Dealing With Hardball Negotiation Styles | Solutions to Top 3 Heavy-Hitters

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As special event and hospitality professionals, chances are that no matter what your title, you are responsible in some capacity for negotiating daily.  Whether you are in charge of maintaining long-term clients and contracts, trying to secure a new one, overseeing a departmental team where there is conflict, trying to resolve an unhappy situation and much more.  Let's just say this:  if one is working with people in any capacity, one always has the opportunity to negotiate in some capacity.  And with the human element always comes a variety of negotiating tactics. 


Negotiations generally involve some element of conflict. That conflict could be a situation where both parties are at an impasse; it could be because of a lack of trust;  a general spirit of antagonism, or where someone just refuses to act in good faith. Winning negotiations sometimes is just about money or muscle.  But what if you don't have either in a particular situation?

Here are our top three most seen hardball negotiator tactics and our suggested negotiating tips for dealing with each:

The Ultimatum:  When someone says that they will "never..." .   Ignore it.  There is no need to ask what they meant, ask for further clarification, etc.  One must realize that ultimatums are often said emotionally without really thinking or it is simply an attempt to try and gain some control.  If, for some reason, the ultimatum cannot be ignored, you can try letting the other party know that you understand that given how they are feeling right now, this may be difficult to do.  This gives them two ways out:  it states it is "difficult", but implies not "impossible", and also  suggests that their way of feeling right now is not forever.  It disarms and allows room for change (more negotiation) and saving face for all downstream. Overall, it doesn't allow anyone to slam a door permanently closed. 

The "I-Will- Have-To-Check-With-Someone-Else-Before-I-Can-Give-You-My-Answer" Tactic:  Especially with weddings, we encounter this.  While there's certainly nothing wrong with the fact that someone wants to talk things over with their partner before committing to a contract, we are addressing the type of situation where you have been working on a potential contract for months with one individual as your contact,  and when you finally reach the place where they are ready to sign, this same individual says that they need more time or someone else's permission to sign the contract.  This situation may be more relevant with corporate contracts and is usually a stalling technique so they can continue to shop around.  This occurrence generally happens because of one big mistake:  how the proposal/contract/negotiating process was going to take place was not discussed up front.  The process (i.e. asking what the other party's timeframe is, are all the individuals responsible for the decision-making process present, what the next steps for meetings will be, etc) is more important for establishing a successful negotiation than the actual content of the contract itself.  Always establish the process before the content.

The "I-Have-One-More-Thing" Tactic:  Sometimes, right as a client is signing a contract after painfully long negotiations, they will throw in last minute contingencies to the agreement.  They may even throw this in if they feel you are too eager to make a deal.  While the special event industry is based on customization and changing and updating proposals constantly, we are addressing this situation when used in the context as an obvious negotiating tactic. It may also be that the client has truly thought of something very important that they had forgotten up until this point.  Either way,  this is very simply handled by asking the client why this is important to them, because you want to listen to them and accommodate them if it is truly a legitimate concern.  You can let them know that you are not willing to re-negotiate isolated individual items, however,  this late in the process;   if they need adjustments to the contract, you both need to discuss what kinds of concessions that they would be willing to make in return.  If their issue is really that important, they need to demonstrate that your negotiated items have value, too. 

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Engaging Inspiration provides inspired marketing, training, and social media designed to engage and inspire the special event and hospitality industry.  To learn more about it or Chief Innovator of Ideas Designed to Sparkle and Engage Kerry Lee Dickey, visit our Website