and having respect for what you want and what you can offer. It's also having the balls to say "no" and letting people see that you're not going to be bullied around.

What's In It For Them?

This is one of the things that isn't discussed much when it comes to negotiating. People think that it's all about them, but often, focusing on what the other people really want from their demands will get you a result that's better than anticipated.

For example, if an ex-employee is planning to extort his old company for millions of dollars, simply caving into pressure or mounting a fight back against him ends up causing much more collateral damage than simply seeking to settle out of court. This isn't a sign of weakness. It takes strength to step out from behind your legal team and to speak with the threat one on one. You might find that they'll be happy to settle for less if they are able to get something that's worth more to them which doesn't cost much more monetarily.

Win-win doesn't work. Win-win ignores the fact that people are in it for their own best interests. Acknowledge this upfront and you will get a better result. At the same time, get comfortable saying "no". It's the best thing you can learn to do and can get you further in deal and life.

"Relieved of duty" not "Fired from work"

As an employee, getting fired, creates a negative perception about the individual. But hold on a minute, there is another perspective. Since there are two parties involved maybe 'fired' isnt the right word. An employee's perspective, which gets lost in the cloud of negativity surrounding the event, maybe the word is 'relieved'.

Lets detach ourself from the role of employee or employer, before we proceed ahead and use the 'and this implies?' rule to work out the simple, cause and reason. The cause is quite static in this regard, being, a relationship is broken. Now lets look at some of the reasons. 

Change in organization strategy or way to do business is a very often used (to the level of being abused) as a valid reason. But what does it imply. It implies, that the individuals skills do not fit the strategy the organization wants to adopt, and the organization has decided to not invest in the particular human resource any further. In overly simple words, skills not needed, no further investment of thought or time. Remember we are wearing a third person hat here, so lets dwell a little more. Strategies do not change over night. Obviously there's a process to change in stratgey, and this process was unable to reutilize the skills of the human resource who got fired. This is not a sorry thing for the employee, but for the employer, that the employer is unable to leverage its own human resource. Remember, if the employer thought that the human resource is not needed and not a quality resource, the resource should not have been hired in the first place. So when the reason is 'change in strategy', it implies, that employer is unable to invest in the particular resource. This is not a negative reflection on the employee, but on the employer. For an employee it is better to stay away from an employer who having recruited you, now finds that it does not know how to leverage it.

Cost saving or cost cutting is considered a very taboo term for it is too true to its definition. This is a very numerical reason. Question is, does it indeed take into account all the numbers. When an employe is fired, a severence compensation needs to be put into place. It is a regulatory requirement by most and nearly all labor laws, unless of course, a resource has signed it off. The severence includes components to be assumed completed, such as, salary for the notice period as per contract and gratuity. For further calculations we shall consider percentile values. The employer looses a resource who has a place in the eco-system of the organization. The productivity of the resource fired shall be considered 100. Now a new resource(s) who come into the organization, would not execute at 100percentile from the word go. The learning curve for these new resource(s) would take the equivalent of the ideal overlap period, which is usually as thumb rule approx. half the notice period, 45 days. So from calculations, employer absorbs 45 days very low productivity. If there are n number of new resources, the percentage increase in maintenance(read salary and compensation) would also need to be considered. At this point we must understand, that there will be situations where these numbers do infact result in cost savings/cost cutting. However, more information lies in the percentage of savings of the employer. If the savings are less and yet resources are fired, the employer is financially on really thin ice. If the margin of savings are more, well then the it justifies itself. As an employee for such an employer, one should understand that this is an uncertain employer and there will always be insecurity involved, whether the employee is bottom of pyramid or top of the pyramid. It also reflects that the employer is taking decisions based on top and bottom lines. Likewise, the employee should also adopt the same and consider negotiating the severance to make the most of the opportunity.

Attitude is a very sensitive reason and very case specific. It can imply multiple things. It could reflect on the recruitment process, where in personalities aspects of the resource could not or were not correctly identified. This is a challenge for every organization. The employer pays the cost of a 'mis-recruitment'. Scratching the surface a bit more, the reasons for the attitude can also dependent on the ecosystem the employee belongs to. It is not necessary that an employee has a bad attitude because of issues with the immediate management, but it could be a result of passive hostile, restrictive or unconducive immediate work environment. The attitude then could be an attempt to break free. As an employer, the resolution should not stop by mere firing the resource. As an employee, it frees the employee and compels the employee to move ahead. The world after all is bigger than any one of us.

