After writing blog post for the past two years on various aspects of making a strong impact in starting and running a business. We decided to try something a little different from recent post and write about the negotiation process, which many of us will face on a daily basis in the entertainment industry. We've never used the interview technique to obtain industry insight but this week at Savage Beauty we decided to use the interview method. For the interview we went with an Orlando based event center owner who promotes many events mainly those dealing with night parties. I conducted the interview with Dave Howell Jr. owner of The Magic Event Center in Orlando, FL., the interview covered the topic of how he would handle different aspects of the negotiation process in a way that is beneficial to all parties involved at any given negotiation.
For this interview the following questions were asked and we were provided with the following answers:
1.
How do you separate the people from the problem
when you are negotiating?
Dave focuses on the issue at hand but
believes that in negotiation it is not always wise to separate the people from the
problem. He believes that you should embrace the people and the problem as to
come up with a solution for the two. “There are levels to this”, sometimes it’s
good to separate the people from the problem but not always because people make
decisions based off of how they feel and they may not always do the best thing.
2.
How do you handle positional bargaining tactics?
Dave tries to find a balance between
the two. In any business you don’t want to do anything that will sway you from
your overall objective. You look for the balance where both parties can walk
away feeling a bit uncomfortable about their positions, both feeling like they
gave up something to get what they wanted. When there is a deal and only one
party feels good about it then somebody got over on somebody else. Each party
may not realize it at the time but the sum result should be that both parties
got what they wanted. Sometimes we forget that one transaction is not the end
all of transactions that we will do, and sometimes we negotiate with that in
mind.
3.
Can you give me an example of how you worked
toward mutual benefit when you were negotiating a deal?
You have to think win, win. As in when his
company books events, promoters or event planners have a mission and a budget
in mind that they want to stay within. You have to first find out what that
mission and budget is, and look to match their budget with the company’s
objectives. This creates a follow-up matching atmosphere; you follow up with
the promoter and match to the company until there is satisfaction on both
sides.
By mixing the ideas learned from this weeks class readings from "Getting to Yes" by Robert Fisher and William Ury, and thoughts from Dave Howell we have gathered various insight into the negotiation process.
