7 ms·

I feel like he really dropped the ball on negotiating the sale. It seems like he didn't make any counters, and didn't use their competing interest to reap a hig

by ericb 16y ago

I feel like he really dropped the ball on negotiating the sale. It seems like he didn't make any counters, and didn't use their competing interest to reap a higher price. I was expecting at least a cease and desist or lawsuit would be involved.

jmtame 16y ago
rule number one: never negotiate in person (especially if you're inexperienced)
- staunch 16y ago
  Steve Jobs should not follow this rule.
  - philwelch 16y ago
    Rule number two: Avoid negotiating directly with Steve Jobs.
    - Vivtek 16y ago
      That should be rule number one, actually.
    - ajju 16y ago
      I am not sure about that. If you are a golfer and you have an opportunity to play with Tiger Woods, would you let it go? The mitigating factor is that you may be betting your life on it, still, I wouldn't avoid it just because it's Jobs. Maybe I am too cavalier.
      - philwelch 16y ago
        OK, negotiate directly with Steve Jobs if you can afford to lose what's at stake, and then everyone else will seem easier by comparison.
        ajju 16y ago
        Someone's got to be better than Jobs at negotiating. Most likely, it's not me, but I'd give it a shot ;)
- amackera 16y ago
  How do you do it? Email? Telephone? I'm legitimately interested, my negotiation skills are weak.
  - duck 16y ago
    Show them you are ol'school and go with a fax.
    - dedward 16y ago
      Did they have fax machines at the time?
  - kls 16y ago
    Work with a third party delegate that you know is good at negotiating. If you don't know one off the top of your head and you are in a pinch, go with the cockiest asshole you know. While they may not be skilled negotiators, there attitude will deflect a lot of the low ball crap like the scare tactics mentioned in this article. Negotiating is a mental game and that is why they say if you are weak at it don't do it in person. You will give yourself away with dozens of non-verbal actions. You can learn to not exhibit certain behaviors but that is only a third of the game, you also have to be firm and confident (the mental part) which has to be in your nature and then finally you have to be able to read their non-verbal communication. That is why if you are not good, you are better to battle it out on a different field, as you are given the other party a significant advantage, 2/3 as a matter of fact, you are given them your non-verbal indicators and you are not picking up theirs, so you now you only have the last 1/3 to stand on. Hence if you have to do it, find an asshole because they have mastered that 1/3. To answer you question more directly, a skilled delegate should be your first line, email should be your second and phone should be your third. Without a delegate, email is your best bet because you have the luxury of getting other people to vet it before the communication happens. Try to avoid the phone while negotiations are taking place, they are going to try to ambush you with a phone call, if they are a good negotiator because it bring you back half way to their battleground. In your first email on negotiations try to set the stage for email being the grounds that negotiations will take place. There is a plethora of valid reasons to do it over email, find one and stick with it. If the initial contact happens in person, try to exit the situation without an answer like, let me think it over and I will get back to you or I have to discuss it with my partners (wife, dad, dog) before I can give you a firm commitment. This places the current negotiations in a suspended state, until you are in a position to resume them on your chosen battleground.
statictype 16y ago
What he really wanted was for this to be bundled with the Mac. So that probably clouded his ability to negotiate a better deal. There's no logic in the assertion that because he worked at Apple and had insider knowledge, that Apple should have to pay less for it.
- alexyim 16y ago
  That isn't the assertion though. The assertion is that he shouldn't be able to charge whatever he wants.
  - statictype 16y ago
    Well, true. But I think that's still a ridiculous assertion though.
  - Gormo 16y ago
    I would have said. "Ok, 30% of the product relies on insider knowledge. You can have that for free. How much is the remaining 70% worth to you?" Apple wasn't paying for the same insider knowledge of their platform's functionality that they already had; they were paying for the additional work that created new functionality. I don't see any reason why he shouldn't have asked for as much as he thought the product was worth.
10ren 16y ago
Oh man you reckon that's poor negotiation skills, wait til you check out this guy http://www.nucalc.com/Story/ http://www.nucalc.com/Story/ EDIT found a video of Ron telling the story in person http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7497796873809571567# http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7497796873809571567...
- johnaspden 16y ago
  Ron appears to have got what he wanted, starting from a very bad position!
- JoeAltmaier 16y ago
  "Sadly, Microsoft has effective building security". That says it all, about corporate mentality.
- estel 16y ago
  Just watched that, can't believe I'd never seen it before. Awesome!
powrtoch 16y ago
Agreed. "Don't argue" seems like a really powerful negotiation technique if you've got the charisma/intensity to actually pull it off.

