Get what you want

Negotiating is more common in the golf industry than one might think. Negotiations are common with cart leases, labor agreements, employee contracts, equipment leases and operating/maintenance agreements. However, many people aren’t successful negotiators and need practice to become good at it. Bob Quintella, deputy director of parks, recreations and neighborhoods department for the city of Modesto Calif., presented some tips about how to become a better negotiator a few months ago at the National Institute of Golf Management at Oglebay Resort in West Virginia.

LEGAL CONTRACT BASICS

There are three essential elements of a legal contract: the offer, the acceptance and the consideration. But contracts have many components. They include: Agreement date Recitals Services Definitions Attachments Term of contract Termination Option to renegotiate Insurance Indemnity License and permits Defaults Reports Assignments (related to sale of company your doing business with) Notices General terms Consideration (what your offering)

The reason for negotiating is to get some change to an existing agreement. To start with, one needs to know a contract inside and out because the better off he’ll be during the negotiations.

There are five possible outcomes to negotiations:

1. Lose-lose
2. Win-win
3. Lose-win
4. Win-lose
5. No outcome

Negotiations need to be win-win because renegotiating isn’t fun, especially if you work for a city because city council has to accept it, Quintella says. The most critical elements of a negotiation are:

• Preparation
• Ambition
• Focus
• Information
• Power

And fostering that win-win situation includes:

• Learning to manage your reactions
• Learning to understand other’s emotions
• Accurately identifying other’s positions
• Know counterparts dissatisfaction
• Acknowledge counterparts power

Still, there are three keys to creating a win-win situation: avoid narrowing, realizing the counterpart’s needs are different and don’t assume. Knowing what the other side wants as much as knowing what you want is important, Quintella says. He suggests setting a strategy and knowing timelines and deadlines.

His top 10 tips for a successful negotiated contract are:

1. Develop a win-win philosophy
2. Know what’s negotiable and what’s not
3. Allow for leeway
4. Do your research
5.Be polite, yet firm
6. Make your final offer clear
7. Know when to be silent
8. Commit in writing
9. Review previous contracts
10. Set negotiation parameters (i.e., who can attend the meeting, timeliness and ground rules)

On the flip side, the 10 biggest faults of negotiations are:

1. Inadequate planning
2. Inadequate research of issues 3. Failing to negotiate internally first
4. A rigid mindset
5. Giving concessions too quickly
6. Responding too quickly to demands
7. Putting yourself in customers’ shoes
8. Not calling a time-out
9. Letting egos interfere
10. Inattentive follow through

During the process, it’s a good idea to have a chief spokesman who grants permission to respond. It’s also a good ideas to prevent the team from weakening or succumbing to the other point. Wrapping up, someone who isn’t part of the negotiations is a good person to choose for the one who has final approval. GCI