Negotiating Mistakes I’ve Made (this week)

D’oh!

Negotiations can be fun.  And, they can really suck.  Usually, it’s a little of both and a lot of one.  I’ve recently spent a few months working on a potential licensing deal that has recently gone the wrong way — that happens, and as many have said before, it’s to be expected.  You need to be able to walk away.

But, I try to learn from each negotiation to improve the next time.  In this situation, the partner was overseas, and that made things extremely difficult.

My recent negotiating mistakes:

• We spent too much time negotiating via e-mail, and not enough time just talking on the phone or face-to-face via Skype.
• We didn’t get others in the room often enough.  It can help to make sure you’re all saying, and hearing the same things.
• In our own heads, we were both right about the remaining differences.  It’s totally possible for both sides to be above board and yet be misunderstood.  If you trade enough e-mails and have enough discussions, you’re bound to contradict yourself.
• Finally, I conceded on some important things early in the process, because I thought we were very close to an agreement.  It then made concessions on the other side so much harder later on, when it seemed like we were dug in and not being reciprocal.

So, lesson learned — I hope it can be saved, but if not, it wasn’t meant to be.

The one rule I try never to make is to enter into a deal that I don’t want to live with.  Signing contracts is easy — operating as a business relationship over the long term takes trust and mutual respect.

Thanks to Mark Suster for the ‘Time is the Enemy of all Deals‘ blog post — I’d love to see some of his negotiating tips on non-financing negotiations.  I bet he’s got rules to live by that would help me.