Preparing for Negotiations with North Americans
Takeaway
- North Americans have a reputation for being super prepared before negotiating.
- They also have a reputation for not being flexible or changing things on the fly.
One of the questions we often ask international professionals is whether they prepare for negotiations differently when they know that they will be negotiating with North Americans. Their answers generally center on the fact that Americans prepare well for their negotiations, so they must also prepare well. Compare, for example, the opinions of the following executives who were discussing their negotiation preparations. Thomas Zhuang is from Shanghai but currently lives in Honolulu. Jordi Planas lives on the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain.
Thomas Zhuang
Everyone knows that you do not fight a war for which you are not prepared. Chinese people take this point very seriously. Our own Sun Tzi, the author of The Art of War, said, "Know yourself and know your enemy, then in a hundred battles there will be no danger of defeat". Therefore, when our company holds talks with Americans, we spend a great deal of time doing early-stage preparatory work. Comparatively speaking, American society is pretty open, so you can collect information through different web pages and search engines. You can find a lot about US companies and what their business is and a lot on international standards and regulations. Therefore, in this aspect, one must be extremely meticulous in doing the job. This is the only way you can guarantee your understanding of the situation. In this way, you can be even better in fighting wars for which you are prepared. You will be certain of doing well.
Jordi Planas
In our experience, the most important difference in organizing things before beginning meetings, as related to business strategies when dealing with Spanish companies and American companies, is the American's greater degree of organization and preparation for the interviews. This includes a detailed agenda with clear objectives that they follow logically throughout the negotiation process. On the other hand, unexpected changes or new items that differ from their pre-established negotiation strategies cause nervous problems and great changes in their ability. They prefer to go back and look at the topic again with a new analysis of the situation and then make a new agenda that considers the new changes that have happened. Frequently this implies a delay in decision-making as related to topics that we are working on together.
Don't you love that a Chinese professional quotes The Art of War as a way of describing his preparation for negotiations? Mr. Zhuang's main point is clear. Since Americans prepare well for their negotiations, he must be prepared too. Mr. Planas agrees that Americans prepare well for their negotiations, but they are less adept at being flexible when problems arise. This is a common observation of Americans. Whether this is true or not is not the point. There is an ingrained perception that North Americans are less adept at being flexible and at changing things on the fly despite initial preparation.
Source: Orlando Kelm
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.