Speed Negotiating – What´s happening?

Speed Negotiating Ülo

It was an incredible “Live Feeling” seeing so many of you actively participating in our “Elevator Pitch Presentation” Event.

Especially the Speed Negotiating part was quite an experience, matching people from Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany and Austria automatically, to practice to focus their message one-on-one for a short time. Here a quick summary video for you:

Your Elevator Pitch preparation course will be available as long as you use it (use it or lose it – login at least once between rounds), so don´t forget to look through that once in a while and keep looking at the structure tips.

Thanks for being there, and if even if you didn´t make it:

Let me know in the comments which part you find most interesting…!

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New Course: Elevator Pitch Training

Here is our completely new Online Course on structure, setting and caveats of the EP. It will help you prepare for our Event Series and any internal or external pitch.

Using the Pitch as Intrapreneur* – Possible? Useful? Recommendable?

elevator pitch - who are you?

It is my pleasure to invite you to come by – free of charge – to our Speed Negotiating Pre-Event #4 in our new Congress Hall:   tomorrow Friday, April 2nd, 14.00 CET.    I will interview our speaker Mladen Zaprianov on different situations to presenting projects and ideas on the “company inside” and how to adapt your Elevator Pitch to the expectations of your listener(s).    Mladen Zaprianov is change expert with lots of experience in company and international settings will share his experience. (10 minutes)   #

What is an Elevator Pitch exactly?

* Don´t know what Intrapreneurship is? Yes, it is really called that way! Have a look at https://intrapreneurship.at/ to finding out.

Protected: Can or should you Learn Negotiating From former Hostage Negotiators?

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Use business cards strategically in negotiations

Who can escape them? Cheap business cards with Word clipart or the variant with 200 free standard business cards with print advertising on the back. Thrift often begins with the business card and company folder. Business Cards might appear “outdated”, however, some crucial points are still well worth to be considered.

Why are business cards still important in the digital age?

  • A business card is often that first physical contact with a new person and helps to win them over as a customer and start the negotiation on the right foot. The situation is even worse with service providers: Here this is sometimes the only tangible “gift” that is ever given. Accordingly, several pieces of perception act here at the same time (see The Master Negotiator Checklist p 108):
  • The first impression (Primacy effect) is rated disproportionately and stays in the memory much longer
  • Observations are unconsciously selected in such a way that the first impression is confirmed : “I knew it.”
  • Therefore, the following performance and price presentation is seen in the light of the business card impression. So it’s easy to start a vicious circle here.
  • Business cards are often “taken out again” after the meeting, touched and felt. They are therefore viewed more often than just when they are handed over.
  • Business cards are read! In the age of overstimulation, this is a very important opportunity.
  • So the last thing your business card should be is boring and interchangeable. Your business card is the mirror of your company and your achievements. Accordingly, you should invest in the design and printing of your business card and be sure to consult a professional.

5 tips for the optimal use of the business card with your negotiating partner

1. Cheap business cards really tend to leave a cheap impression

Do you want to look cheap? If not, invest in your business card.

Invest your time and money. Until you love them. When did you invest enough? There’s a little trick: if it’s such a beautiful work of art that you hesitate to hand your child a copy to play with because it feels too valuable for that.

2. All important information should be easy to find

After a keynote, participants had left countless business cards. Yet, 4 (of about 70) cards lacked e-mail addresses. 6 didn’t give any website information, or maybe didn’t have any ?!

Every industry works a little differently, of course. But e-mail and the Internet are a must practically everywhere.

But there is a little more to it than that. Assume that a casual observer, much like visiting your website, spends only a few seconds answering the following questions:

1) Who is that?
2) What is he doing?
3) Can I use it?

3. Take advantage of the back side

Imagine listening to a 1 minute commercial on the radio. Only if finishes after 30 seconds. Then there is silence. That is the situation and the lost chance if you leave the back of your card blank. You can include current offers, a slogan, a coupon or a URL. For example, I have information about my books attached on the back.

4. Always take business cards with you

You can share your information wherever you could meet people. Put some in your bike, car, bag, sports bag and with the seminar documents. After all, the interested customer can be waiting for you anywhere. So be prepared!

