When I talk to CEOs, I find that most of them think they are better at, or at least more comfortable with selling, than negotiating.
That’s interesting, because arguable, negotiating is a more important skill for a CEO to possess.
Of course, in many situations negotiating can be more complicated than selling.
That’s why I liken selling to checkers and negotiating to chess.
Using that analogy, Herb Cohen was a chess grandmaster.
In 1980, Playboy magazine called Herb “The World’s Best Negotiator”.
The following year Time Magazine said, “If you are ever in a crucial life-changing negotiation, the person you want on your side of the table is Herb Cohen.”
He was an advisor to 4 US presidents – Ronald Reagan called on his expertise to resolve the Iranian hostage crisis during the late 1970s and he helped bring 52 American citizens home safely.
He also worked in ‘our world’ where he negotiated mergers and acquisitions.
And he wrote the New York Times bestseller ‘You Can Negotiate Anything’.
I was reminded of that book title the other night whilst watching ‘Breaking Bad’ on Netflix when the main character, an ex high school chemistry teacher turned ‘meth’ cook called Walter White said:
“Name me one thing that isn’t negotiable?”
Negotiation not needed there then – seems like both the good guys and bad guys agree on the principle that ‘everything’ is negotiable!
Think about it and you might find that there are situations both internally and externally where you’ve used your sales skills when negotiating skills might have been more appropriate.
And who knows, you might have reached an even better outcome.