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mark welcome back to the show my friend kwami happy to be here happy to be here yes it is great to have you so how about you get it started by telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do absolutely my name is mark mira now round two on the podcast i'm the founder and ceo of aligned we are a negotiation training
coaching and consulting firm that works with organizations all over the world and our mission is to make negotiation understood and approachable to everybody everywhere.
So we try to take a really complex issue and distill it in a way that's simple and easy to execute.
And I'll say you all do an incredible job of doing this because in an industry where sometimes it can be overwhelmingly complex, you have almost like a superpower in simplifying it in a way that makes it actually actionable for the people that you train.
That's our big thing.
If it's really confusing and people look at you like you're this kind of godlike figure and you're this expert in all these different facets of negotiation or legal of procurement or whatever it is, but they can't action the things that they learn from you.
What's the point? So it's our job to really take these complex issues and make it in a way that's super approachable, easy to understand, which is why I'm loving that we're going to be talking about a simplified approach to negotiation strategy today.
I think it's gonna be an awesome way to give some actionable tips that everybody can use to plan for whether you're buying a car or you're acquiring an automaker.
I love it. Oh, this is great.
And listeners, just one little thing about my buddy, Mark.
He's very humble. Aligned is one of the fastest growing negotiation consultancies out there.
It's really impressive what you've been able to do in such a short period of time.
And I think it's not only because of the mastery you and your team have over this, but your communication skills in simplifying this and the fact that you are very mindful of how to utilize negotiation strategy in a realistic type of way.
And so that's what we're going to focus on today, not just understanding what negotiation strategy is, but then how you can create your own negotiation strategy for yourself.
So Mark, let's just get started.
When we're talking about negotiation strategy, what does that really mean?
So I'll take a small step back to take three steps forward.
We look at negotiation strategies as a couple of things we need to look at.
One is going to be what type of negotiation are you involved in?
And then two, we're going to use a really simple four -phase framework to plan, communicate, propose, and align on all these different terms.
So the first thing we'll start with is our model for negotiation, and that's a wavelength.
So kind of picture a wavelength.
We go from hard bargaining on a super transactional side, partnership on a super collaborative side with concession trading and value creation in the middle.
When people tell you there's all of these different types of negotiations and there's eight or 12 or 15, the reality is there's four.
You're hard bargaining, you're concession trading, you're in value creation, or you're in partnership.
Simple as that. the vast majority of commercial deals are either going to be concession trading on the slightly more transactional side, or value creation on the more collaborative side.
When people tell you they want to be in partnership negotiations, the reality is they are incredibly rare.
Partnership deals are more like mergers and acquisitions of similarly sized companies.
Partnership deals are like when Google worked with NASA on Google Earth and Google Maps.
Partnership deals are like when ABC and NBC came together to make Hulu.
These are gargantuan deals that shift industries.
So although people love to say, I want to be at partnership, I want to be a great partner, the reality is you're either concession trading or in value creation, which is cool.
Your personal negotiations are likely more hard bargaining.
And hard bargaining isn't a dirty word either.
But our life isn't that complex.
You want to get a great rate in a car, a house, you want to decide if you're going to go to the movies, hiking or out to dinner.
These are all hard bargains.
Few number of terms, distributive in nature, simplified approach to come to an agreement.
So again, we talk about our wavelength, four different types, hard bargaining, concession trading, value creation and partnership.
The first thing we need to understand is are you on the same wavelength internally and externally?
How are you approaching this deal?
The next thing we want to think about is then the four phases.
So we break down negotiation very simply across four phases of activities.
Preparation, communication, proposal, and alignment.
Preparation phase is super obvious, right?
How are you preparing?
And there's a bunch of activities you're going to do when you're in the preparation phase.
Things like understanding what type of negotiation you're involved in, are bargaining, concession trading, et cetera.
And other things like setting your objectives, understanding your definition of success, thinking about your counterparties objectives, their definitions of success and so on.
You'll develop all these assumptions.
Then you need to test those assumptions by communicating with your counterparty, asking questions, sharing information.
We call this the act of framing.
You're framing the deal in.