5. Think “Class” instead of “mass” when handing out your cards

During my last Speed Negotiation Seminar one participant “forced his card” on everyone, whether they wanted it or not. When tidying up after the seminar, I found half of the cards spread out on tables and in the garbage can. The potential partners reaction was to be “pissed off” and brought little positive either to her or to the recipients. Only give business cards to someone who deserves them. After you’ve invested so much in your business cards, hand them out only to people you actually want to work with. This saves you from stalking gossip and doesn’t seem so intrusive.

The first but important step would be done. If you want to take a closer look at fee negotiations and practice your first impression, have a closer look at my Speed Negotiation Event..

I wish you success!

European Morals: Too Noble To Sell?

Suddenly, products and services were no longer available. (Not only) Food was hoarded and businesses went bankrupt overnight. Crises like Covid-19 show the importance of a functioning market economy for all market participants, but also for the state community as such and can give previously unknown clarity.

In addition to the loss of tax revenue and the range of products and services, small local companies (SMEs) in particular felt the “loss of the marketplace” very directly. These “small” companies are usually not in the limelight, but provide a large part of the domestic economic output: tax advisors, consultants, coaches, lawyers, IT consultants, stage technicians or even writers “from next door”.

A Free Society Builds On The Understanding of Free Markets

The public marketplace with all its facets, and the potential contact with customers that it provides, is a prerequisite for entrepreneurship and independence.

In crisis the risks of self-employment show themselves in all their existence-threatening ugliness:

  1. the often underestimated corporate risk (without customers, no sales, means no income, despite ongoing expenses)
  2. the draining, constant performance requirement, despite illness, family demands, school dropouts, etc. and
  3. the 24/7 accompanying existential fear, also for family, employees, suppliers etc.

But independence means more than just increased risk.

There is an even more fundamental difference: In order to survive, the self-employed need a very specific, regulatory, practical and also mentally supportive environment. For the self-employed person to be successful, it is not enough to work off his tasks well every day and wait for the end of the month.

The development of the last few decades has brought many new services to a market that already was highly competitive. Mailboxes, email inboxes and apps are under constant fire from companies that are desperately trying to attract attention.

However, even with advertising, customers and sales don’t just come in automatically. While large network providers, electricity suppliers, supermarkets or fashion chains can still advertise their product, small lawyers, tax advisors, carpenters, masseurs or energy specialists can hardly do so. SME need more than just marketing, they need “human curiosity & openness to ” environment.

This environment, this “market place” first of all requires the actual encounter, that is, a physical meeting, albeit with a safe distance. But it also requires a mental encounter: This means intellectual openness and the social understanding that a marketplace is necessary, helpful, colorful and advantageous for all.

It is precisely this openness that is lacking in Europe. Whether for environmental, social, or political reasons: business and market criticism are becoming increasingly popular.

Constant Selling is the lifeblood of a successful (business) venture

A particular challenge for many small companies is the need to constantly present their own services and entrice new customers.

That is a rather tightrope walk for SMEs because nobody wants to be ingratiating or selling. Small or sole proprietorships have no budget to advertise on a large scale and wide range. In practice, what counts primarily is the personal appearance and the business card or website with which the entrepreneur can draw attention to himself and his services.

Europe Has An Ideological Problem With Free Markets

There is space and interest for this personal appearance in the Anglo-American, but also in Asian culture. The search for new business partners and customers is understood as a professional, meaningful and social social activity. Hence, achievement and success is encouraged, if not admired. People agree that conversations and business negotiations mostly lead to mutually beneficial agreements, “deals” are actively sought.

In Europe and especially in the Roman Catholic societies, even the word “market” is already suspect. People are supposed to meet (only) for cultural events or social or at least humanitarian reasons. The basic tenor is often rather cynical: Let´s have the convenience of technological progress, but without capitalism or time-consuming advertising and sales.

You might easily hear people argue: “I don’t need 20 types of yoghurt in the supermarket.” You can hardly explain the background of our economic system but respond shortly: “No, you might not, but we also don’t just want to have to eat your favorite variety.” European can be completely oblivious to the connection between market mechanisms and the variety of services and products. However, for a functioning market and thus for companies, having informed, interested, open and self-determined market participants can go a long way.

