1. Can a Keynote Cure All?
I have had this happen many times. I decided to write this article to all of you who are interested in negotiations. Just yesterday I received a very complimentary email about my book and an inquiry if I did keynote speaking. Here is the exact email.
"I'm in the middle of your book Start with No and already can't wait to read your next one. I am also on a small team in charge of seeking out and hiring our keynote speaker on our 2008 National Sales meeting. I notice in your biography on the web-page you listed previous keynote experience. I was wondering if I could get more information, (topics, length, fees, availability for early Feb 2008) and also if you had any recording of past events, or upcoming events we could attend."
I really appreciated the inquiry and couldn't help but wonder what their team was trying to accomplish so I sent back the brief note. "Thank you for the kind words. The question that is most important and would help me a great deal is what do you want to accomplish at the National Sales Meeting?" The reply came back and here is what it said.
"A fair question, but not a simple one. The audience will be about 150 - 200, mostly of our sales force. It will be the first meeting since our company and another merged (happening late third quarter). There has been some debate among the committee planning the event as to how much should be "motivational" vs "educational".
My biggest trouble with hiring any keynote speaker is that no matter how good they may be, how do we help the account managers instill what they hear that one day and use it throughout the year to make themselves better and in turn the company. If all that is going to happen is they feel good about themselves or inspired for a day, then for the same cost, we might as well buy a car and give it away.
Doesn't really answer your question, but what I'd like to see accomplished is to help pass along some wisdom (for the lack of a better, less pompous phrase) that they can use in 2008 to deliver better service to their clients and bring in new business to make themselves and the company more successful. I'm exploring doing that through a keynote speaker, or I'd be open to exploring other ideas such as a half day training session, or other suggestions."
There you have it, a misunderstanding or lack of insight of how improvement occurs. It occurs in only one way, training to qualification. Any of the following types of training produce exactly what they are intended to produce but it is not improved performance. You attend a lecture to induce thought and awareness, or someone is taking a class to pass a test on content knowledge, or another is indulging in entertainment at a motivational rally. They accomplish exactly what they are intended to accomplish. But it is not improved performance. Training to qualification requires failure, safely.
It means you must do and fail and not be destroyed in the failure.
Everything we do in training at The Jim Camp Group supports training to qualification. Our programs are designed for the serious person or organization who wants highest performance. Here is our model. How do you take a young college student just graduated and in approximately 16 to 24 months and put them in combat in an F-15 or F-22 air superiority fighter aircraft going 2000 miles an hour? Well you take the best and the brightest, put them in the academic class room, take a test, put them in the aircraft with an instructor who monitors their efforts and allows them to fail safely at applying what you are teaching, take them back to the classroom, teach some more, test again, go to the simulator, practice what you have taught, and continue until complete.
Nothing else delivers the performance of training to qualification. Negotiation is not nearly that difficult or dangerous, but training to qualification is the answer to great success and performance "if you are serious." The Jim Camp System of Negotiation is delivered to our clients as the model of training to qualification. It is worth millions to those who can see and embrace it. When will you start?
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2.
News from The Jim Camp Group
The Jim Camp Negotiation Daily Track Three-CD Set
It can be really difficult to change old habits into new successful ones. This CD series does just that, providing you with a practical, step-by-step system you can use to adopt new behaviors that will make you money. Learn what the top one percenters do and find out how to apply their behaviors to your life. You'll hear negotiation expert Jim Camp recorded live with real clients.
The three CDs include discussions and descriptions of self-management principles and concepts. These CDs are perfect for the person who needs a little help and guidance in taking their behaviors to the next level.
Just a few of the things you'll learn include:
- One habit you can change that will make you money
- Finding out what motivates you
- A twenty-point daily plan to success
- How to classify activity that is productive versus activity that isn't
- Two behaviors that influence others
- Which activities are most likely to bring you profits
- What the upper one percent do to succeed
- How to evaluate your progress on a daily basis
- How to increase your profitable activities
- How to become a more effective decision-maker
- Six critical characteristics of success
- Listening to an actual negotiation
- Many more principles, rules, and tools to adopt the self-management of an effective negotiator
Buy Now!
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3. Jim Camp Answers Readers' Questions
Jennifer asks Jim Camp how he can apply his No tactics/strategy to bargaining with Asians at street markets, like in a U.S. Chinatown or in Asia? Is this possible? Has he ever done this?
Camp's answer: The answer is very straightforward. First of all, we don’t use tactics or strategy; we apply principles and rules of human behavior in negotiation that apply all over the world. So, it is easy to use our system in any environment. Will and has it worked on the street with Asians? Yes, is the short answer, and in fact, extremely successfully.
One of my very greatest successes was in such a setting in 1967 in Saigon. I tell the story in my first book Start With No. The real question is what makes other cultures so successful against the win-win American mindset? To a focused observer, they will see it is any person's ability to say no and continue to negotiate. You see it everywhere. Ross Perot tells the story of the American who drives up to the sheik’s tent in the desert of Arabia and asks if he can buy a specific camel tied with a group of camels outside his tent. The sheik looks disturbed and tells the American in a most upset fashion that he could never sell the camel, it is his son’s pet. The American, disappointed, turns on his heels and returns to his Land Rover. The sheik is now chasing the Land Rover, yelling, “But I thought you wanted to buy my camel!” In all parts of Asia where market haggling is fully ingrained in the culture, the word "no" is seen as an invitation to begin the process of negotiation -- not the end!
Once a win-win negotiator (read: typical American), on the other hand, hears no, he does one of two things: He compromises or he gives up. The art of negotiation is not the art of collective bargaining. It is the art of creating vision and driving decision. You do that by putting the other person at ease. By inviting the other person to say no, you clear the air and let your opponent know that he does not have to worry about being your friend or playing games. This is strictly business.
We today are coaching billions of dollars in negotiations throughout Asia with amazing success. Believe me, it works while buying special mushrooms at the local stand in San Francisco Chinatown, at the noodle stands of Ho Chi Ming City, and in boardrooms in Singapore.
One of my very favorite clients is Bien Irace. She was at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon at the same time I was during the Tet Offensive of 1968. She was 11 years old. Today she is here and extremely successful. Here is what Bien has to say.
Hi Jim,
I am a huge fan of your first book, as you know. I just finished your 2nd book and love it! About 4 years ago, I took on an assignment at Cypress to develop business among a set of billion dollar customers in the most cutthroat market in Asia. At that time, we were constantly being asked for “cost down” just to keep the existing or even smaller share of the business. Every meeting started with the customers telling us why we were a bad supplier and the only way to clear our name was to give them “cost down”. I picked up your first book at SFO airport on the way to Asia and decided to walk in saying “No”. I have a better relationship with all those customers today, and we have penetrated those accounts with our entire Cypress product portfolio rather than just the ones the customers used to cherry pick based on that month’s pricing.
The biggest revelation for me in both of the books is to give the customers the opportunity to say “No”. I can visibly see them making a mental commitment to help me overcome the barriers as they spell out all the barriers for me.
Best regards,
Bien Irace, Sr. VP Worldwide Sales, Cypress Semiconductor
Jennifer, let us know how else we might help.
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