You're communicating your expectations with clarity and demonstrating flexibility in areas where you can be more flexible on.
You frame the deal in, you frame the deal in, you frame the deal in, then you can start making proposals.
We talk a lot about deal velocity.
Are you closing your deals quickly.
And you'll be able to close your deals quickly if you've already done a lot of communication and you've already prepared well in advance.
By the time you get to proposal phase and you're firing proposals back and forth, although that is the sexiest part of negotiation in most people's eyes, it should be one of the shortest parts because you should have already done your work.
And then you get to the alignment phase, tighten the bolts on those handful of trades, send the contracts out.
Legal should already be involved in the process up until this point.
So it's not a red line bloodbath.
You get the agreement signed, you move on.
And We can break down all of these different pieces as we can talk about negotiation strategy.
The first things I want your listeners to know is there's four different types and there's four very clear phases to follow.
Then all of your activities will slot into each one of those phases.
We have some really clear frameworks we can talk about on how to stay organized and execute each one of those deals in various different ways.
You know what, Mark?
I feel like you might know what you're talking about.
That was great. I think that was the most amount of notes I've taken in the shortest period of time in the history of the podcast.
And I think what's great about this, not only the fact that it is a masterclass in organization when it comes to how you conceptualize negotiation.
Second of all, it's incredibly unique.
I know you know this.
But when I think about all of the people that I've had on the podcast and I think about all the books that I've read, nobody has described it in quite this way, which is really, really fascinating.
One of the things that I want to address, Mark, here is that, like you said, with other methodologies, there are so many different types of negotiation archetypes.
For you, what is the value of simplifying it to just four?
It's easier to remember, and it's accurate based on our experiences.
And I don't think it's any more complicated than that.
Listen, there's nuance to each of these kind of blood and guts.
Hard bargain may be like an auction.
Or a slightly more complex hard bargain may be like a car lease, as an example.
It's always kind of a classic negotiation example that a lot of people talk about.
They're still hard bargains, though.
They're still there to extract as much value as you can.
You're still there to create leverage.
You're still there to distribute.
Does that really need to be a different name?
It's all hard bargaining.
So we're trying to simplify everything.
So if people can't remember what to do, they're not going to do it.
But if people can remember what to do, and it's simplified, and it's easy, and we talk about personas as well.
When you're hard bargaining, you need to be a hunter.
I'm hunting for value.
But we use the imagery of more like a bullseye and an archer than a hammer or sword or a club.
That's not about beating someone over the head, but being precise and concise and being opportunistic.
So you got a hunt. When you're concession trading, you need to trade.
You got to be a trader.
And we use the imagery of scales.
How do you grow as much value as you can for both parties?
And then how do you tilt that value in your favor?
But if you're not balanced when you're concession trading, the other part is just going to fly off the handle and not work with you.
All right, when you're in value creation, you got to be a creator pretty on the nose.
And when you're in partnership, you got to be a dealmaker.
And yes, there's a little bit of shaking hands and kissing babies, because you have to be diplomatic, because your decisions are not just going to affect you, but it's likely going to affect hundreds, if not thousands, if not 10s of 1000s of livelihoods.
Yeah, we talk about personas, you have a super cool profiler coming out soon called our negotiation silhouette, which compares your conflict style and your personality tight to your preference in negotiation.
But yeah, all of those things are really important and they add layers of complexity into people's depth of understanding.
But if you can't understand the basics, and that's why we're here to talk about the basics, if you can't get the basics right, well, then what's the point of the depth?
It's unnecessary. Yep, 100%.
100%. And you have to remember the people who are negotiating these deals, most likely they have other things to do.
So it's like we have other job responsibilities and everything.
So if you can have something that is easy to understand and also incredibly instructive, then it helps us to create a strategy that is narrowly tailored to the problem at hand, which brings us to the strategy creation, because now we have the lay of the land.
We understand what it is that we're talking about.
Now, how does strategy come into play here?
Yeah. So we follow the four phases.
And that's the easiest thing to do as you're creating your strategy.
We'll follow, prepare, communicate, propose, and align.
Best way to look at it.
When people think about negotiation, they often say, I need to prepare, and then I need to negotiate.
