Start with No: The Negotiating Tools That the Pros Don't Want You to Know by Jim Camp

From the Publisher

Think win-win is the best way to make the deal? Think again. It’s the worst possible way to get the best deal. This is the dirty little secret of corporate America.

For years now, win-win has been the paradigm for business negotiation—the “fair” way for all concerned. But don’t believe it. Today, win-win is just the seductive mantra used by the toughest negotiators to get the other side to compromise unnecessarily, early, and often. Have you ever heard someone on the other side of the table say, “Let’s team up on this, partner”? It all sounds so good, but these negotiators take their naive “partners” to the cleaners, deal after deal. Start with No shows you how they accomplish this. It shows you how such negotiations end up as win-lose. It exposes the scam for what it really is. And it guarantees that you’ll never be a victim again.

Win-win plays to your emotions. It takes advantage of your instinct and desire to make the deal. Start with No teaches you how to understand and control these emotions. It teaches you how to ignore the siren call of the final result, which you can’t really control, and how to focus instead on the activities and behavior that you can and must control in order to negotiate with the pros.

Start with No introduces a system of decision-based negotiation. Never again will you be out there on a wing and a prayer. Never again will you feel out of control. Never again will you compromise unnecessarily. Never again will you lose a negotiation.
The best negotiators:
* aren’t interested in “yes”—they prefer “no”
* never, ever rush to close, but always let the other side feel comfortable and secure
* are never needy; they take advantage of the other party’s neediness
* create a “blank slate” to ensure they ask questions and listen to the answers, to make sure they have no assumptions and expectations
* always have a mission and purpose that guides their decisions
* don’t send so much as an e-mail without an agenda for what they want to accomplish
* know the four “budgets” for themselves and for the other side: time, energy, money, and emotion
* never waste time with people who don’t really make the decision

Start with No offers a contrarian, counterintuitive system for negotiating any kind of deal in any kind of situation—the purchase of a new house, a multimillion-dollar business deal, or where to take the kids for dinner. It is full of dozens of business as well as personal stories illustrating each point of the system. It will change your life as a negotiator. If you put to good use the principles and practices revealed here, you will become an immeasurably better negotiator.

Publishers Weekly

Negotiation coach Camp has been under the radar since 1989, helping clients reach deals at Motorola, Merrill Lynch and IBM. He now brings his advice to the general public. Asserting that the term "win-win" has become a clich , he suggests readers enter into every negotiation knowing that if the offer doesn't meet their expectations, they should walk away. He also advocates leaving emotions out of negotiations. "Whether we like it or not, it really is a jungle out there in the world of business, and it's crawling with predators." Camp's solid advice will help people control negotiations and prepare themselves for anything. (July 16) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

A Contrarian's Guide To Better Negotiations
With twenty years of experience as a negotiation coach, Jim Camp challenges many of the assumptions that have been taken for granted during personal and business negotiations. The first assumption he tackles is the myth of the win-win model of negotiation. He writes that win-win is hopelessly misguided as a basis for good negotiating, and explains that win-win negotiating is the worst possible way to get the best possible deal. He blames this win-win strategy for grinding many businesses into the ground.

To understand Camp's system of negotiating, one must understand the dangers that are inherent in win-win negotiations. He writes that compromise is a poison that lurks "at the heart of the big lie that is win-win." Although he advocates bargaining and negotiating in good faith, Camp also wants negotiators to be aware of the negotiating sharks who have studied the weaknesses of win-win and have devised their own "cost optimization" and "supply systems management" programs to benefit from negotiators who believe in the win-win mantra. He warns that the negotiators for many of the dominant multinationals are tigers who are ready to pounce on smaller devotees of win-win. He writes, "Win-win and compromise are a defeatist mind-set from the first handshake." Using clear stories from the real world of business, Camp demonstrates how many smaller companies have been cheated out of their true value by negotiators who used their win-win strategy against them.

Emotion-Based Negotiating Vs. Decision-Based Negotiating
Camp reminds negotiators that the people on the other side of the bargaining table are not their friends. He writes that those who will be negotiated with should be thought of as adversaries or respected opponents, rather than the friends they might pretend to be. Start With No refutes all emotion-based negotiating and presents decision-based negotiating as an alternative. By helping negotiators focus on what they can control (the means) rather than what they cannot control (the end result), Camp offers a system that teaches them how to control what can be controlled in a negotiation, such as their own actions and decisions. He also explains that politely walking away from a negotiation can be considered a success in some situations.

Camp writes that the guiding principle behind the "Start With No" system is based on the understanding that "no" is a real decision. Plus, it helps you maintain control while giving everyone something to talk about. Another principle he details is the idea of "No Closing." He explains that, rather than "closing" in the usual sense of the word, deals "come together" through vision and decision, over weeks, months and maybe years. Camp's system is based on the idea that negotiators should be more concerned with making sound decisions than winning.

Missions and Purposes
Each chapter of Start With No takes one of the 14 principles that make up Camp's system for better negotiations and expands on ways that it can be put into use during bargaining. The first principles help negotiators become prepared for the negotiation, and later principles take them into the nuts and bolts of the structure of the negotiating process, including agendas, budgets, presentations, missions and purposes. Some of these principles include:

• Your Greatest Weakness In Negotiation: The Dangers of Neediness. Humans and other predators often take advantage of the vulnerable and the needy.
• The Columbo Effect: The Secret of Being "Not Okay." By allowing an adversary to feel in control, you are actually in control.
• Success Comes From This Foundation: Develop Your Mission and Purpose. If you have a valid mission and purpose, and the results of a negotiation fulfill this mission and purpose, the negotiation is worthwhile.
• Quiet Your Mind, Create a Blank Slate: No Exceptions, No Assumptions, No Talking. As a serious negotiator, you must learn to recognize expectations and assumptions and set them aside because they only work against you.

Why Soundview Likes This Book
Start With No takes a contrarian's perspective and reveals the logic behind an alternative to accepted norms of negotiation. Camp's straightforward language and numerous real-world examples of negotiation efforts that could have benefited from his bargaining system provide the details and the backbone to support his unique negotiations method. By breaking down his theories into simple, concise principles that are spelled out in clear language and detailed with colorful stories that illustrate his experience and wisdom, he provides strong support for those who want to "dance with the tiger" and get more from the negotiation process. Copyright (c) 2003 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

What People Are Saying

Joe Mansueto
Joe Mansueto, Chairman, Morningstar Mutual Funds
Jim Camp offers easy-to-apply strategies to help make you a more effective negotiator. You’ll learn techniques that you can use immediately to improve your negotiating skills by reading this book.

John Kispert
John Kispert, Chief Financial Officer, KLA-Tencor corporation
This book is an amazing read and right on target.

Scott Sturm
Scott Sturm, vice president of Sales, Entegris Corporation
Jim Camp’s negotiating system is a powerful set of disciplines and tools that helped our salespeople function in our customers’ world-which ultimately led to a better negotiating process with our customers. Start with No describes his approach in detail and is recommended reading for our entire staff.

Bob Boehlke
Bob Boehlke, Member, Board of Directors, DuPont Corporation
Jim Camp’s book is a sophisticated course in applied psychology that shows how you can change your behavior so you can sell your ideas, especially in sales situations and other negotiations. The most effective executives will find the results astonishing.

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