Negotiating by Email Plan the Challenges of Conducting Negotiations by Email Improve Your Negotiations By Email

11. Use the Subject Heading
On average we receive 88 emails per day. Whilst we like to think that our cleverly worded email has been read with the same enthusiasm we had to write it, they won’t. Use the subject heading like that of a newspaper. Get their attention and do it credibly. Not, ‘Freddie Starr At My Hamster’, but ‘Premium Range Sales +67% If We Get this Deal Right’.
12. Are You Alone?
Be aware of other people listening in/conference calls or cc and bcc in emails. Are your email negotiations with a team? You could always ask – ‘Can we be clear that it is just You and I conducting this negotiation? No other participants?’.
13. We Are Heading for a Fall
Be aware it is much easier to create or impose deadlock or brinkmanship with emails. Especially so if the balance of power is with them as it is in the case of most UK supermarkets and their suppliers. Brinkmanship is dangerous for the smaller party. They may ‘cut off their nose to spite their face’ knowing they can always call you back in later.
You need to read the signs of potential deadlock. For example, email silence, extreme sanctions or threats, a sudden ‘hardening’ of their language. Don’t be intimidated. That’s what they want. Continue to diffuse the situation in a calm and professional manner pointing out that they are taking you down a route that will be wrong and costly for both of you. Moreover, that there is another, better, way if they engage with you.
An Example:
‘Your response to my request for seasonal markdown support was not sufficient and is nowhere near what other suppliers have offered. You have until close of play today to meet my request.’
Your reply: ‘I am disappointed that we are in a situation where you seem to want to damage both our businesses. We have provided you with the very best support available as the deal currently stands. We do not want to go down the path of confrontation and deadlock because we’ll both lose. However, we are very willing to engage in a constructive two-way discussion that leads down a better more profitable path for both of us. I am available all day for your call or email and my aim is to work together to resolve this for us both.’
Using ‘because’ has been proven to be very powerful. Read the research.