We believe that is a fundamental misunderstanding of the core challenge.
By breaking it down into four phases, you get a much clearer picture of what your negotiation actually is.
If you want to get people actionable tips on what to do, here are my tips on how you're going to tackle your preparation phase.
You'll start with what type of negotiation am I involved in?
Hard bargaining, concession trading, value creation, or partnership?
Because that's going to frame out how you look at the problem and how you look at the challenge.
Some key factors that we like to look at to determine your negotiation type are going to be how long is this contract going to be in place for?
How many terms are you negotiating over?
When we say terms, we need price, volume, delivery time, payment terms, contract length, etc.
And third, what's the marketplace look like?
Is the marketplace near infinite?
There are a ton of buyers and sellers and suppliers and vendors in this space?
Is it a few or is it just one?
That level of dependency on each other is also really important to determine your negotiation type.
So for example, when you're hard bargaining, they're likely short deals, if not one -time opportunities.
You're likely looking at maybe two or three different terms with one being overwhelmingly more important than the rest.
It's usually price or cost.
And then the marketplace tends to be huge.
When you look partnership, you're looking at contracts that can be 15, 20, 25 years in length.
You're looking at dozens, if not hundreds of terms.
And you're looking at a marketplace that is not about being dependent on each other.
It's about being interdependent on success.
So like the NBA and the NFL and the MLB, when they're doing their collective bargaining agreement, those are partnership deals because although they may be only five or seven years in length, they're incredibly complex, often principled in their approach.
And the marketplace is interdependent.
The league doesn't survive without the players.
The players don't survive without the league.
Those are partnership deals.
So one of the big indicators I give to people on the difference between value creation and partnership is value creation, we have the ability to grow together.
Partnership, we survive together.
So in the preparation phase, you look at your type of negotiation.
Then some other things you want to check off the box is, what are my objectives?
What do I believe their objectives are?
What does my team composition look like?
What does their team composition look like?
Do we mesh with each other?
Is there inherent conflict?
Do we like each other?
Do we not like each other?
You'll also start writing down all of the different terms in your negotiation and being as clear as possible on those terms, price, volume, delivery time, specification.
And then depending on the size and scope of your deal, you may get really into the weeds of balance of power, problems and risks.
and so on. So the preparation phase is where you get, not to be overly cliche, all of your ducks in a row.
You get the full lay of the land and you develop all of your assumptions.
I think this will happen.
I think these are their priorities.
I think these are their challenges.
I think, I think, I think, I think, I think.
That's the preparation phase.
Once you develop all of your assumptions and hypotheses, then and only then should you start communicating with your counterparty.
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There is so much here, Mark.
I love this. So just a quick recap.
So in the preparation phase, what we're trying to do is we're trying to figure out, first of all, what type of negotiation we have?
What are our objectives?
What's the team combination on that side and our side?
What are the terms?
Then we can potentially get into power and risk and things like that.
Then from there, we create our assumptions and hypotheses.
So assumptions, that's what we believe and we're going to try to act upon that.
Or the hypotheses, the rebuttable assumptions that we're going to test and try to investigate during the conversation.
And now when you actually go through all of this, we recognize that this is not a perfunctory exercise.
This is something that takes a lot of time and effort and detail.
And we can also see that not everybody within the organization is going to be aligned when it comes to the preparation process.
So there will have to be a lot of internal negotiations that have to happen that are necessary in order for us to negotiate effectively as a cohesive team with the other side.
And that's where roles come into play.
We use a framework of negotiation roles.
We talk about active participants and supporting roles.
And when we talk about negotiation roles, we do a RACI, responsible, accountable, consulted, informed.
For any listeners out there, if you're familiar with a RACI, it's an absolutely perfect way to do a lot of roles and responsibilities or delegation.
It's not obviously negotiation exclusive.
A RACI has been around for a really long time.
So when we look at active participants in a negotiation, these are the face of a franchise or decision makers, et cetera, they are responsible and or accountable for the outcome of the deal.
They're actively involved in that negotiation.
We break down those roles into three pieces.
You'll have a lead negotiator.
You're a primary external communicator.