So, if one is an organization that makes one feel like quitting. Give it a little more thought. There is more reward in being fired than quitting. However, there is a price to be paid for it. Until the employee, is fired, the employee could remain dissatisfied and disengaged, and it will also stall the career growth of the resource, as it would equate to time lost. Just like there is no winner in a war, there is no beneficiary here. Both pay a price, probably the employer more than the employee. But is any one listening?

Want to burn bridges, points to consider

Burning a professional bridge can be a hard move. I can say that in my short career, I've already burnt a few, more due to negligence and laziness than anything. I feel that as time passes, it's definitely a skill that can make the difference between being paid an average wage or being paid more.
It's sort of like networking: some people do it really well and get a financial return or professional gain from their networks. Some people feel it's just a waste of time and that the best thing about networking events are the free sandwiches. It's hard to value your personal relationships and as a result, it's hard to know whether it's worth nurturing them or letting them die off.
Let's look at some scenarios where you might choose to burn or save.
Scenario #1: They're A Hub
You know one of those people. You might consider yourself one of these people. You're the center in the web of connections. You're everyone's common connection. If you're considering cutting this sort of person off, you might need to think twice, especially if you're in business and you rely on them for referral business.
The decision might be easier to make if they've recently been embroiled in a controversy, in which case it could be a smart idea to cut them off in case the incident affects how your contacts/clients perceive you/your brand. However, showing solidarity can also be a good move, especially if they're a personal friend as well.
Scenario #2: A Mentor
If it's a mentor or someone else who has contributed a lot to your professional development, helping you get to where you are currently in life, it can be really difficult to cut them off. Most people will not cut off a mentor, even if they're passed their use-by date. However, high-level professionals burn bridges to their mentors all the time.
The best example that comes to mind for me right now is quite timely: tennis players. Wimbledon showcases the talent from all over the globe and their crew that tags along with them. Some of the higher level players change coaches more often than racquets. Indeed, they may show more loyalty to sponsors rather than their teacher.
It depends on the nature of the relationship. If it's purely professional, it's not hard to cut them off. They want the best for you and you make the call if you feel that they're not a good fit for where you want to go. If it's family, then it can get a bit harder.
Scenario #3: Family
Burning familial bridges is probably one of the hardest to do. I've been part of businesses where someone married into a family business and they were automatically made the manager or head of some department. This can be a perk, but it also puts unnecessary pressure on them.
Ideally, if you respect yourself enough, you'll know that the scenario doesn't change. If you feel that it's not in your best interest being associated with them, by keeping it professional, it shouldn't too difficult. It only gets difficult if they blow it up into something bigger than it actually is.
There's always a time and a place that you should burn bridges. Regardless of the scenario weigh up the pros and cons, keep it professional and you'll know whether it's the right decision to make or not.

