

The End of the Mexican Road - pitdesi
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2012/02/11/the-end-of-the-mexican-road/?awesm=bothsid.es_Hns&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=bothsid.es-twitter&utm_source=t.co&utm_content=awesm-publisher

======
paulbaumgart

      In face, your goal in a negotiation is not always to get
      the lowest possible terms. Your goal is to understand the
      needs of your partner and create win/win outcomes where 
      both sides are incentivized to continue to want to work 
      hard together – now and into the future. Sometimes that 
      means you want the absolute best deal you can get. Other 
      times it doesn’t.
    

That's a lesson that applies to employee salary negotiations as well. I've
seen too many instances of employers trying to take advantage of an employee's
lack of negotiation skills, trying to squeeze out that last $5k/year. It's
much more important to have an employee who is happy with their compensation
and dedicated to your company than to shave a few grand off your annual
payroll.

------
staunch
I'm glad to hear someone who likes to negotiate talk about the downsides of
getting too good of a deal. It's a dimension too often ignored by people who
forget that if the other guy isn't happy you might end up with far worse of a
product/service/employee, etc.

There are even times when it makes sense to pay more than the asking price for
better service or for the long term sustainability of the deal.

------
michaelochurch
I can't believe this guy gets to decide whether people get funded.

~~~
msuster
And why is that, Michael? Which bits did you find objectionable? What would
you prefer to hear? People negotiate. We can pretend they don't, but they do.
For business people it's important to understand that.

But I'm all ears if you think I missed something.

~~~
michaelochurch
Actually that post was fine, if a bit banal. It was your "busy execs hate
lunches" idiocy that inspired the comment, which still stands.

~~~
msuster
Ok. Fair enough. Thanks for expanding. FWIW, in the busy execs hate lunches
post - I was really just trying to offer honest advice to young entrepreneurs.
I do lunches all the time. But I also get requests from random people I don't
know to do lunch or dinner. I thought it was worth educating some of these
younger people about what common-sense etiquette is. I know you think it's
obvious - but based on my sample data it isn't always.

