Top 5 Things to Make Every Deal Better by Brian Buck
Welcome to 2020! It’s Scotwork’s 20th anniversary here in North America. While Scotwork has been a global presence for 45 years, we launched operations here in the US/Canada in 2000. During that time, our skilled negotiators and consultants have helped thousands of dealmakers to not only improve their deals, but also strengthen relationships and create more value for all involved. As such, we want to start off your year of dealmaking right, with 5 things you need to do to make every deal better. #1 - Prepare! Benjamin Franklin (and countless other smart people) said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Nowhere is this adage more applicable than at the negotiating table. Not to sound trite or obvious, but the reality is that most dealmakers don’t take time to prepare. Instead, they prefer to “wing it.” Typically,
that’s because they’re either overly confident in their abilities or they just don’t know how to prepare. Regardless of the reason, skilled negotiators love the unprepared; their sheer unpreparedness affords skilled negotiators endless opportunities to extract value. #2 - Check Your Ego At the Door Ego can derail a negotiation. When our egos come into play, a negotiation becomes all about ourselves. We tend to forget about the other party and focus solely on our importance and needs. During these times, we actually become more susceptible to falsehoods and truth-
distortion as we twist reality to suit our ego-driven fantasies. In other words, we start to believe our own BS. If you’re caught up in your ego, prepare to be exploited by a skilled negotiator. #3 - Keep Your Emotions Under Control I’m not an advocate for being emotionless at the negotiating table. In fact, I believe it’s nearly impossible to be emotionless — and that’s OK. What’s more important is controlling your emotions and not letting them
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