Analyzing the cost of employee turnover

An article on Forbes Magazine made the rounds some time back with some pretty startling statistics:
•The average raise an employee can expect in 2014 is 3%, but given the cost of inflation, it actually amounts to more like 1% in additional spending power.
•If an employee leaves a company, however, they can look forward to a 10%-20% increase in salary. In extreme cases, they may even see as much as a 50% increase.
In other words, we've cultivated a system in which employees who are loyal to their companies are financially punished and those who jump ship every few years are financially rewarded. The cause? Well, one culprit is certainly antiquated HR tactics that only allows raises as a certain percentage of the employee's current salary, regardless of external market conditions. Others argue that employers are not equipped to rapidly promote, develop, and reward their employees in ways that aren't simply monetary. But regardless of the reason, what this information exposes is a fundamental lack of understanding about what turnover really costs an organization.
When you consider all of the costs associated with employee turnover - including interviewing, hiring, training, reduced productivity, lost opportunity costs, etc - here's what it really costs an organization:
•For entry-level employees, it costs between 30% and 50% of their annual salary to replace them.
•For mid-level employees, it costs upwards of 150% of their annual salary to replace them.
•For high-level or highly specialized employees, you're looking at 400% of their annual salary.
Let's play a game called "Fun With Math"
A business loses 12 employees in one year, averaging one per month.
•Six of these employees were entry level, with an average salary of $40,000. It costs, on average, $16,000 to replace each employee at 40% of their annual salary, for $96,000 total.
•Four of these employees were mid-level, with an average salary of $80,000. It costs, on average, $120,000 to replace each employee at 150% of their annual salary, for $480,000 total.
•Two of these employees were senior, with an average salary of $120,000. At 400% of their annual salary to replace them, you're looking at almost $1 million, specifically $960,000.
Add everything up and you're looking at costs of over $1.5 million to replace just 12 employees.
Numbers seem high? Fair enough - there are organizations that estimate replacement costs to be lower. So let's cut the cost of replacing all of those employees to the lower end of what it costs to replace an entry level employee - 30% - across the board. Here's how it breaks down:
•It's going to cost your company $72,000 to replace the six entry level employees.
•It's going to cost your company $96,000 to replace your four mid-level employees.
•It's going to cost your company $72,000 to replace the two senior employees.
That means that at the absolute lowest estimated end of the spectrum - your best case scenario - you are looking at almost $250,000 as the cost of the turnover of just 12 employees.
If your company has a quarter of a million dollars that it can just light on fire at the next office BBQ social activity, then maybe you don't really need to invest in these areas. But my guess is that the vast majority of companies are simply not in that position.
It costs less to retain than it does to replace.
I once had a job where I had experienced an absolutely miserable working environment for months. At the same time, I had been able to advance a number of initiatives that had made a real impact..and I'd been able to do it with an absurdly small budget - one that was less than 0.5% of what the company thought it would take to outsource the same project. I knew it, and the company knew it. They wanted to keep me there and working, and to reward me for my efforts in a miserable working environment, I received a $2,000 raise. This amounted to less than 3% of my overall salary, and was so small that I barely noticed the difference in my paycheck.
I didn't ask for the raise and, frankly, wasn't really expecting it. But when I received it, it did more to reinforce how little the organization valued me than it did to increase my morale. I had saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, and simple math told them that it would cost, with a conservative estimate, 50 times the amount of the raise to replace me. Think they could have dug a little deeper into those pockets for a raise that would have made me feel valued and appreciated and still have made a good business decision for the organization given the cost to to lose/replace me? Of course.
It's time to start taking the costs of employee turnover into consideration. When you factor in those costs, it changes the conversation about how the organization approaches compensation, benefits, training, development, engagement, and morale. It can be expensive to invest in these things without a direct line to return, but it costs significantly more to lose your best employees when they jump ship for a few thousand more dollars over the course of the year.

How to get an edge in online marketing

Web marketing can be a wise and beneficial move for those who know the ropes.
You need to find out exactly how the affiliate will track the sales you generate.If you lead people to the company you will lose out on lots of commission.
Once you have brought in a good deal of money, consider asking for a higher commission percentage from the affiliate program you belong to.
When you first start online marketing, it will be beneficial to seek out and sign up with affiliates that will provide you with the products and service you will be selling. You can diversify your income streams by signing up with a large number of affiliate networks. Research affiliates so you are comfortable with.
A lot of affiliates end up losing valuable time by having to re-read emails that contain instructions for tasks in their email and then check them. Save yourself time by referring to your document.
Secret links could be a search engine to assess your website as untrustworthy so use them with care. There are ways out there to put links throughout your website. Be honest about your use of links and take advantage of their use.Make sure your readers understand the context of the text link so they will not be surprised.
Affiliate Companies
You should only work with affiliate companies that pay a fair and generous with their users. Avoid companies that gives affiliates less than 20% of every sale. The top affiliate companies understand that commissions drive your efforts and create a commission high enough to keep good affiliates working.
There are a great variety in affiliate programs. Each has their own products to promote and level of flexibility.
Affiliate marketers have to be honest about the business in which they are engaged. Be upfront about your affiliates and describe them on your site. If visitors do not feel like you are being honest about the affiliations you are a part of, they will simply leave it and buy directly from the seller.
Look for affiliate companies with a high ratio of customers to visitors. A 1% transformation equation is a good standard to aim for.
It is key to see statistics for your site in real time statistics.They let you a great deal of information on who and how many bought something.
Trivia questions in banner ads will promote more frequent and prolonged visits to your website to get the trivia answer. Most people will be unable to leave without clicking your lead banner. You can offer to the trivia question.
Make sure you attract a good audience for the products you’re trying to sell. If your product carries a higher price tag, your strategies will need to be even more focused on converting visits to sales.
Scan a hand written ad and put it on the site.
Tracking System
A common scam is done through using their tracking system instead of one with a good reputation. This fiasco can be avoided by simply using a good tracking system.
Even phrases that have a slightly negative tone are not permissible.
Only put your stamp of approval on products you truly trust and like. The items that you choose to promote or recommend is a reflection on your company. You can keep more customers by recommending quality products at reasonable prices.
One of the best ways to advertise products is to show others that you use the product yourself.You can write commentary or even informational material on your product by posting reviews and writing articles. You can also join forums as a way to discuss your positive experience with the products.
Be honest with readers; make it clear that you are in a position to earn money from their purchase. Your readers know an affiliate links look like and trying to hide the fact will cause them not trust you. Being transparent from the start will improve the chances of visitors to make their purchases in a manner that benefits you.
Web marketing issues in California who got their accounts suspended in 2011 can now install the links that they lost. The law that made Amazon get rid of their clients has been edited so that they are now allowed back into the program. Be sure to sign up if it affected you.
You can increase sales within your business by making a web page for affliliates. Using good SEO techniques on the website allows you to entice affiliates who may not be familiar with you.
Acting on tips from a few sources can be more effective than simply knowing about it. You must invest time upfront and not receiving any returns at first. Stop reading, grab some good tips and start making them work for you.
Consider entering a unique niche for more affiliate promotion. You can earn more profits through specialty niches sometimes because the barriers to entry are lower and it’s easier to get potential visitors interested.
Social Media
You should look at social media when you are going into affiliate needs just as google does. They work at bookmarking sites and produce search results with social media largely in mind. Social networking sites of links on every page that interact with marketing affiliates.
Check out referral plans which your affiliate partners offer. Many affiliate companies will offer commissions based on new customers toward their business. Some of them could even give you a certain commission percentage based on residual sales for the referred business.
Affiliate Partners
Daily communication can help strengthen the bond shared by affiliate partners. Frequent and open communication with your affiliate revenue stream. The best way to increase profits with affiliate partners that prove to be most beneficial to you are those where the relationship with them.
So as you can see, affiliate marketing is not as complicated as it may appear. While networking, research and the usual daily workload indicate that you have many full days ahead of you, these efforts will pay off. Use the above tips to help guide you, and you’ll be an online marketing success.

