Nicola Gelormino (00:00):
Hey entrepreneurs, you are making negotiating. Way too complicated. We have the no nonsense guide to negotiating on this edition of the Inside BSS Show. Hey, now I'm Nicki G. This is the Inside BSS Show. Here with me is Day Lorenzo, the godfather of Growth. Dave, how are you?

Dave Lorenzo (00:22):
Hey, now Nicki G I'm doing great. How are you today?

Nicola Gelormino (00:24):
I'm doing great, Dave. Thanks. Are you ready to negotiate?

Dave Lorenzo (00:29):
I am always ready to negotiate. My entire life is a negotiation. I negotiate with my wife, with my kids, with my dogs, with my neighbors. I negotiate every day. So let's have at it . We've got the no Nonsense Guide to Negotiation for you today. We're going to share with you our five main strategies, and main tips for getting to an agreement. And you can do it in a focused fashion. This is designed to give you a framework that you can use to make sense of any negotiation. Keep it in the back of your mind When you are haggling at a market or buying a car or making that big business deal, there's no need to overcomplicate it. So Nicki G, we're going to start with the first point, which is figure out what the other side really wants. When you negotiate a deal, the first thing you need to understand is where the other side is coming from.

(01:26):
It's just like working with somebody in any other business relationship. You want them to get what they need to get out of this. As long as you get what you need to get who caress, what difference does it make. So you've got to get to the bottom of what they really want and you're thinking to yourself, yeah, Dave, duh. But how do we do that? Well, the first thing you do is you do research upfront before you ever enter into the negotiation and do all of your due diligence. There is so much publicly accessible information available these days. E, even if you're a college student and you know how to do basic research, you are further ahead in any negotiation than most people would've been just five or 10 years ago. A regular Google search can on the principles involved in any negotiation, can help you understand what's personally important to them.

(02:15):
And then looking through public records that are not easily accessible, yet accessible. Nonetheless, you can find out voting information. You can find out properties that businesses and individuals own. You can find out what taxes they pay. You can find out if they or any of their entities had filed for bankruptcy. You can find out if they have any court cases or judgements against them. And this is just scratching the tip of the, I guess scratching the tip of the iceberg is not an expression, but I'm going to use it anyway. This is just scratching the surface. It's just the tip of the iceberg. I've been known to use a, an investigation company, a private investigator to into the background, anything legally accessible in the people that I'm negotiating with and the companies that I'm negotiating with so that I can understand what their real intentions are.

(03:10):
And then armed with all that information that I've digested and internalized and reviewed with my team, I sit down and the at the negotiating table and my first question to them is, Hey, what do you want? Why are we here? What do you want? What can I do for you? And then I can tell if we're getting off to a good start or not. All publicly available information is on the table. You should go out and do deep research on the people that you're negotiating with. Get anything that is legally permissible to access. And you'd be amazed at how inexpensive it is to work with a private investigator to just do some digging on the company or the individuals that you're sitting down across the table with so you can figure out what their real motivation is. Nicki G, what do you think?

Nicola Gelormino (03:58):
Absolutely. You have to already have done your homework before you are at the negotiating table. That is how you are going to know what is driving the other side. So it will allow you to overcome it so that Dave relates to my no nonsense Point Number two for negotiating, which is identifying in advance your points of leverage. If you don't have leverage, do not waste your time negotiating. You have to identify it, it exists. Sit down, take the time to think through, you know, what do we have that we can use as leverage in order to convince the other side to come to the table and accept our position. So it's not just about knowing what's motivating them, but it's also being able to understand like where you can create leverage so that you can convince them, especially on those really critical issues or you're going to get to in that agreement where there's going to be tough times trying to get through that and getting to persuade them to do that, you have to have leverage that will be behind what you're saying.

