“I thought the seminar was very useful. I've been using some techniques in my daily negotiations ever since. In fact, I thought the information was so valuable that I want to bring the KARRASS seminar In-House for our world-wide conference.”

John Copley,
Manager,
Commodity Purchases,
CORNING

KARRASS Effective Negotiating® Tip

Breaking An Impasse
by Dr. Chester L. Karrass

You did everything right, yet you find yourself at an impasse with the other party. What do you do?

Too many negotiations break down for the wrong reasons.

Impasses are not always caused by world-shattering issues or great matters of economics. In my experience, many breakdowns are the result of simple things like personality differences, fear of loss-of-face, troubles within the organizations, a poor working relationship with the boss, or the sheer inability to make a decision. Any consideration of how to break an impasse must take into account the human factor. It may not be what you do, but how you do it that becomes the critical factor.

I have found several moves useful in averting or breaking an impasse:

1. If the impasse involves money – offer to change the shape of the money. A larger deposit, a shorter pay period, or a different payment stream works wonders – even when the total amount of money involved is the same.

2. Change a team member or the team leader.

3. Eliminate some of the uncertainty. This can be done by postponing some difficult parts of the agreement for renegotiation at a later time when you have more information.

4. Change the scope of risk527sharing. A willingness to share unknown losses or gains may restore a lagging discussion.

5. Change the time scale of performance. Maybe it’s OK to complete 60% over 4 months rather than 3 months. It might be easier to start slower and still complete the job within the desired timeframe.

6. Assure satisfaction by recommending grievance procedures or guarantees.

7. Move from a competitive mode to a cooperative problem-solving mode. Get engineers involved with engineers, operations people with operations people, and bosses with bosses.

8. Change the type of contract: fixed price, indexed or scaled price, time and materials, percentage of savings, percentage of increased sales, percentage of profit created.

9. Change the base for calculating percentages: a smaller percentage of a larger base or a larger percentage of a smaller but more predictable base may get things back on track.

10. Create a list of options or alternatives that need to be discussed. Or change the order of discussion.

11. Suggest changes in the specifications or terms.

Impasse breakers work because they re-engage the other party in discussions with his or her organization and team members. These icebreakers help create a climate in which new alternatives can be developed. Surprisingly, sometimes the introduction of new alternatives has the effect of making old propositions look better than ever.

Try to pre-plan a face-saving way to reopen discussions should an impasse occurs. If you set the stage before the impasse sets in, you can better handle the problem.

Remember, for as few as 12 people, KARRASS can present a private seminar at your facilities.

Tell your associates about the KARRASS Seminars which are held around the U.S. and in Mexico, Canada, Europe and Asia. KARRASS presents more than 800 public and private seminars every year. Our Corporate Program provides discounts when multiple people attend.

For more information, contact:

US Sales at 323-866-3800 or KARRASS Worldwide Sales in the UK at 44 1202 853210

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