The Apprentice: Episode 9 | Ben given an honourable discharge

I'm slightly concerned.  Both this weeks and last weeks shows have seen me liking two characters who previously I had been less than fond of after their appearance on You're Fired.  As with Philip last week, so it was with Ben this week.  It goes to show the rarified atmosphere of the competition and the distortions it makes on your character.  Anyway, last nights show saw the two teams tasked with selling baby items at a baby show at Earls Court.  The losing team, led by the ever likeable James, took the gamble to go with a very expensive set of rocking horses.  A gamble that unfortunately for them went wrong.

Risks are largely a fact of life, both personal and professional, so I have no qualms with taking a risk.  As both the team and Sir Alan noted, one sale would have turned the task on its head.  Where Ben and Debra did make a mistake however is in failing to negotiate the price of the horses, and it's on that issue that I'll focus on todays blog.

CMI Guide to Negotiation

There are a few things that are important to deal with when negotiating, and I'll attempt to outline a few of them here that would have helped the team last night, and hopefully you in your own business life.

1. Clarify your objectives - I feel this is something that went badly wrong last night.  It seemed that Debra forgot she was on The Apprentice and fell back into her childhood, desperate as she was simply to get the rocking horses.  Any commercial acumen went out of the window.  There task was to sell the products they chose and with that in mind getting as good a deal from the manufacturer was crucial.
2. Define your BATNA - Your BATNA (or Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) is crucial in any negotiation as it provides you with your fallback position, your position where you're happy to walk away from the negotiation.  Alas Ben and Debra didn't really have one as they had all but ruled out the other products on offer to them.
3. Analyse your own side - Do you have buying power?  Do you have 'board' support?  In both cases Debra and Ben had the full support of James, which in this case turned out to be a bad thing as they subsequently abused that power.  However when you have that support it does enable you to negotiate more powerfully, something alas that they failed to do.
4. Ask questions, lots of questions - It's been shown that effective negotiators ask twice as many questions as ineffective ones.  Did Ben and Debra ask enough about the rocking horses and the number of sales they make each year?  It's all very well them being sold to Kings and Queens, but are the Kings and Queens going to attend a baby show at Earls Court?
5. Close the deal - If you've negotiated well then closing should be a simple process as a win-win situation should have emerged.  Remember to keep your objectives in mind though so that what you believe to be a win is not actually a fail.

Negotiation is one of those things that we do all the time, often without even realising it.  However successful negotiation is something that few of us do well.  We argue over position or we put the people into the problem rather than focusing on interests.

3 Must Do CMI Negotiation Tips

1. Seperate people from the problem
2. Focus on interests, not positions
3. Generate a wide variety of options
4. Insist the result be based on some objective criteria (sorry, had to sneak that one in)

Well, that's our view on the show last night and how the losing team could have
performed their task better.  It'd be great to hear from you.  What did you think of last nights show?