They're the face of the franchise.
They're the person that has all the calls, all the emails, all the back and forth.
They're the voice box of the company.
Then you'll have a decision maker that's on the nose there.
It's the person that has ultimate empowerment to yes or no deal.
Then you'll likely be supported by an analyst.
Your analyst is your number cruncher, your Excel wizard, your observer, your note taker.
The analyst's job is to take data and observations to help the decision maker and the lead make informed decisions.
A well -balanced team will have an individual in each of those roles and or individuals.
So you can have two leads as an example, but each lead has their own track and their own kind of topics of conversation that they relay and they discuss.
The big thing though is internal alignment.
I'm sure there are many instances where each one of your listeners out there have told something to one of their counterparties.
They didn't like that answer.
And what do they do?
They go fishing for better answers.
And if you're not internally aligned and you have one clear voice, they're going to find cracks in your organization and they're going to exploit those cracks for value back to them, which disempowers your lead, makes them be perceived as not credible.
The precedent that you set is not going to be very good.
You have those clear roles you're doing then you'll have supporting roles supporting roles are consulted they have an opinion that matters or informed they have opinions but you're just going to tell them what's going on man those roles are more like it could be finance it could be legal it could be
hr they have opinions their perspective matters but they might not be actively involved in the deal so that's how we spread out our roles to make sure you're on the same page and you do all of that during the preparation phase And so I'm assuming then in this portion, after we walk through all of this part,
like every step of this process, it's at this point that we start crafting the strategy that we're going to utilize during the negotiation, right?
A hundred percent. So here during the preparation phase, we're thinking about our gets and gives, very common negotiation language, gets, I'm getting value on certain terms, giving value on certain terms based on how each party prioritizes certain elements of the deal.
And the more collaborative negotiation is, you're going to look at each one of these terms, and organizations are going to value things differently.
One party may say, hey, I have capital constraints, I need payment terms to be in my favor.
And the other party may say, cool, We can work with you on payment terms, but you need to purchase a lot more volume from us, as an example.
So you're looking at each of these terms a little bit differently.
So you develop all of your assumptions during the preparation phase.
You can start talking some numbers internally.
You can start thinking about walkaway points internally, but eventually we've got to communicate this to our counterparty.
So that's the second phase, communication.
Communication is all about setting clear expectations and framing in the deal.
So this is where you're asking lots of questions and you're sharing information and providing answers to their questions.
I'll go back to framing for a second.
You may, during the preparation phase, say to yourself, I believe they're going to purchase anywhere from 1 ,000 units to 2 ,000 units.
I believe that's the potential scope of work we can do with them.
Everyone's aligned on that internally.
You start communicating with them.
You start sowing the seed, talking about, hey, we believe we can sell up to 2 ,000 units to you based on previous order quantities.
they may then say, we agree, but we think it's more like 1800 on the top end, 1500 on the low end.
Now you've framed in that element of volume instead of being 1000 to 2000, the frame is now 1500 to 1800.
Now listen, are they saving an extra 100 units in their back pocket because they want to use it as leverage?
Probably. But by framing in the deal and framing in your expectations, you're saving a lot of time because I'm now not going to send you a proposal for 5 ,000 units if you told me the top end is 1 ,800.
So you're conditioning each party to make sure the deal makes sense for both of you.
So be clear with your expectations, position your needs and priorities, showcase some flexibility in areas that aren't a big stake to the heart and the end of the world for you, and talk about each one of the terms in as much detail as possible without making any promises or commitments.
And like I said, I talk about deal velocity a lot.
I find when you have a deal that's been out in the pipeline forever, or you delivered a proposal and they deliver a proposal, it feels like you're miles apart.
99 % of the time when that happens is because you mismanaged your communication and preparation phase.
And you thought you have a good feel for the deal.
You sent over a proposal, they slapped it out of the air, and then you're back to square one.
That prolongs the process.
Oh, that's really interesting.
Yeah. It makes a lot of sense though, right?
Because if you don't do a good job of framing, you don't set clear expectations and you're not clear about what your needs are, then when it comes to the proposal stage, everybody is going to be all over the place and there's no consistency.