Simple ways to successfully ruin your career

It may sound a little disturbing just to think of someone writing about How to ruin your job in five different ways, however, it’s not how to ruin, It's how YOU ruin.
The goal of this article is to address how everyone of us -including me at my early career stages- tends to distract himself while building his early career by adopting a specific approach. That approach is in general a good one, but the way everyone holds it is the real problem. The approach is simply "Why wouldn't I start up my own business?".
It is 90% of all employees working for companies -whether multinationals or locals- who might always be thinking of starting their own business. They keep telling themselves that they should not work for someone else and they should be their own boss considering a full time job as a full time slavery. In fact, they are absolutely right ONLY IF THEY COULD START THEIR OWN BUSINESS. What most of today's employees do is letting that idea control their emotions, dreams, ambition and future plans to an extent that minimizes their performance and shortening their long-term settings as successful calibers for their company. On the other hand they never quit and start their business.
Having the idea of quitting and starting up own business might be a good thing, but at most cases it could be the self destructing curse of all times. The result of adopting that idea -and holds it for being only an idea- makes what I call "The Five Syndromes of Failure" with which it has never been easier to ruin your daily job career.
The Five Syndromes of Failure:
(1) You start criticizing everything in your working environment as if you know everything about everything:
Do you dare denying that you have not noticed your colleague -or maybe yourself- doing so? I bet not. Once you have "Own Business" idea dominating your tempers, you start criticizing, remarking and destructively commenting on everything goes around in your professional environment, the thing that for sure demolishes your professional image and start creating a reputation of you being a negative person. As a manager, I will never promote a negative person or letting him take the lead.
(2) Everything seems stupid and it ends up with you unsatisfied:
Your subconscious mind starts making Its excuses for you wanting to start your own business by reshaping everything in its ugly side. All of a sudden the HR is dump and not cooperative. All of a sudden, your manager is not a positive person, and all of a sudden, your Team Leader is too stupid to be in charge of your team wondering how unqualified person like him/her had that opportunity as a proof of the mismanagement of your company. Do not deceive yourself, It's just your subconscious encouraging you to leave the company and do what you want.
(3) You ended up deciding that you will just do what is requested No more and No less:
Most companies possesses a very dynamic challenging environment of which all employees are racing trying to prove that they are worthy to be promoted, worthy for the good tasks, and worthy to gain trust. Try to do what is just required and you will find yourself at the end of the queue of those who take the cream.What is next? Of course, you know what is next; it is you blaming others of under estimating you, not evaluating your potentials and oppressing you. That is exactly when you start NOT DOING what is required justifying that of their prior act of under estimation. Was not that you at the first place?
(4) Start recruiting others your way:
It is not going to be a long period before you start spreading your negativity. It's not because you are a bad person, It's simply that you started realizing how rotten your environment became -inside you-; that you might be a good person warning others. Guess what, NO ONE LISTENS, and It's you who loses credit and credibility. Whether you accepted that or not, NO ONE is going to adopt your perception until he/she feels that same way you do, and since they are all busy achieving their career objectives in such a competitive environment, it ends up of you having a LOSER image.
(5) Bad comes to worse:
Have you noticed that you were so busy nurturing your ego and negative perceptions that you have not developed in yourself being an entrepreneur?
It has been years since you started your previous four mistakes that occupied most of your time leaving no time to invest in your dream -pursuing your own business-. Now, your working environment is very rotten, and you have nothing to do but quitting taking your chances. The difference is that you are now taking that step as an obligatory trend Not Optional, full of negativity and adopting the perception of "I'M NOT A LOSER" instead of "YES I CAN".
Now you know exactly where that idea is taking you. If you thought for a moment that my advice to you is to give up that silly idea and focus on your career path as employee, then you really did not get my message. My message in few words is that It's either to reshape your mind as an employee and be good at it, or to reshape it as an entrepreneur. No mix could be achieved, so when you start adopting the idea of starting up your own business you better do it and stop wasting time, otherwise you will see exactly the five previous syndromes ruining your career.

