When you make a “bid” in a negotiation, the key to success is that people believe that you mean what you say. If they don’t believe you then your bid lacks credibility and won’t get you the deal that you want. That is why the scandal over MP’s expenses has created a problem for all the main political parties when it comes to fashioning a deal with us, the electorate, to secure our votes in exchange for their promises.
Normally when you “bid” you use some sort of “push” behaviour to secure what you are asking for. Maybe you state an expectation (“the recovery is safe in our hands”) or you utilise an incentive (“vote for us and we’ll abandon the 1% increase in NI”). Sometimes you might use “joining” behaviour which paints a positive picture of what accepting your bid would mean for both sides (eg “vote for change”).
However, if the other side doesn’t really believe you then the bid is unlikely to be persuasive. One indicator of this is that the climate of the negotiation becomes very “cool”. That is what is happening in this election. For example it is a common feature of most polling done to date for the current election that the electorate doesn’t really have an appetite for any of the parties’ promises, and so the gap between the major parties is relatively small. Another indicator that people do not trust the other side’s bid is when they respond with “parting behaviour” – in other words they take their energy out of the negotiation. It is no surprise for example that the polls are relatively static at the moment, and show that as many as one third of voters are undecided. This indicates that a lot of the electorate is not putting its energy into the issue of deciding which bid to accept from the major parties in return for securing their vote. Another sure sign of this trend is that as many as 13% of voters are currently indicating that they will vote for a so-called “minority party”. These minority parties took only 6% of the vote in 2005.
If you have lost credibility in the eyes of the negotiating party on the other side, what can you do about it? Here’s the problem; recovering credibility once your integrity is gone is a slow process, and very difficult. The current major political parties don’t have that luxury with an election only 5 weeks away. So, from a deal-making point of view, we can expect the campaign to continue to feel low-key and un-dynamic. The major parties are not in a position to create any momentum for mass commitment from the electorate, whatever they promise. As a result the polls may well stay fairly close, and on election-day we may well have a low turnout as a significant percentage of the electorate votes with its feet by avoiding voting for any of the main parties.
Interview on deal-making for Smarta.com - the expert website for Business Owners
Clive Rich
Clive Rich, the creator of the Closemydeal app, is also a professional negotiator. He has made deals happen for the likes of Simon Cowell, Sony, MySpace and the Royal Opera House..
Will it be “Deal” or “No Deal” for the British electorate? ...
When you make a “bid” in a negotiation, the key to success is that people believe that you mean what you say. If they don’t believe you then your bid lacks credibility and won’t get you the deal that you want. That is why the scandal over MP’s expenses has created a problem for all the main political parties when it comes to fashioning a deal with us, the electorate, to secure our votes in exchange for their promises.
Normally when you “bid” you use some sort of “push” behaviour to secure what you are asking for. Maybe you state an expectation (“the recovery is safe in our hands”) or you utilise an incentive (“vote for us and we’ll abandon the 1% increase in NI”). Sometimes you might use “joining” behaviour which paints a positive picture of what accepting your bid would mean for both sides (eg “vote for change”).
However, if the other side doesn’t really believe you then the bid is unlikely to be persuasive. One indicator of this is that the climate of the negotiation becomes very “cool”. That is what is happening in this election. For example it is a common feature of most polling done to date for the current election that the electorate doesn’t really have an appetite for any of the parties’ promises, and so the gap between the major parties is relatively small. Another indicator that people do not trust the other side’s bid is when they respond with “parting behaviour” – in other words they take their energy out of the negotiation. It is no surprise for example that the polls are relatively static at the moment, and show that as many as one third of voters are undecided. This indicates that a lot of the electorate is not putting its energy into the issue of deciding which bid to accept from the major parties in return for securing their vote. Another sure sign of this trend is that as many as 13% of voters are currently indicating that they will vote for a so-called “minority party”. These minority parties took only 6% of the vote in 2005.
If you have lost credibility in the eyes of the negotiating party on the other side, what can you do about it? Here’s the problem; recovering credibility once your integrity is gone is a slow process, and very difficult. The current major political parties don’t have that luxury with an election only 5 weeks away. So, from a deal-making point of view, we can expect the campaign to continue to feel low-key and un-dynamic. The major parties are not in a position to create any momentum for mass commitment from the electorate, whatever they promise. As a result the polls may well stay fairly close, and on election-day we may well have a low turnout as a significant percentage of the electorate votes with its feet by avoiding voting for any of the main parties.