Introduction
Proper communication skills have always been recognized as a vital tool in everyday life. Of more importance is the need to understand the personality of the person one is communicating with as this makes the communicator decide on the best form of communication to use. The personality type can work for the success or failure of a communication process and the importance of personality is evident as it is used to gauge the effectiveness of a negotiator who is expected to understand the personality of the person that he is negotiating with in order to sustain a long-term or successful negotiation. Successful companies and institutions use negotiation as a device for keeping their prices competitive, lowering expenses, making sales and maximizing their profit margins. Such firms use the negotiating process to find the best deals with their clients and suppliers and in other services such as advertising and transportation. Communication is the single most important aspect of a negotiation process, and the personality of the two parties is a major factor in determining the direction that the negotiation takes. A negotiator can therefore use his personality to add dimension to the message delivery thus making the process come out as sincere.
Objective
The aim of the paper is to analyze the roles of communication and negotiation in the success or failure of a negotiation process that I had participated in earlier. Personality affects the type of communication in that it makes interpretation of the message to be biased.
Discussion
Description of a Negotiation Situation
During the last holidays, I had the chance of participating in a negotiation process when my parents told me told to sell the family car as they were planning to buy another one but were short of money. I was supposed to find a buyer then negotiate with him on the buying price in a period of three weeks. I placed an advertisement in the local newspaper three days later and immediately received calls from willing buyers who wanted to make inquiries on the buying price and the details of the car. After receiving calls from numerous people, I settled on four buyers, three men and a lady, who appeared serious from their conversation and their offers were close to that projected by my parents. I agreed to meet them on different days of the week, one per day. The first two men I met had good offers but first required that the interiors and the tires be replaced, which I found rather expensive and would lead to selling the car at a loss had I done as they requested.
My third negotiation was with the lady buyer, the experience was extremely better than the first two; she had an offer that was 10 percent above my target price and made no demands on the refurbishment of the car. Her request was that the terms of payment be of a hire-purchase type, she was willing to pay half of the total cost on cash basis and the rest in installments over a six-month period. After negotiations, she adjusted her down-payment to 70 percent. I promised to call her after two days as I needed to discuss this with my parents. The last negotiation was with a buyer who wanted a trade-in and complete the transaction by paying 40 percent of the amount we agreed on. We agreed to pay him a visit and view the car he wanted to trade in the following day. We visited the buyer who wanted a trade-in and inspected the car which looked new but rather small. It had a passenger limit of four while my parents wanted a five-seater car, so we rejected his offer and opted for the lady’s offer. We further negotiated the deal and finally agreed on a 75 percent down payment, the balance payable in four months. We delivered the car a week later after receiving the down payment.
Communications in Negotiations
Considering the fundamentals, negotiation is a type of interpersonal communication. Communication types, both verbal and non-verbal, are vital to realizing negotiation goals and in the resolution of conflict (Barry et al, 2006). Negotiations can take place in different platforms, and each platform requires the application of a variety of communication skills. When negotiating for the sale of our car, I decided that the most suitable form of communication would be face-to-face, as it would allow the buyers to have a chance of viewing the car. This form of communication benefitted both the potential buyers and me; the buyers had a chance of inspecting the various parts of the car, as this would have not been possible through a phone. I also benefitted from this communication form as I had a protracted chat with the buyers, exploring other avenues like trade-ins and hire-purchase-type transactions. Such long negotiations would have not been possible through the phone, which should be brief and straight to the point. Communicating through the phone would have taken away the ability to negotiate for better deals by both parties, besides, the willingness of a buyer to travel and view the car showed how serious they were about making the purchase. I applied my communication skills and eventually managed to realize a breakthrough in the process.
Personality in Negotiations
Personality greatly affects the outcome of a negotiation process. Before beginning a negotiation, it is worth noting that all of us have different personalities and these must be accommodated during the process. During the negotiation process, I studied the personality of the buyers and this led to the success of the car sale. A study of the personality of the customers entailed taking note of their behavior and character traits, for example, from my conversation with the lady, I learned that the initial 50 percent offer she made could be adjusted to a higher value. This was justified when she increased it to 70 and finally to 75 percent. Understanding and appreciating one another’s personalities helps avoid conflict during a negotiation, knowledge of the personality of the buyers also helped me decide on whether to terminate or continue with the negotiation. I realized that the first two buyers were not serious about making the purchase and decided to end the negotiation prematurely.
Conclusion
A combination of proper communication skills and knowledge of the personality helps in the successful completion of a negotiation process. Knowledge of one’s personality is also important as it helps one to decide on the best way to deliver messages (Lee, 2007). In order to have a successful negotiation, key messages must be delivered with utmost sincerity by both parties.
Reference List
- Barry, B., Lewicki, R., & Sanders, D. (2006). Negotiation. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
- Lee, C. (2007), In Negotiations Personality Matters. Web.