Bad Negotiation: Mistakes to Avoid at the Bargaining Table

Every day, we read different opinions regarding Joe Biden's decision to leave Afghanistan. Like all big decisions, time will tell. A quick trip down memory lane reveals many poor choices made by large companies filled with bright people, and we wonder, how did they let that happen? Depending on how far you go back, you may think of Edsel, Classic Coke, Blockbuster, or any of hundreds of other examples. And you think,  How could any group of savvy business people ever have thought that would be a good idea?

Well, my friends, that is an excellent question! 

Remember back when Google was just another search engine with a funny name? 

Today Google's parent company (Alphabet) has a net worth estimated at around $900 billion—a bit more than the $750,000 it was worth in 1999. At that time Excite was a highly trafficked search engine at the forefront of the dot-com boom. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, recognizing Excite's stature, tried to sell their search engine to Excite for $1 million. Getting nowhere, they eventually reduced their asking price to $750K. Excite CEO George Bell turned them down. A few years later, AskJeeves bought his company, following a precipitous drop in the price of Excite's stock.

Now, it's possible that other executives at Excite saw the value in acquiring Google, but they couldn't negotiate convincingly enough to make their boss, Bell, see the light. If that's what happened, then Bell's loss was also their loss.

How many times have you stayed quiet in a meeting, knowing that the decision being made was not the best one?

It was probably apparent to other people besides you that it was a bad decision. But they, and maybe you were out-negotiated by others who were more passionate about their beliefs, better at marshaling others in support, or just plain bulldozer types, who spend their entire careers bullying their way through organizations.

If you've ever wondered about the importance of negotiation, wonder no more. Every decision, good or bad, business or personal, is the result of a negotiation. Negotiation determines the quality of your life, your government, and your world. It makes anything possible. Get good at it.

Good negotiating to you