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

4. No Need to Waffle
Emails allow you to be very clear and precise and to get across your point of view. Use this, don’t be long-winded and verbose, it won’t get read. Time is on your side. Use it to refine, not to witter. I remember Seth Godin once said that once he had written a book he then reviewed it to remove 20% of the words to make it easier to read and more to the point.
5. Beware Passive Aggressive Ahead!
Be aware people can naturally be much more aggressive and threatening when using an impersonal method of communication. Read behind the lines or words. Don’t be aggressive yourself. That will just fan the flames of conflict. Be yourself. Use one of 3 diffusing techniques, call it, throw it back, or find something funny.
Call it, throw it back, or find something funny:
Call It:

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  Buyer – ‘You are the worst account manager I have ever met, do you even know what negotiating means?!’‘.
  
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  You – ‘You are being aggressive. I will not engage with that tone and ask you to modify your tone please because we are both people trying to do the best for our respective companies’
  

Throw It Back:

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  ‘I can get better prices from other suppliers’.
  
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  ‘Equally, I can get better prices from other customers. We need to find a way to work together. I suggest we meet next on Wednesday week at your office at a time to suit you. Are you open to this?’. People do not want to be seen not to be open, so using ‘open’ is a good word to use.
  
• 
  

Find Something Funny:

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  ‘I want to see your Boss’.
  
• 
  ‘Well, I want to see your Mum because if she could hear or read some of your language she would wash your mouth out with soap!’.
  
• 
  

6. Written Negotiation Has an Advantage
Keep a track of all emails, and messages. Keep an archive or make good notes. A complex deal will span many calls/emails. Going back to our chess analogy, you need to be able to review all the moves. Ideally, print all the correspondence so that you can more easily spot inconsistencies. For each piece of correspondence put a note of who it is from, the date, the time, and the main thrust of the correspondence. Then have these as a summary on a page.