Sunday, May 11, 2014

Interview: Effectively Negotiating a Deal

I had the opportunity to interview an upcoming director and engineer, named BeatsMaster. With more than 5 years of experience in the entertainment industry, BeatsMaster is no rookie to the game. His background in music includes playing the bass guitar, the piano, the drums, the saxophone, making beats, studio engineering, and singing. All his musical skills have equipped him to pursue a career in directing and producing music. As a result, he recently opened his own production company and I interviewed him about his negotiation process in sealing the deal to open and operate his business. The three different negotiation techniques we discussed were Interests v. Positions, Separating the People from the Problem, and Mutual Benefit.

Negotiation Technique: Keeping an Eye on the Prize: Interests v. Positions
During the interview, I asked BeatsMaster about his negotiation techniques. According to BeatsMaster, negotiations have a lot to do with securing successful business deals in the entertainment industry. He stated that sometimes, music artists or producers go into a business meeting without being thoroughly prepared to make an effective deal. He said that that is the downfall for many unsuccessful negotiations. In response, I asked him how would he suggest that someone prepare for a negotiation. In response, BeatsMaster stated that the key is to think like the opponent; doing so forces him to think about his opponent’s position on where he/she stands in the negotiation process and it also helps him to have a better understanding of the opponent’s interests. In addition, he stated that being prepared in that way keeps him focused on really understanding what is being negotiated. I stated that he is absolutely correct and that he is focusing on his opponent’s interests. In negotiations, in order to solve the problems, both parties should focus on their opponent’s interests and not their positions.

Negotiation Technique: Re-focusing: Separating the People from the Problem
I continued the interview by asking BeatsMaster how he would deal with difficult opponents and how he would separate the people from the problem. In response, BeatsMaster stated, as stated above, that he tries to remain focused on the problem at all times. When negotiating the deal for his new company, he stated that he started to become frustrated when his opponent started to become difficult during the negotiation process. As a result, the negotiation took a halt and did not go anywhere. When BeatsMaster realized that his frustration prevented him from making effective decisions, he remembered to go back to focusing on the problem at hand. In that way, he removed his attitude, along with his opponent’s attitude from the equation, and proceeded to focus on the problem instead.  

Negotiation Technique: Win-Win Deal: Mutual Benefit
I concluded the interview by asking BeatsMaster how he ended up reaching a final agreement and obtaining ownership of his own production company. In response, BeatsMaster stated that he and his opponent ultimately had to focus on their interests and decide on a deal that would work out for all parties involved. Furthermore, I asked whether a mutual benefit was reached. He stated that he honestly did not feel like he got the best out of the negotiation in the final agreement. BeatsMaster felt as if he had no choice but to settle on some issues. He stated that although he was trying to reach a mutual benefit, his opponent was not so willing to either agree or negotiate on certain issues. But on a positive note, BeatsMaster left the negotiation knowing that the deal was good enough for him to still start and operate his own company and run a successful it nonetheless. As a lesson learned, BeatsMaster stated that being unable to gain a better benefit deal in his favor impacted the way he would conduct business negotiations in the future. He stated that he will always try to make sure that both parties leave the negotiation with mutual benefits they are both content with – he added that such contentment paves the foundation for future business dealings with each other.

No comments:

Post a Comment