Author: Eugeniu Mihai

This author has written 15 articles

Learning from pilots how to better negotiate

Flying always fascinated me and, while I did not have the chance to become an airline pilot, I recently started having flying lessons as a hobby. I also started learning much more about what it means to be a pilot - and I realized that, as a business negotiator, I could learn a lot from pilots and step-change the chances of winning my deals. Let me start with one (negative) example: On Feb 21, 2008, Santa Barbara Airlines' Flight 518 taking off from Merida airport in Venezuela and heading to Caracas crashed into a nearby mountain shortly after departure, killing all its 46 people onboard. It was the deadliest accident involving…

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“Don’t leave me hanging!” – a desperate cry for normality

For some time I've been considering writing a post about something that I see increasingly more often and it gets me very worried: buyers never revert to suppliers or salespeople, therefore the negotiations are left "in the air". The title of this post, "Don't leave me hanging", comes from a supplier I met not long ago who literally begged me to give him feedback about his offer, no matter if it was a positive or a negative one. He said it smiling, trying to pretend it was a joke, but I could feel his bitterness, probably coming from previous unhappy encounters. In my 25+ years working in business, most of the…

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Characteristics of the best business relationships

While preparing for a "Elite Negotiator" workshop some time ago, I asked John E Pepper Jr., the former CEO, Chairman of the Board and President of Procter & Gamble, who orchestrated several multi-billion dollars acquisitions what would be, in his opinion, the most important characteristics of the best long-term business relationships.By the way, John's life-long belief (which I share wholeheartedly) is that "Life is all abot relationships", and that people do business with people, not companies with companies! This you will feel "perspiring" from his ideas below.His reply came fast, as always. He said that, from his experience, there are 4 characteristics which will signal that you are on track…

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Hamlet’s dillema in negotiation

A recent call from a good friend reminded me of Hamlet's Dillema: "To be or not to be?" But this time the context was less phyosophycal and more "down to earth": a business negotiation. And it is excellent example of winning negotiations with little power!In brief, here is the background of the situation: the Romanian subsidiary of my friend's company (let's call it "THE Service Provider") has been struggling for some time getting into a "green P/L" and his local team was (understandably so!) very stressed. When a high-budgetclient (let's call them "The White Knight") approached THE Service Provider looking for a 1-year collaboration contract, the team was very excited…

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How a bad internal negotiation could kill a brand

There are many ways to kill a brand, some achieving this deadly result faster than others. Screwing up the customer relationship is, in my opinion, the "most successful" one. I recently had a truly awful customer experience from one of my beloved brands. After the initial shock, I tried to understand why this happened, and the conclusion I reached is that the company manufacturing the brand decided to put the profits well ahead of the customers' needs. We all see this happening increasingly more nowadays,  and I strongly believe that, at the core, the issue is that the financial department won the internal negotiation with the brand team.So, what actually…

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The worst way to sell – and how to avoid it!

Is there such a thing like the "best way to sell"? Or the "worst way to sell"? Personally I believe yes and in this short article I will share my experience about the latter and tell you how to avoid "killing the sale with your own hands". These advices are 100% helping in  the selling process of both services and goods. As most of my business life I've been a client, I attended countless meetings in which suppliers tried to sell their goods or services. In the majority of cases, the potential suppliers made formal presentations, aiming at gaining us as a client.  What differentiated the successful suppliers from the unsuccessful…

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Know what and how to buy

A good friend of mine called me 2 weeks ago to ask my advice related to a purchase she had to make for her marketing team: a brochure for their forthcoming new brand launch. She has little commercial purchasing experience and wanted to get the most for her money, while avoiding potential pitfalls. So here are my condensed advices I gave her - which I hope will help you too! They refer to purchasing goods and also services and will help you know better what and how to buy what you need. Know what exactly you need to buy. Be clear in your mind what exactly you MUST get (mandatory) and…

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Negotiation tactics – how to use them wisely, without losing your soul

Negotiation tactics - a "hot" topic that I'm sure will draw a lot of readers for this post because apparently many people are "mesmerized" by them! But before digging into some of my learning regarding the best use of negotiation tactics, I want to talk about one of my favorite movies: "Shortcut to happiness". It's simply a brilliant movie, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Alec Baldwin. You might wonder what this move has to do with the title of this blog post? It might surprise you, but the two have one very important learning in common: both in life and negotiation, you must work hard to be…

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Negotiation deadlock – 5 reasons why it’s a great opportunity to win a deal

Negotiation deadlock: words that scare many people, even the more seasoned negotiators. And I will be very frank: the negotiation deadlock (still) frightens me too! Why is that? Simply because most human beings hate change, they hate uncertainty, particularly if it might have a negative outcome. And a negotiation deadlock brings exactly that: uncertainty about the fate of the negotiation. But it doesn't have to be like that! I will share with you in this blog 5 reasons why a deadlock can actually help you WIN the negotiation!Before going any further, let us have a clear definition of what the "negotiation deadlock" is. As per the Cambridge Dictionary, it is…

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Humor in negotiation – an often overlooked great winning strategy

Humor in negotiation? I know I'm raising many eyebrows with this topic. This is because negotiation is many times considered a very serious subject - which it is, by the way! And many times people run business negotiations extremely stiff and sober, rarely joking or even smiling. I've been in countless such negotiations and believe me, saying they weren't fun is an understatement. Yet, I often recall the answer of an international spy to the question "What is life?". He said: "It doesn't really matter; you are not getting out of it alive! So, don't take it so seriously all the time!"It may be my nature, but I am a…

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