Win-Lose OutCome In a Negotiation

Win – Lose Outcome in Negotiations

From my readings on negotiations, I’ve realized that, one way or another, we are always negotiating, because everything we need and want in life belongs to someone else. Therefore in order to get what we want, we have to negotiate to get it. After our negotiations, we may have a win – win outcome, where everyone is happy, or we may end up in a win - lose outcome, where one side is perceived as having done significantly better at the expense of the other side.

For this assignment I am writing my personal experience which end up with a win – lose outcome (on this case, the other guy was the winner, and I was the loser). This happened to me about one month ago, when I decided to sell one of my two cars. I took the decision to sell my car for two reasons: first, owning a second car was just increasing my expenses, and second, I needed money to go on vacation to Peru. By this time, I had already bought my plane tickets, but I needed some extra money to spend in Peru.

Anyway, so I decided to post a “for sale” sign on my windshield, like many people do when they want to sell their car. One week had passed and I had no luck selling my car. I have to admit that I was getting a little concerned because I was really looking forward to sell this car and get some money for it. But two or three days before my trip, to my surprise, someone had left a message on my cell phone. It was a gentleman saying that he was very interested in buying my car if the price was reasonable. I contacted this guy as soon as possible and I informed him the amount of money I was asking for the car. He replied that it was probably more than he was willing to pay. Since I did not want to lose a potential buyer, I said that I was willing to negotiate.

The book is telling us that a win - lose outcome often occur “when future relationships are not important” (R. Lewicki, Negotiation, page 19). On this case, I did not anticipate additional business with this gentleman beyond this sale transaction. I wasn’t expecting any kind of friendship/relationship with the guy either. My intention was to sell this car and get the most money I could get from the sale.

We set up a date to meet so I could show him the car. He was a friendly and charismatic guy, probably in his mid 40s. As it turned out, he was a better negotiator than I. We established a good conversation even before I show him the car. He mentioned that he was working as a security officer and that he was looking around for a used car because, with his paycheck, he couldn’t afford a new one. I told him that I had two cars and that I was selling one of them because I didn’t see the use of having two vehicles, when one was good enough for me. Also, I told him that I was selling this vehicle because I was going on vacation to Peru in a couple of days and that I was going to need the money for this trip.

I believe that every negotiator needs to be well prepared even for the worse case scenario. On my case for example, I thought I was well prepared for this business negotiation. Before the negotiation, I had plan what the book calls a “bottom line”