How to Turn a Negotiation in to an Opportunity: For Everyone

Recently I had a small mastermind group that I had to dissolve. It is important to me that everyone in a group is getting what they need and in this instance they were not. Initially as a business owner I thought about the negative implications of the difficult conversations, the lost relationships, and of course the money. It’s hard not to think about what will happen when you have to start over. But what I quickly did was look for the opportunities for both sides.

There were different needs required by the people in this group and they were all getting so much great momentum on their business that it was not fair to them to just remove the support, so I gave them different options. One option was a coaching program with me with a bonus to attend the monthly mastermind Q&A calls. The other option was to go in to a new mastermind group with the addition of a minimum of 1 one-to-one coaching session.

When I was taking my Trump Institute training one of the instructors had given some very pertinent advice. “In the best negotiations everyone should walk out feeling like they won”. In this situation we all had won. It was an incredible feeling to be able to stay in my integrity to offer the best fit for people in their mastermind groups by giving them more of what they wanted and needed. The conversations were not difficult, I did not lose any of my relationships and by giving something extra I got to continue to support all my clients in a way that helped them get what they needed.

Look for what else you can give and if there is nothing else they need, then happily give them their money back.  Negotiation should not be a win|lose scenario, the best negotiations are always a WIN|WIN. What ever you end up doing make sure that everyone walks away from the discussion knowing they are on the winning side.