Professional Documents
Culture Documents
confidence, and security depending on the degree of trust and the extent of the associated risk. (Walter Bamberger, 2010)
This definition implies that people are able to influence the amount of trust another person has towards them through their future behavior.
Relationships and trust go hand in hand. There cannot be one without the other. Yvonne strongly believes that successful negotiations cannot happen without trust. If negotiating parties can trust each other to the point where there is sufficient rapport, they will be more likely to accede to the others requests. For example, Yvonne related to us a time when negotiations with a prospective member dragged on for weeks. The potential client was very hesitant about the price he had to pay, but he still signed the contract with SmartSpace because of the trust and rapport that had developed between him and Yvonne.
Yvonnes approach to negotiations always begins with the relationship in mind. For example, she described a situation where she was giving a tour of the facilities to a potential tenant. The potential tenant was a middle-aged man who came in for the tour looking grumpy and sour-faced. At the start of the tour, the client was extremely tight-lipped, not wanting to comment or share much about his business. Rather than forge ahead with the normal business pitch, Yvonne took steps to engage and build a relationship with him; It took me 45 minutes of non-stop talking, showing him that I cared about his business and genuinely wanted to help him before I could melt his
heart. At the end of it the client opened up and disclosed information voluntarily about his business and even about his family.
In building trust and relationships, Yvonne listed out a few common things that she does before any negotiation. As most of such meetings begin over email, there is very little personal contact between them. Yvonne will usually give them a call the day before to talk to the person, giving them a more personal side to the negotiations. The tone of her voice helps the other person relate to her better even before they meet, so that during the face-to-face meeting there is a reference point for them to build on. Yvonne also does research on the persons background to find out topics of common interest to break the ice. Also, she sees the importance of starting a negotiation with getting to know the person better first before diving straight in to business.
Yvonne is not overly focused on the goal, enabling her to be more sensitive to the other partys needs and situations. Trust is an important component of value claiming because it reduces the risk of defecting that in turn gives rise to confidence in the other party (Olekalns, Lau & Smith, 2007). For example, being able to draw the other person to talk about their interests behind a particular position rather than the position itself helps Yvonne better understand the context and gives them both a chance to find a more integrative solution. Therefore, we believe that Yvonnes emphasis on the relationship as opposed to the goal has been pivotal to her success in negotiations, and has helped paved the way for further smoother negotiations as well.