There is no risk transfer in outsourcing!!

Over the last few years, I have worked with many organisations with varying degrees of outsourced/contracted services.  I support this approach – if it isn’t cored to the achievement of your objectives or if the expertise resides outside of your business then outsourcing is positive.
The purpose of this blog, however, isn’t to discuss the merits or otherwise of outsourcing moreover, it is to debunk the myth that by outsourcing or contracting, you have transferred your risk to another party.  Over the last couple of years, in particular, I have heard senior executives, both in Government and Private Enterprise say to me “there is no need to worry about that risk – I have transferred that to the Contractor.”
Let me sum this up in just one word – Rubbish!!!!!
Okay – let me dispel this myth once and for all by saying – “if you own the consequences (or at least part of them) then you own the risk.”
So let’s look at an example.
In the series Air Crash Investigation, there is an episode titled “Dead Weight”.  In this episode, maintenance staff working for a company that is sub-contracted to conduct maintenance on behalf of Air Midwest’s primary maintenance contractor skip 9 of 25 steps detailed in the maintenance manual when adjusting the tension on the elevator control cable.  As a result of this, the elevator control cable is unable to traverse through its full range of motion.
When Air Midwest flight 5481 took off overweight, the centre of gravity shifted rearwards when the landing gear was raised, which pitched the nose higher.  Due to the issues with the elevator control cable, however, the pilots were unable to bring the nose down, the aircraft stalled and crashed into a hangar on the ground killing all passengers and crew on board.
The issue arose in this case due to the fact that there was no contract oversight/assurance by either Air Midwest or the Primary Contractor.
A Contract is a control – but control is only as good as the measurement of its effectiveness.  Organisations that outsource simply cannot afford to assume that because there is a contract in place that:
1.They have outsourced the risk to the Contractor; and 1. That the Contractor’s performance will be as contracted and as reported.
This last point may seem a cynical one, however, we need to accept that the primary driver for a contractor is to maximise profit and if shortcuts can be taken in pursuit of this agenda then those opportunities are likely to be pursued.
What is even more important for organisations to understand and accept is that if the function that is contracted is a compliance requirement and if there is a compliance breach it is the organisation – not the contractor – that will be held to account.
So, what are the keys to reducing the outsourcing risks I hear you say?
Firstly, the organisation needs to ensure that prior to developing the solicitation documentation for an outsourced function, the risks during the contracted period are identified, assessed and treatments (such as oversight and performance measurement) are fully built into the contract.  It is absolutely critical that compliance risks with the highest level consequences are included in this list.
Secondly, the organisation needs to ensure contract performance is proactively monitored and measured (i.e. do not simply accept the contractor’s performance reports as fact).
In essence, organisations need to remember that although you can outsource responsibility for the management of functions – you cannot outsource accountability for the consequences of not managing risk.  In simple terms – if the contractor fails – the organisation fails.
To reiterate – if an organisation owns the consequence it owns the risk.
If your organisation is one where contact management and contract assurance are not front of mind – or yours is one where the assumption is that the risk has been transferred to the contractor – I wish you all the very best of luck – you are going to need it!!!!!!!