And then it's almost like every time a deal comes through, you run or a proposal comes through, you really run the risk of almost breaking the deal or harming the relationship because it could be really disrespectful.
Like, were you not listening to me in this process?
Then you have to go back to the communication phase and do the work that you should have done the first time, right?
100%. Of all your listeners out there, if you want a clear framework to follow for the communication phase, this is what we would recommend.
First, you look at life from our perspective.
What are my priorities that may need to convey to my counterparty, and where can I be flexible?
Then I want to think about life from their perspective.
What do I believe their priorities are, and where do I believe they're flexible?
And then through the process of discussing each one of these things, I should have a much clearer picture of their priorities and where they can be flexible.
And they should have a much clearer picture of the same from our end.
Then you'll think about how you plan for information to share and how you plan your questioning strategy.
So think about from an information standpoint, what's information that they need to know?
We can't do this deal unless they know X, Y, and Z.
What is that information?
Then you'll think about what information can I not share yet.
Maybe I'm doing a test run.
Maybe I'm doing a pilot.
Maybe I just don't want to tell them yet.
So from an information planning perspective, think about what information they need to know, what information can they know in the future, and what information will we never share.
That last piece, information will never share, that's internal alignment.
And from a questioning strategy standpoint, what questions are we going to ask?
What questions do we anticipate them asking us?
And how will we answer questions that we anticipate them asking?
That last box, internal alignment.
And the beauty of using tools, like obviously we have tons of tools and frameworks, the more you use these tools, the more efficient you get.
Because you know the process of filling in the tools.
And if you're negotiating with the same organization multiple times, by using the tools and filling them out in a robust way, you have institutional knowledge, which is money.
It's been a running joke even before this podcast started.
I just keep on using the word alignment.
It's incredible, incredible branding.
But when you get alignment in this overall strategic approach and this process within your organization, it goes directly to deal velocity.
Because now we're not having all of these silly conversations.
We're all on the same page.
And we all essentially have a playbook with objective criteria.
So we're saying as we go through these processes, this part of the process and creating the strategy and defining our approach, we know the things that we need to talk about.
We know how we need to talk about them.
And even though we might not agree on what it is that we need to do or say, we can agree that we need to find alignment on these things in order for us to then present ourselves appropriately to the other side.
Because when we go through this process and we look at this structure, we recognize if we are missing any of these pieces, it really jeopardizes the sanctity of the deal.
I mean, think about if you don't have that conversation about what not to say.
Let's look at procurement.
You have the procurement person who's having the conversation, actually leading the negotiation.
Then you have your internal client or your internal business partner, however you want to say it, who wants the big shiny new object, who might spill the beans to the other side in a way that undermines the entirety of the deal.
And so you have, let's say, 99 % of this down, but you forget to address this part of the process, undermines the whole deal.
So you can see how holistically all of this is necessary in order to have a comprehensive strategy.
Yeah. And it sounds like a lot of stuff to do, but the reality is as you move through the process, you're doing less things.
So there's a lot of boxes you're going to check off when you're in the preparation phase.
Then the boxes you check off in the communication phase are fewer.
When you're leaving one phase and going to another, it's more like you're just kind of adding more activities to it.
So although you're leaving the preparation phase and starting the communication phase, it's more like you're taking those activities and you're stacking it underneath.
and now you have a longer list of things you're checking off as you're executing your deal and your strategy.
The communication phase, Kwame, this may be the coldest take that you've ever heard on the podcast, but humans are really bad communicators.
They're not good at it.
So it's important that you communicate effectively your expectations and needs and priorities and flexibility in a way that doesn't sub -optimize the deal for you and sets you up for a really healthy proposal phase.
Yes. So let's talk about the proposal phase.
Yeah, the proposal phase is, like I mentioned, when people think of negotiation, they think about wheeling and dealing in the proposal phase.
It gets the most notoriety, it gets the most publicity, and it's what people think about when they think of negotiation.
But the truth is, proposal phase should be pretty short.
When we look at like 100 % of a deal, proposal phase is like 10 -15%.
Because if you've framed the deal in sensibly, if you've had a very healthy communication phase, you understand both parties' expectations, when I deliver a proposal, it should make sense.
