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How successful negotiators deal with an egotiator



In 2015, Arnott’s biscuits, Australia’s largest biscuit manufacturer, owned by Campbell Soup Co., announced a 10% price increase of most of their products. Coles Supermarkets did not accept the price increase and labelled it as unjustified. Both parties were not willing to negotiate and consequently Arnott’s stopped supplying Coles with their products. 

This standoff lasted for two weeks and Coles eventually accepted some price increases on some of the products but not on all of them.

Coles and Arnott’s went from an initial ‘non-negotiable’ to a ‘negotiable’ position and the two parties continue to do business together.
The two parties do need each other, Arnott’s is an iconic brand and their products can’t be missing in supermarket shelves; and Coles is one of Arnott’s major customers.
Initially both parties displayed their egos which resulted in a standoff.

When both parties use their ego in a negotiation it becomes counterproductive and sabotages the negotiation. Portraying ego in a negotiation can also ruin the negotiator’s reputation and can be detrimental to the negotiation outcome in many ways.

Spotting an egotiator is easy as the person likes to show off, wants to be right all the time and knows everything. With such an approach the egotiator is likely to give away too much information and will agree to deals in the spur of a moment.

While ego does put people off, it allows the other party to control and manipulate the egotiator.
Ego in a negotiation distorts the understanding of the issues on hand and how to come to a deal. Egotiators have pride and if the other party says something that hurts their pride then the egotiator can get off course and get emotional.

Pride is destructive to the negotiation as pride makes you unable to admit that you don’t have the information on hand out of fear of losing superiority. Fearing loss of superiority makes the egotiator wing their way through the negotiation making costly mistakes.

If you come across an egotiator make sure you use that to your advantage. Make them feel superior, let them talk and ask them questions. They love to hear their own voice and love to look as if they know everything. All you do is use that information to your advantage make them feel valued and you focus on getting the best deal for yourself.

www.octalonegotiation.com


#negotiationskills #ego #negotiation #negotiationtraining

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