It Project Manager experience-how to negotiate

When talking about the negotiation, many IT project managers will say "it has nothing to do with me. It is a high-level task ." If you are wrong, negotiation may not necessarily be with a business partner company. In fact, negotiation is everywhere. You need to judge with your team members, such as working overtime, catching up with the schedule, and discussing their problems; you need to negotiate with superior leaders for resources and more support. You need to negotiate with other departments, for example, to protect the interests of your team and win support from other teams, you need to negotiate with the customer, such as controlling the scope of the project, how to add new requirements, and how to change requirements.

How can we negotiate? I think it is very important to discuss the following points.

Make full preparations before negotiation and inform the other party as appropriate

If the negotiation is initiated by you, you cannot have the idea of "let's see it at the time". You must be fully prepared and think about the response and strategy from the perspective of the other party. I want to know what the other party is most concerned about and what other potential concerns the other party has? Under what circumstances can the other party make concessions? What is the contact point? And so on. Inform the other party in advance of your expectation for a meeting and the main content of the meeting. This aims to make it easier for the other party to understand the theme of the meeting and effectively control the scope and topic of the meeting, and to respect the other party. Please prepare in advance. But when is the notification appropriate? I suggest you refer to the identity of the other party, the initiative of the other party in this matter, and try to reduce the preparation time of the other party.

Gradually guided to the desired model and clarified the negotiation prerequisites

After starting the negotiation, we must first clarify the premise of the negotiation, do not waste time on unnecessary issues, and then gradually guide the other party to understand what we hope to achieve and why. Of course, the time for these two problems is as short as possible, so do not waste too much time.

Listen to each other's ideas and express your thoughts clearly

We recommend that you do not talk too much about other things that have nothing to do with the negotiation, or you may be confused about your ideas.

Note that the negotiation involves interests and relationships, neither atmosphere nor emotion.

The focus of the negotiation is on the interests of both parties, and we must maintain a good cooperative relationship. It is meaningless not to compete for a moment or simply to show that I have won, in addition, this is doomed to a failed negotiation. In addition, you must identify what you want and what you need. Negotiation is definitely about maximizing your own interests, but we must set the goal in line with the actual situation, because another main purpose of the negotiation is that the two sides can further cooperate.

Never give in, unless exchanged, to maintain a win-win situation

I often hear the project manager say, "Alas, I lose, the customer wins" after the negotiation. This negotiation has failed from the very beginning. One principle of negotiation is that it is absolutely impossible to make concessions, unless it can be exchanged with other conditions and with your other very important concerns, this will maintain a win-win situation and promote the next cooperation.
For example, if a customer asks for a change, we should first discuss whether the change is necessary and whether there are other solutions to minimize the impact of the change, are you willing to bear the cost and progress impact of the change, and are you willing to bear the quality impact of the increase in demand, but the progress and cost do not change? Finally, if the customer insists that the fee is not paid and the change must be made, in exchange, ask the customer to confirm that this is the last proposed change, or as an exchange customer, we need to test and deliver the project and other conditions after this change, and maintain a good cooperative relationship during the negotiation process.

Negotiating place

Generally, formal business negotiation may be divided into two sides. If you are in your company, you can make some clever arrangements, such as closing the window, lowering the chair of the other party makes the other Party feel depressed. If you are talking to a team member, you 'd better stay a little closer and sit close to the other party.

I think of this for the time being. You are welcome to add and discuss it.