by ericb 16y ago

jmtame 16y ago

rule number one: never negotiate in person (especially if you're inexperienced)

staunch 16y ago
Steve Jobs should not follow this rule.
- philwelch 16y ago
  Rule number two: Avoid negotiating directly with Steve Jobs.
  - Vivtek 16y ago
    That should be rule number one, actually.
  - ajju 16y ago
    I am not sure about that. If you are a golfer and you have an opportunity to play with Tiger Woods, would you let it go? The mitigating factor is that you may be betting your life on it, still, I wouldn't avoid it just because it's Jobs. Maybe I am too cavalier.
    - philwelch 16y ago
      OK, negotiate directly with Steve Jobs if you can afford to lose what's at stake, and then everyone else will seem easier by comparison.
      - ajju 16y ago
        Someone's got to be better than Jobs at negotiating. Most likely, it's not me, but I'd give it a shot ;)
amackera 16y ago
How do you do it? Email? Telephone? I'm legitimately interested, my negotiation skills are weak.
- duck 16y ago
  Show them you are ol'school and go with a fax.
  - dedward 16y ago
    Did they have fax machines at the time?
- kls 16y ago
  Work with a third party delegate that you know is good at negotiating. If you don't know one off the top of your head and you are in a pinch, go with the cockiest asshole you know. While they may not be skilled negotiators, there attitude will deflect a lot of the low ball crap like the scare tactics mentioned in this article. Negotiating is a mental game and that is why they say if you are weak at it don't do it in person. You will give yourself away with dozens of non-verbal actions. You can learn to not exhibit certain behaviors but that is only a third of the game, you also have to be firm and confident (the mental part) which has to be in your nature and then finally you have to be able to read their non-verbal communication. That is why if you are not good, you are better to battle it out on a different field, as you are given the other party a significant advantage, 2/3 as a matter of fact, you are given them your non-verbal indicators and you are not picking up theirs, so you now you only have the last 1/3 to stand on. Hence if you have to do it, find an asshole because they have mastered that 1/3. To answer you question more directly, a skilled delegate should be your first line, email should be your second and phone should be your third. Without a delegate, email is your best bet because you have the luxury of getting other people to vet it before the communication happens. Try to avoid the phone while negotiations are taking place, they are going to try to ambush you with a phone call, if they are a good negotiator because it bring you back half way to their battleground. In your first email on negotiations try to set the stage for email being the grounds that negotiations will take place. There is a plethora of valid reasons to do it over email, find one and stick with it. If the initial contact happens in person, try to exit the situation without an answer like, let me think it over and I will get back to you or I have to discuss it with my partners (wife, dad, dog) before I can give you a firm commitment. This places the current negotiations in a suspended state, until you are in a position to resume them on your chosen battleground.

statictype 16y ago

What he really wanted was for this to be bundled with the Mac. So that probably clouded his ability to negotiate a better deal. There's no logic in the assertion that because he worked at Apple and had insider knowledge, that Apple should have to pay less for it.

alexyim 16y ago
That isn't the assertion though. The assertion is that he shouldn't be able to charge whatever he wants.
- statictype 16y ago
  Well, true. But I think that's still a ridiculous assertion though.
- Gormo 16y ago
  I would have said. "Ok, 30% of the product relies on insider knowledge. You can have that for free. How much is the remaining 70% worth to you?" Apple wasn't paying for the same insider knowledge of their platform's functionality that they already had; they were paying for the additional work that created new functionality. I don't see any reason why he shouldn't have asked for as much as he thought the product was worth.

10ren 16y ago

Oh man you reckon that's poor negotiation skills, wait til you check out this guy http://www.nucalc.com/Story/ http://www.nucalc.com/Story/ EDIT found a video of Ron telling the story in person http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7497796873809571567# http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7497796873809571567...

johnaspden 16y ago
Ron appears to have got what he wanted, starting from a very bad position!
JoeAltmaier 16y ago
"Sadly, Microsoft has effective building security". That says it all, about corporate mentality.
estel 16y ago
Just watched that, can't believe I'd never seen it before. Awesome!

powrtoch 16y ago

Agreed. "Don't argue" seems like a really powerful negotiation technique if you've got the charisma/intensity to actually pull it off.