Vistage speaker Malcolm Smith held a negotiation workshop in September 2011 with Vistage Group 41 which draws its members from the Sussex and Kent area.
Malcolm made a bold opening statement to the group at the workshop. By applying his negotiation tools and techniques the group in total would, in a short space of time, be able to save £250,000. Needless to say the members took this with a pinch of salt!
In the last group meeting of 2011 it became clear that the members had not only reached this target in the space of three months, they had in fact achieved savings of around £400,000.
What is particularly interesting is that the members managed to achieve this by seeking ‘win-win’ negotiation outcomes. Malcolm’s phrase “this has got to work for us” has quickly become a mantra for some of the businesses, and everyone is now aware of the importance of having a list of negotiation tradeables. One of the group members also said: “We’re having so much fun negotiating now!”