It is always helpful to be clear, open, transparent and consistent in your stance and attitude when you are negotiating a contract for yourself or your clients. However, the reality cannot be more different. You may come across people who change their colours faster than chameleons – inconsistent in their demands, patience, accommodative nature and otherwise. Such inconsistency breeds mistrust and delays the negotiation process and sometimes, derails the transaction altogether.
Dealing with such two-faced individuals is always a daunting task, more so when it comes to negotiating contracts with significant monetary / reputational aspects involved.
Here are some tips may like to deploy to tackle such situations:
Set boundaries from the word go. Define respective expectations, roles, and responsibilities of the parties in the proposed contract as early as possible. This may ensure that all such terms are explicitly stated so that the other party isn’t left with an excuse regarding ambiguity and seeking to manipulate.
Pinpoint the signs. You should devote minute attention to inconsistencies in their behaviour, communication, and promises manifested from time to time. Look out for any patterns that may indicate their two-faced nature.
Capture evidence. Enlist, document and record instances, to the extent feasible, wherein their behaviour differs in different settings on the same subject. Having concrete examples will help you approach the situation with clarity and confronting them at a later stage.
Verify information. Double-check any information or claims made by the two-faced party. Engage independent, third-party, unbiased sources whenever possible to validate the accuracy of such information or statements.
Get allies on board. Look for unbiased trusted individuals or allies who can offer additional perspectives or support during such negotiations. Collaborating with such people and getting their perspective may help you in mitigating the impact of the two-edged party’s manipulative tactics.
Assert. You should approach any such negotiations with clear, concise, precise specific objectives and deliverables on either side. Being polite and professional is good but you have to be assertive at the same time, clearly manifesting your expectations, timelines, and deliverables and indicating your unwillingness to budge to someone’s mood swings or changing goalposts.
Get ready for the worst. Always be prepared that the other party may shift its stance, be evasive, or attempt to manipulate the negotiation process at any time. Try to be as flexible as possible to hear them out and strategize accordingly. This may require thinking on your feet, imagining out of the box solutions and the like.
Trust, but check. Do not trust everything manifested by the other party blindly. Maintain a level of professional skepticism, take everything with a pinch of salt. Verify the accuracy of information provided by the counter party independently, and seek external experts’ validation if need be.
Dealing with people with duplicity is always challenging, but by employing some of the above strategies and maintaining a professional approach may assist in your chances of achieving a fair and successful negotiation.