Dave Lorenzo (04:53):
Yeah, and that's where the due diligence really comes in handy because you don't know, they're not going to tell you what your leverage is, right? If you're going to buy a car and you're going to buy a car at the end of the month because you think the dealer needs to move a certain quantity of cars in order to get what's called their dealership holdback, the incentive for them to buy cars at a lower rate, you don't know if they've already met their quota. If they've already met their quota, they're not going to come down on the price just 'cause they want to move one or two more units that month. So yeah, buying a car at the end of the month is a good idea because all dealers are pushing to get all their deals in by the end of the month. But if that dealer is already way beyond their quota, they're not motivated to do the deal, the individual sales person may be motivated because they have a bonus or they have an incentive.

(05:40):
And the only way you find that out is by developing rapport and connecting with them. So doing your due diligence upfront leads to figuring out what the leverage is. Now when you enter into the negotiation, point number three is making sure you are clear on your, you have to have clarity of purpose going into the negotiation. What do you want to get out of this? What are your main deal points that you have to have as a result of this negotiation? And then everything else, if you had to give it up, is fine. So having clarity of purpose is point number three. Be really clear on what you want to get out of the negotiation and what you're not willing to do. What the red line is that you're not willing to go below. Now this is the point. If you take a Harvard negotiation class where they would tell you to figure out what your BATNA is, which stands for best alternative to a negotiated agreement, right?

(06:37):
What's your batna? And if you, if you've read Chris Voss book, never split the difference. I mean, he's a hostage negotiator, so there really is no alternative for him. Basically, the hostage dies. So that's not a good alternative in this case. We don't have to worry. We're business negotiators. So I always have an alternative, and that's how, that's like my anti leverage. I always, I I'm always working the same deal with two different people at the same time. And I will always, I'm not going to play them one off the other, but I always have an alternative. There's one that I like better. I'm not going to tell people which one I like better, but I always have two deals going. Sometimes they're in various stages, but I always have a contingency plan in case this negotiation falls apart. So clarity of purpose and what's your contingency? That's point number three. Hey, Nicki G did you know you can also get our show as an audio podcast?

Nicola Gelormino (07:34):
Of course, I know you can get the show as an audio podcast. I'm on it. But does our audience,

Dave Lorenzo (07:40):
I don't know. So those of you who are watching on YouTube, you can find us wherever you get your podcast with. Just search up the Inside bss show with the Godfather and Nicki G and you'll find us right there. Click the follow button so that you never miss a show. Now, there's a couple of reasons why you're going to want to do that. Nicki g tell 'em what the first reason is

Nicola Gelormino (08:01):
You get to ask us questions that is exclusive to our podcast listeners.

Dave Lorenzo (08:07):
Yeah, we only answer listener questions on the audio version of the podcast. We don't do it on video. So if you want to hear what everyone's thinking or if you want to ask us a question, you got to download the audio podcast. The second reason, and my favorite reason is because you can take us with you, you can have a little Nicki g in your pocket while you're working out in the gym, washing the dishes or walking the dog. I love me some Nicki g in my pocket when I'm walking the dogs. I don't know about you Nicola, but that's one of my favorite things to do. ,

Nicola Gelormino (08:38):
Absolutely. Take us with you

Dave Lorenzo (08:40):
After you watch this episode here on YouTube, go to wherever you get your podcast, click the follow button so we can go with you on your journey and you can ask us questions. We will see you or more like hear you there.

Nicola Gelormino (08:53):
Point number four is agree on the easy stuff. So there's a few reasons why you want to do this. You want to start agreeing on points or you know they're not going to be at issue. This is, these are things that you expect both sides will agree to. They should be quick to move through them. Why do you want to do that on the front end? You want to do that in the beginning because it already starts getting both parties in the mindset of being agreeable. So you start to make some headway. And now everyone in the room is already thinking, oh, this negotiation is going well. It is on track to reach a resolution. So by the time you get to the hard points in the deal, you've already made a substantial progress to get the parties to come together. They're already going to be a little bit more agreeable when you get to those tougher points in the, in the negotiations. Dave, what do you think?

