3 real-life short stories — My lessons on negotiations from unexpected teachers
3 life lessons on negotiations from — a Key Maker, a Fruit Seller, and a Cab Driver
Negotiation is an integral part of our life. We do it every day. For people who deny being associated, let me remind you, that negotiations are not only external but internal too. The tussle within when your heart negotiates with your mind to allow you to consume those extra calories for the day, spend more than budgeted on shopping and travel, or just have that extra hour of continuing to binge on that popular series before you hit the sack. However, this article is focused on the external ones.
I have worked in the media buying and investment function of a global media agency for over a decade now. Negotiations form the core pillar of the job function. This set of 3 real-life short stories are about some valuable lessons on negotiations I learned from most unexpected teachers — A Key Maker, a Fruit Seller, and a Cab Driver
I aim to share real-life experiences in sets of 3 real-life or Autofiction stories with related themes. While I have my learnings from it; I would like you to interpret it your way and am glad to know your thoughts in the comments section.
1 — Key Maker
“Kartik, can you take my child inside your apartment and call a key maker, soon?”, requested my neighbor on a phone call. She seemed to be in a state of panic. While I was puzzled on this strange-sounding request, on enquiring further I got to know that she had accidentally got locked in one of the rooms of her apartment by her 5-year-old. The child then stepped out of the apartment and closed the main door too. Now the child was standing outside the apartment, but she could neither come out nor anyone could go inside the apartment as the house keys were kept in the living room. I got the child to my apartment and called a key maker and discussed his fees for opening the lock. The key maker arrived and opened the lock of the main door in less than 2 minutes. Quite surprised I asked him, “When we spoke over the phone you said it is a lot of hard work. Now it seems the fees you quoted are too high for the work you eventually had to do.” To which he replied with humility, “Sir, I never said I would take too long. It is hard work, and I am skilled to execute it at a certain pace, but it is difficult to estimate the exact time beforehand. I charge for my skill and quality of work and not for the time that I spend doing it. I won’t pretend to work for long just to justify the fees.”
“Do not compromise on the quality and your customers will not negotiate on the price”– Amit Kalantri
2 — Fruit Seller
It was the season of mangoes in India and time to shop the king of the season, the Alphonso variety. I had promised my children to get a couple of dozen on the way back home from the office in the evening. I stopped by a fruit seller to choose the mangoes and selected 2 dozen delicious-looking ones. He suggested that for 2 dozen he would offer me a discounted price of INR 650, which otherwise would be INR 720 as the selling price per piece is INR 30. While I was happy to get it at that price, I thought he has dropped it without any negotiation from my end and hence there is further opportunity to negotiate. I told him to give it at INR 600. He said, “Sir, to offer you a further discount of INR 50, would cost me the loyalty of over 500 customers.”
“Place a higher priority on discovering what a win looks like for the other person.” — Harvey Robbins
3 — Cab Driver
I was on vacation with my family in a small town in India. We were on our way from the airport to the resort. The driver over a discussion offered his cab services for days of our stay in the town. However, we didn’t reach a mutually agreeable price and chose not to take his services. Meanwhile, there was another issue, it was 11 pm and we had children with us. By the end of the ride, we couldn’t locate the resort at the drop location indicated as per maps. There was just a tea stall at that place. I called the resort and let them know our location and they said they would send their resort service car to pick us up from the point which would take 10–15 minutes to reach. The weather was chilly, and we had all had already stepped out of the cab. The driver was overhearing my conversation with resort employees and to my surprise offered us to sit in the cab till the time the resort vehicle came to pick us up. He replied, “Sir, I would go back to my home from here, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep in peace if I leave you and especially your children in this isolated place in such cold weather at this hour. So, I will wait till their car arrives.”
“Emotions aren’t the obstacles to a successful negotiation; they are the means” — Christopher Voss
Each of these experiences reflected the finer nuisance and humane aspects of negotiation to me. We usually tend to miss out on these in our chase to negotiate only the best price in a most often unidimensional price negotiation conversation.