As an example of many:
The misconception of the GDPR

The implementation of the GDPR is an example of this misconception about market mechanisms: a potential (private or commercial) customer may not be written to or otherwise contacted by entrepreneurs before the latter explicitly and actively gives his consent.

However, this consent must also not be requested directly, unless the customer approaches the provider of his own volition. This may be justified and work where huge companies can generate desire, brand affinity and demand with appropriate advertising budgets and measures.

With the self-employed IT specialist or consultant, writer, coach or trainer, however, it can be safely assumed that practically nobody will ask for advertising brochures on their own. With the GDPR in place, entire industries can be found without any basis for legally addressing new customers with economically justifiable means. At the same time, one can observe that spam mails from dishonest companies have by no means decreased, and mail advertising from large companies also seems to have hardly decreased.

Do entrepreneurs need personal contact to survive? You bet!

Now, as the economic fallout from the shutdown is making itself felt, something is being written about local marketplaces and the importance of buying at home. People are becoming aware that their neighborhood, their city, their region can only survive economically if the cycle stays in motion.

What does my Freelance Neighbor actually offer?

How often have I seen neighbors and even family members surprised to find out after a purchase that they could have bought the same products or services directly from their cousins, classmates ​​or friends (and on the same or better terms)!

Because selling in person is by and large taboo in Europe, the fitness trainer bites her tongue at parties rather than selling her achievements and courses. There is always the danger that she could appear intrusive or even a salesy. At the next meeting, however, it turns out that the woman you got along so well with at the party has booked another sports coach directly in the fitness center.

Is Online Marketing the Answer?

The only channel left for small businesses is almost unaffordable online advertising. But here a recent experience in Vienna/Austria shows the widespread hostility towards advertising and entrepreneurship, despite all lip service. If you really wanted companies, you also have to allow them to actively offer themselves and their products.

If a small company like mine is willing and financially able to place a paid ad, it should not have to think twice about its offer for fear of being accused of advertising too aggressively!

Even Online Marketers are worrying about being too salelsy!

This, however, is exactly what happened when we tried to market one of our books (this is the page we wanted to link to, judge for yourself) via an online advertiser dedicated to EPUs and boroughs in Vienna. The answer from the online marketplace we received?

“The presentation [of this CD box, note A] was a rather misleading sales page for me.”

Viennese Online Marketing Agency, (co)financed with public funds

Our paid ad was declined for reason of being too aggressive!

It sounds like a mockery that the same “highly moral” agency is still tapping public funds from the Vienna Business Agency in order to support SMEs in the Grätzl. With this moral arrogance and fear of selling, we in Europe don’t need to worry about competition from Asia or the U.S.A. We are already finishing our companies ourselves.

Mit dieser moralischen Überheblichkeit und Verkaufsangst brauchen wir in Europa keine Sorge vor der Konkurrenz aus Asien oder den U.S.A. haben. Wir machen unsere Unternehmen so schon selbst fertig.

We need a European way forward

If, as a society, we seriously value freedom to shape one’s profession and life, we need a society that values ​​its elements such as the market, advertising and the culture of supply.

This is by no means difficult to attain, but the change must take place in the mind!

  1. To do this, school teachers need to be required to know and understand market mechanisms personally.

    Internships in small companies with corresponding customer frequency should become a compulsory part of the pedagogical curriculum in teacher training.
  2. Schools should incorporate projects that foster marketing and selling products or services.

    Our children are sent out onto the streets to beg for Churches and Caritas without hesitation, but buying fruit themselves and selling fruit juice for pocket money at the school festival is rejected as being too profit-oriented. Instead of focusing on the acquisition of grants and donations, the mechanism of supply and demand should be experienced and learned.

  3. Decision-makers, especially in politics, should have felt the rough wind, especially in the sale of a local SME, for at least a certain time before their parliamentary representation.

Last but not least, it´s time in Europe to seriously and honestly grapple with the question of how much freedom we really want for ourselves and our children. It has become all too easy and socially acceptable to denounce the mistakes of capitalism.

It should be at least equally appropriate and socially acceptable to name the advantages and freedoms of capitalism. If we want a creative, sustainable, free and entrepreneurial Europe in the 21st millennium, we need to rethink and strengthen a society that values ​​entrepreneurship with all its facets. Better to tackle the above steps today than tomorrow.

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