When they deliver a proposal to me, it should make sense.
It should pass the eye test.
Does that mean we'll agree on the first proposal?
Unlikely. So when you're thinking about the proposal phase, a framework you can use is pretty straightforward.
You'll lay out all of your different terms and you'll take each term and map out more details.
So for example, the term may be price.
Then I'm going to think about what is my walkaway point?
And your walkaway point is the point in which if you go past it, you would walk away from the deal because it's no longer profitable and viable for your business.
Other people may have heard it called a break point.
Also perfectly fine.
Same exact piece. What is your walkaway point?
What is your absolute worst case scenario on that term?
Then you'll think about, what's their walkaway point?
What do I think their absolute worst case scenario in my favor, they would accept?
So let's say I'm on procurement and I'm on the buy side.
If the term is cost, price, I may say the most I would pay is $10 ,000.
And I believe, based on competitor analysis, the marketplace, the industry, the cheapest I can get it for is $8 ,500.
Now you have a bargaining range.
Bargaining range has then become my walkaway point and their walkaway point, $8 ,500 to $10 ,000.
If a deal were to get done on price, it gets done somewhere in there.
Then you'll think about your opening position.
Where on that bargaining range or outside of that bargaining range do I want to open?
You may use some tactics like opening extreme and creating leverage where leverage doesn't exist.
You also think about where they're going to open up.
This is one that I talk about with a lot of clients.
Why would we want to think about their opening position?
I ask this to a lot of groups.
The most common answer I get is so I can know where they're at and I can adjust my strategy based on their position.
I challenge that. Because if you are looking for their opening position as a way to understand your strategy, you're allowing them to control the narrative.
You're allowing them to anchor your thinking on where the deal can get done.
So that's how we navigate the proposal phase.
That's a really clear framework to follow.
I think that's the clearest framework I've ever heard when it comes to the proposal phase.
Yeah. No, that's incredible.
That's incredible. And I love the fact that we're not just playing for today, we're playing for the future as well, because that lack of institutional knowledge is really money out the door when it comes to these, especially if you're a big company negotiating big deals, because some of the best training
that you can get comes from the effective negotiators of the past.
And then we don't have anything that really captures that knowledge in real time.
And so as you're negotiating from a really solid playbook, you are at the same time creating a really solid playbook for the future.
And I really like how proactive that is.
And it not only gives you confidence for now, but it also gives confidence just for you as a team, just recognizing that as you negotiate more effectively, you're setting the foundation for more effective negotiations in the future too.
Fordy becomes faster.
Doing postmortems becomes faster.
The lessons you learn from each one of your deals become quicker and more robust and more insightful.
When I give people the first wave of tools that they use.
One, we spent a lot of time to make sure the look and feel is super simplified, which a lot of people really enjoy.
But the first time you use the tools, it's going to take you a little while to use them.
And that's perfectly natural.
The first time you rode a bike, it took you more than one shot to ride your bike.
The first time you drove a car, etc.
But once you get used to the flow of the tools, and you can use them for all of your note taking as well, it becomes second nature.
And it's a very, very, very clear process to follow.
just fill in the boxes.
Then you can save your strategy right next to the finalized contract and now you have the end point of the deal the contract and the entire narrative and how you got there with the strategy.
It's a much more robust way of looking at each one of your deals over time if you have your strategy right next to the finalized result.
Brilliant and now on brand as if it was planned alignment, the final stage.
Tell us about that one.
Branding is so important, Kwame.
The alignment phase is effectively not getting tunnel vision and not dropping the ball near the end.
I'm sure you've heard the tactic of a nibble or that one last thing.
The one last thing or the nibble happens most often between the proposal phase and the alignment phase.
You kind of got that light at the end of the tunnel.
You want to get the deal done off your desk, you're tired of looking at it.
And someone says, Hey, listen, I'm okay with this.
But you need to take care of this one last thing for me.
And most people are like, Hey, I find whatever, it's no big deal.
So during the alignment phase, it's about making sure you still understand the total value of the deal.
And then you execute.
So what is your process for sign off?
