Assertion Not checkable as stated
Voss: Major Telecom Found 50% of Signed Deals Were Never Implemented
“We were in competition for a negotiation contract with one of the major telecommunications companies, and through the process of that found out that fully 50% of the deals they sign never get implemented.”
Insight
Voss: Opening with 'I've got a lousy proposition' disarms counterparties
“She starts a conversation by saying, I've got a lousy proposition for you, which is enormously disarming.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Voss: 70% of purchasing decisions aim to avoid loss rather than gain
“70% of the buy decisions are made more to avoid loss than to accomplish gains.”
Insight
Voss: Denying negative stereotypes in negotiations worsens them
“Make a list of the stuff you want to deny. And instead of denying it, cause denying things makes it worse. Just pull it out, you know, and say, look, you know, I know that my industry has a reputation for being fast talking salesman.”
Insight
Voss: Observational labels bypass cognitive barriers better than direct questions
“If I ask you a question, it has a tendency to get you to stop and think and contemplate and formulate an answer. If I just use a label, it seems like you've got something on your mind. There's something about that that instead of you formulating an answer, it …”
Insight
Voss: Proactively Calling Out Negatives Gives Best Chance of Success
“Any negative that's there, ignoring it is leaving a landmine, but calling it out gives you your best chance at eliminating it as an issue. Whether you're an unknown startup or whether or not you got a strong competitor.”
Insight
Voss: Any Interaction Involving Desire or Agreement Is a Negotiation
“The most dangerous negotiation is the one you don't know you're in. So first of all, anytime the word yes is in your, is in the air, somebody's trying to get a yes out of somebody or something, you're in a negotiation. Or if I want is in your brain you're in a…”
Insight
Voss: Time Is the Universal Commodity in Every Negotiation, Not Money
“The commodity that's in each and every negotiation is time, not price, not money. Dollars are not always involved, but time always is.”
Insight
Voss: Never Mistreat Anyone With the Power to Hurt You Passively
“Never be mean to somebody who could hurt you by doing nothing. So the reality is that's probably true of everybody you interact with because you're interacting with them because you want them to do something.”
Insight
Voss: Labels Are the Most Universally Applicable Negotiation Skill
“We found out the labels were the most universally applicable skill of all the tools.”
Insight
Voss: Counterparts become more persuadable after saying no because it creates safety
“Teenagers have learned that once a parent says no, they're probably actually more persuadable. Because the act of saying no makes people feel safe.”
Insight
Voss: Flow State Maximizes Pattern Recognition and Decision-Making Peak Performance
“Well, flow is where you're padding recognition and your decision making is at its peak. Your mental endurance increases and your overall performance is much better.”
Insight
Voss: Forcing a Laugh Triggers an Immediate Beneficial Chemical Reset
“Don't laugh because you're in a good mood. Force a laugh, and you'll actually feel better chemically. You'll trigger a chemical change.”
Disclosure
Voss: My company partners with people I dislike when it benefits us
“And we have some people we're doing business with that
I really don't like.
But it benefits my company a lot, and so I'm not kidding myself about who I'm dealing with.”
Insight
Voss: Delivering uncompromised positions with kindness gets you much farther
“So I'd tell my younger self, Just be nicer. Don't change any of your positions. Don't go in any other directions. Just be nicer about it. You get a lot farther.”
Insight
Voss: Resistance to learning stems from ego threats and fear of being wrong
“New ideas is such a threat to their self concept. They're horrified that maybe they were doing it wrong”
Insight
Voss: Childhood programming provides the core code driving adult behavior
“I think everybody's got two lines of code, somewhere deep down inside. Somebody said something to everybody when we were little kids, that was like our two line of, two lines of magic code in there, and figuring out what that code is, those two lines, is what …”
Insight
Voss: Mirroring forces counterparts to rearticulate statements in different words
“But the mirror actually gets them to rearticulate it again with slightly different words.”
Chris Voss