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6 min read
Why your best negotiator is usually the wrong person to send
The person who is best at winning a negotiation is often the worst person to send when the relationship has to survive the deal.
Every organization has one. The person who can hold a room, find the concession that costs nothing but feels like everything, and walk away with the better half of the deal. The instinct is to send them into every negotiation that matters.
That instinct is usually wrong.
Winning and continuing are different skills
A negotiator optimized to win extracts value in the room. A relationship that has to survive the deal needs someone who can leave value on the table on purpose, when the long-term relationship is worth more than the short-term point. These are not the same temperament, and very few people are equally good at both.
Ask what happens after the signature
If the deal is a one-off — a lease you will not renew, a supplier you will not use again — send the closer. If the other side is a partner, a key customer, or someone you will be back at the table with in a year, the calculus changes. The negotiation is not the finish line; it is the first conversation in a longer one.
The best negotiators win the room. The best relationship-builders win the next ten years.
A simple test before you decide who goes
Ask what the counterparty will say about this negotiation a year from now. If the honest answer is “they were tough but fair, and we would work with them again,” you have the right person. If the honest answer is “they got everything they wanted and we will never fully trust them again,” you have sent a closer to a conversation that needed a partner.
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Recognize the problem?
If any of this sounds like your business, a short conversation is usually the fastest way to find out what is really going on.