What expectations are you setting with your counterparty?
What is legal look like and so on.
But the alignment phase should be no less than no more than 5 % of your time negotiating because everything should be buttoned up at that point.
If you have contracts that have sat in legal forever, you likely mismanaged all of the phases before you got to the alignment phase.
And it's usually because you didn't tell the legal what was going on during the prep phase.
Right. Oh, Mark, this is this is great.
And I think a cool way to put a bow on all of this would kind of just be a bit of a biographical question.
Because like I said, this is a really unique approach.
I love how this is structured.
And it's so it is yeah, from the outside looking in, it can be complex.
If somebody listens to this episode, especially if they're not taking notes, it could be overwhelming.
But then when you dissect it, you're like, Oh, no, this is very clear.
I have a lot of things to do.
But I know exactly what to do.
And so for me, I think it would be fascinating to just tell the listeners how you came to this methodology that you've created?
Because again, I really like this approach and it's clearly working because you and your team are growing exponentially in the industry.
What was the inspiration behind coming up with this methodology?
Obviously, I've been in the space for a while and I've seen thousands of people negotiate deals in different ways.
As I was looking at all the different models out there and reading all the major books, I realized it was just really complicated.
This doesn't feel like reality.
It feels like someone decided to give a bunch of names to a bunch of different activities that no one really does.
So for me, it was always four different types of negotiation.
I didn't think a negotiation needs to be any more complex than you prepare, you communicate, you propose, and you align.
And like I said, a lot of people try to make negotiations sound like one of the more complex things in the world to do.
But we've been negotiating for tens of thousands of years, it can't be that complex.
So how can we make this skill be really simplified for people?
Because our mission is to really change the world.
We want to rebrand what negotiation looks like.
We want people to embrace conflict as a way to come to terms and align on things than to shy away from conflict because that's not going to resolve challenges.
That's not going to help us bridge gaps between different political parties or businesses or interpersonal communication.
So in order to rebrand negotiation, it has to be easy to understand, and it has to be approachable, because then we can't follow through on our mission.
Mark, this is incredibly impressive, my friend.
Thank you again for coming back on the show.
Can't wait to have you back.
And again, before you go, just remind the listeners about your company, how you can help them and how they can get in touch.
100%. So everyone, my name is Mark Mira and I'm the founder and CEO of Aligned.
Aligned, we are a negotiation training, coaching, and consulting firm.
You can find us on LinkedIn by searching for Aligned Negotiation.
You could also go to our website, alignedplatform .com or alignednegotiation .com.
You can reach out to us for inquiries on training and development for your teams.
We work with a big chunk of the Fortune 1000.
We work with sports franchises, large -scale organizations, multi -billion dollar companies, as well as startups and associates.
So again, our mission is to make negotiation understood and approachable to everyone everywhere.
So if you have any challenges that relates to negotiation, feel free to drop us a line, reach out to us on LinkedIn, reach out to us on our website.
We have video series, tools, frameworks to make every single deal just a little more approachable.
Amazing. Mark, thanks again for coming on.
Really appreciate it.
Thank you. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Now, before you sign off, I have something to tell you that I've never told you before.
Just kidding. I've told you before, but you should listen to it again.
I want you to know about Negotiate Anything Premium.
Imagine all of the things that you love about our traditional feed plus so much more.
I know you like our traditional feed because you're at the end of the episode.
And with Negotiate Anything Premium, you'll get more bonus content you've been asking for, more of the expert insights that you can't get anywhere else, and more exclusive behind -the -scenes access into every conversation.
Are you ready to get more of what you want out of your life, career, and every conversation?
With Negotiate Anything Premium, you'll have access to more high -level, custom -designed content and insights, giving you the tools you need to negotiate higher salaries, better deals, and better relationships in your life and career.
Once I had a listener share that Negotiate Anything helped her to negotiate a $53 ,000 raise.
Could this be you? What would that mean for your life?
I've seen firsthand the impact this model has had on my life and the lives of my corporate clients, and I am confident that it can do the same for you.
Are you ready to negotiate more of the best things in life?
Click the link in the show notes to learn more.
I'll catch you later.