Dave Lorenzo (09:41):
I I love that. Yeah, that's the, the momentum of agreeing to the easy stuff is great. I entered into a union negotiation in a hotel in New York City one time, and I was taking over the negotiation from, from somebody else. It was the people were still working. There was no, there was no strike. But, but they were past their deadline and the union was very, very upset. They didn't think the current negotiator was dealing with them in good faith, and it, it was just time the personalities had just worn on each other. So we changed negotiators. They didn't. And the first thing I did when I walked in was I gave up something that I knew I was going to give up eventually, but I gave it up right at the outset. I sat down across the table and one of their biggest things, this is before Martin Luther King was a, a Martin Luther King holiday, was a national holiday.

(10:27):
That's how long ago this is. I sat across the table from the negotiator, I introduced myself and I, and I shook his hand and I said, I've seen, I've seen your, I've seen your PR campaign. And candidly, I'm appalled that we have not given our employees Martin Luther King Martin Luther King's birthday as a holiday. So what we're willing to do is, because most of your employees are at this particular hotel, the employees who work at this particular hotel only, they will get Martin Luther King Martin Luther King's birthday as a holiday from now on. And the guy was shocked. He just, he sat back in his chair and he smiled and he said, I think you're somebody I can work with. And that's, that's how you use some of the easy stuff to, to pave the way. And he said, now I'm sure you're going to want something from me as a result of that.

(11:19):
And then I did something else, and I that shocked him. I said, I don't want anything from you. I said, I'm doing that to make sure we get off to a good start. I said, I'd like to get two or three other things resolved today before we end our session. They don't have to be big things, but let's pick two or three small things that you think we're close on. So he threw up two or three things that he thought we were close on, and we bang those out within like an hour and a half. So those quick wins, building momentum, what it really does is it builds up goodwill between the two sides so that when you get to the tougher stuff, you know that you're both operating from a framework goodwill, that you both really have the intention of making something happen and that you're not being, you're not just there to be difficult. What's the next point, Nicki G.

Nicola Gelormino (12:03):
So the final point here is when you are right at the end, you've got, you're down to, you know, what, what should be your final point or two points you want to bring the decision makers into the room. Now, two reason, two main reasons for doing that. One, it signifies to everyone that we are close enough to make a deal. This is going to happen. And two, we're not going to leave this room until it does. And there is a handshake to end this transaction. So now you've got the right mindset with everyone in the room that we are close enough, we are not leaving, we're getting this done today. And two, you have kept that momentum going, that you started building with the easy wins. So now here it is, we're all here to get this done and you're going to get it done. You want to make sure that you're showing that you've got the right folks in the room who know how to get this done, who have the authority to get it done, and that they're there willing to make that happen. And that's going to be how you're going to close out a good negotiation.

Dave Lorenzo (12:58):
You need authority, believability, and credibility in order to, in order to make sure that everybody is on board with the deal. And as skilled and deft as agents and lawyers are, there's no substitute for the person who signs the check sitting across the table from the person who's, you know, delivering the goods or the person who's handing them the contract. So for that last meeting, the principals are talking one-to-one. The agents can be there, the lawyers can be there, but it is principle to principle that signifies that both sides are serious. And that's how you make sure you get to the, to the end point where you're closing the deal. If you're an entrepreneur, negotiate your deals yourself. Your lawyer should be with you. If you're doing real estate transactions, your agent should be with you, but you should negotiate the closing of the deal yourself because that denotes seriousness. It shows that you really want to get the deal done, and that's going to be the way we get this deal done today. And that's your no-nonsense Guide to Business negotiation. I'm Dave Lorenzo, the Godfather of Growth, and she's

Nicola Gelormino (14:11):
Nicki G.

Dave Lorenzo (14:12):
And we'll see you right back here again tomorrow for another edition of our show. Until then, here's hoping you make a great living and live a great life.