There are a number
of way to detect deception during negotiations.
By learning how to evaluate information and detect these deceptions we
are more likely to avoid being deceived and receive the correct information. In the American culture we often don't like
to haggle or negotiate. We like to take
what the seller is offering at face value and trust that they are being honest
with us. In my time in other countries
and based on their cultures I have found that it is easier to negotiate because
you can assume that the other person is not being completely honest with you. They know you know this. Through this understanding you can haggle
back and forth and ask enough questions to make sure you are getting all the
correct information. This is something I
have found very useful throughout my life.
There are four ways
in which we can evaluate information during a negotiation in order to make sure
we aren't being deceived. I'll go over how these all came to play in a purchase that my wife and I made last year. The first of these is
to ask direction questions. Asking direct
questions that often go two or three levels deep can bring to light any
deceptions. The text states this about a
study that was done regarding direct questions.
"In the study, when sellers were asked direct questions, 61 percent
revealed the problem, 39 percent lied by commission, and 75 percent lied by
omission"(Hoch, Kunreuther, & Gunther, 2001). There are times when you will be looking to
purchase something expensive and need to get all the information you can
regarding the item. However, the seller
will not want to tell you everything about it.
Asking direct questions and carefully listening to the answers will
often bring to light information regarding that item. The text describes listening carefully as
"listening to both what is said and not said"(Hoch, Kunreuther, &
Gunther, 2001).
When my wife and I moved
to Guam we needed to purchase a new car.
We were still trying to sell the car we had from Germany that we could
not bring to Guam with us. We needed to
get a reliable car but did not want to spend a lot of money. Everything on Guam tends to be more expensive
because it's a small island in the middle of nowhere. We began looking for cars that we could
afford. We found a Hyundai Tucson that
was in our price range on a dealership website.
When we went to look at the car the dealer was hesitant to show us even
though the picture looked pretty decent on the website. We finally found out that the car had
significant issues and was still being worked on. We still wanted to look at it because it was
one of the only cars in our price range.
We then asked to look at the carfax so we could see what kind of damage
it had taken. There was a massive dent
in the front bumper that we weren't aware of because of the angle of the
picture online. At first the dealer
couldn't get the carfax and then he had trouble printing it. By watching him I could tell that he was
trying to avoid giving us the carfax. We
finally pushed and were able to get it.
We started asking more questions and found out that the air conditioner
and ignition were both broken. It was
only through multiple direct questions that we were able to get all the
information we needed. In the end we got
them to shave off even more money from the price and fix everything while
replacing the brakes and putting on completely new tires. Now that we knew everything and understood
that even if it did have some issues we could fix those and it would still cost
us significantly less than buying any other car.
By asking direct
questions we were able to get more information regarding the vehicle. We also had to listen carefully to his
answers. We could tell he was avoiding
giving us certain pieces of information and the more we asked the more he tried
to direct us to more expensive cars. By
watching him move away from the car we were interested in and direct us toward
more expensive cars we were able to tell that he was trying to avoid giving us
information. He also had trouble getting
us the carfax at the time. I finally had
to explain our situation to him and why we were interested in that specific
car. I had to tell him that I knew there
may be some problems with it but if he didn't give us all the information on it
I would just go elsewhere. By focusing
on his nonverbal cues and listening carefully to his answers when we asked
questions we were able to get better insight into what he was doing and were
able to redirect him to where we wanted him to be. Had we not paid attention to those things we
may have ended up being talked into a car we couldn't afford at the time. Even though he told us he couldn't print the
carfax I knew he really just didn't want to show it to us.
Another way to
evaluate information is to get everything in writing. During the purchasing process of the car we
knew that if we didn't get everything in writing we may run into some problems
later on down the road. My wife is
especially good at these details and made sure to look over everything
carefully. The text states, "During
negotiation keep a record of claims others make. If certain information is particularly
important to the deal, put things in writing, inspect records and insist on
guarantees"(Hoch, Kunreuther, & Gunther, 2001). We knew they had worked on quite a few things
in order to get this vehicle in good working order. When we received the paperwork for the car we
made to that everything they had fixed was included in the guarantee. This assured us that we would not have to
worry about these same things going wrong in the near future and have a broken
down pile of metal and wasted a bunch of money.
This has served us well since then.
Although the car has been pretty reliable, a few small things have gone
wrong and they have fixed them quickly and without questions because we made
sure to get it in writing.
There are very few
occasions in which I am willing to deceive someone in order to get what I
want. When I am selling something I tend
to be extremely honest because that it what I would want someone to do with me. There have been occasions however, that I
have not told the entire truth in order to get a job done. I have not lied but I have also not given all
the information needed. Where I work at
the moment my boss likes to micromanage as much as he can. We will sometimes have problems in the
workplace, however, I know that if I tell him about the problems that he will
get involved and only make things worse.
In order to avoid this I don't give him information that I know he may
want. By doing this I am taking a risk
but allowing my team to work out the problems rather than my boss getting
involved and trying to make all the decisions himself. By omitting this information I feel that I'm
doing what is right for my team and keeping my boss focused where he needs to
be. If things get too out of hand
however, I will pull him into the issues so that he can have situational
awareness. By doing this I am giving him
information that I know he now needs and I'm inviting him to start making
decisions that may be more detrimental to the situation. While I like to avoid that I also need him to
be involved at certain points so that he can send information up the chain as
needed. Negotiating is simply
communicating with someone while having an end state you want to achieve. Sometimes by omitting information you can
avoid the negotiation all together. You
need to know when that is appropriate though and when to divulge that
information in order to protect yourself, your leadership and those that work
for you.
Bibliography
Hoch,
S. J., Kunreuther, H. C., & Gunther, R. E. (2001). Wharton on Making Decisions. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.
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