EPILOGUE: SOME FINAL TAKEAWAYS FROM GABY AND KAI
Thank you for reading The Invisible Game. That means a lot to us. We were hoping to share our passion for the tremendous value that the Invisible Game adds to your side of the negotiation table. Each of us has some final thoughts and takeaways as we all get back to business. Kai will direct his at professors and trainers, while Gaby will follow with her takeaways for salespeople.
Kai's final takeaways
Dear Fellow Professors and Trainers,
For my classes and my workshops, I am always on the lookout for interesting new materials. To provide you with a compact way to introduce the Invisible Game and illustrate some of the differences between the Visible Game and the Invisible Game, you can use Table E.1. We intentionally left this piece of the puzzle until the end of the book, because we thought it was best appreciated after reading the entire book.
I am someone who learns most from examples and many of my students do so too. That's why I feel that the handful of examples in Table E.1 could give you an idea for a presentation slide or some leads to develop teaching materials. As with all our ideas – develop it further, adjust it to your industry of choice, and always feel free to send us an email with your best examples!
Table E.1 A few examples that illustrate the differences between the Visible Game and the Invisible Game
| The Visible Game | The Invisible Game |
|---|---|
| Receiving an RFP for one of your products or services | Figuring out what anchors have been placed in that RFP |
| ‘We have a management meeting tomorrow and need your reply by tonight’ | Recognizing time and timing as tactical moves to apply artificial stress |
| Sending out your proposal to your customer | Constructing an advantageous choice architecture for that proposal |
| Wearing a wristwatch | Using the wristwatch as a prompt to remind yourself of an intended action |
| Receiving a request for a discount within pre-defined parameters | Reply with no acknowledgment of the anchors embedded in the request |
| ‘We have a standard approach and process on how to manage a client.’ | You have standards and processes for administration, but remain unpredictable for the other side when it is time for negotiation |
| ‘My customer always asks for new ideas but never follows up on them.’ | Repeat the idea to the customer seven or eight times |
Gaby's final takeaways
Dear Fellow Salespeople,
When preparing for a specific business situation, I tend to flip through my books repeatedly for quick advice and ideas. For those of you who like to do the same, here is my personal quick guide to The Invisible Game. It's organized by business topic and refers to the relevant chapter.
How to sustain healthy customer relationships
Customer strategies
- Evaluate your true position in the supplier segmentation. Think future! (Chapter 11).
- Risks of assumptions: Do you know, or do you think you know? (Chapter 2).
- The most valuable question may be: What should we stop doing? (Chapter 12).
New customers
- Programme first impressions actively to match your strategic intent (Chapter 3).
- Change needs to sound, look, and feel like change (Chapter 3).
- Always take the time to onboard new customer players (Chapter 4).
Joint meetings
- The tactical value of timeouts (Chapter 1).
- Keep presentations simple. Audiences love short messages (Chapter 3).
- New ideas need a lot of repetition to get heard (Chapter 3).
- Apply storytelling principles to create lasting memories (Chapter 12).
- Agendas and minutes shape the collective memory of success (Chapter 19).
How to improve your odds in a negotiation
Preparation
- Judgment calls versus choices (Chapter 1).
- Time for analysis: understand the frame you operate in (Chapter 3).
- Understand your customer's organizational focus (Chapter 12).
- Restrict the other party's options and surround yourself with allies (Chapter 19).
Choice architectures
- The psychology behind losses and gains (Chapter 15).
- The promise of getting something (small) now beats the promise of any long-term gain, even if the latter would be much larger (Chapter 16).
- Decisions shift toward the ‘golden middle’ option with three symmetrical alternatives (Chapter 18).
- Asymmetric choice architectures influence decisions toward the perceived ‘better deal’ (Chapter 18).
How to influence buying decisions
From your position
- Make the first move! The first number in a discussion will have a strong influence on the last number in that same discussion (Chapter 4).
- Develop the habit of ‘anchoring’ as part of your selling strategy (Chapter 4).
- Pitching: The difference between being the incumbent or the challenger (Chapter 12).
- ‘Unbundling’ helps suppliers with costs that have no proprietary value for them (Chapter 17).
From the buyer's position
- Was it a headshake or a handshake? (Chapter 1).
- Buyers need to hear the word ‘no’ (Chapter 9).
- When losing hurts more than winning excites (Chapter 8).
- Tactics: time, timing, uncertainty, fear, silence (Chapter 10).
- ‘Bundling’ can make customer decisions easier (Chapter 17).
How to manage pricing
New prices
- Prices translate into sensory experiences (Chapter 2).
- Prices and their relativity (Chapter 5).
- Prices are the outcome of stories (Chapter 5).
- Price thresholds may not be where you expect them (Chapter 12).
- Cost transparency (Chapter 14).
Re-pricing your portfolio
- Noticeable differences (Chapter 12).
- Price increases versus price adjustments (Chapter 13).
- The notion of fairness (Chapter 13).
- The calming routine of annual pricing discussions (Chapter 13).
- List prices as anchors (Chapter 14).
Requests for discounts and concessions
- Your dominant response should be NO! (Chapter 6).
- Countering anchor attempts (Chapter 10).
- Managing in the context of transactional relationships (Chapter 11).
- The psychology behind losses and gains (Chapter 15).
- Free should really be ‘for free’ (Chapter 16).
How self-management leads to better results and greater success
- Fight the comfort of stability. When business environments are in transition, the same old behaviours cannot solve new equations (Chapter 2).
- Whose deal have you won (success illusion)? (Chapter 2).
- Emotions that hinder success (Chapter 8).
- Push the boundaries to expand your comfort zone (Chapter 9).
- Our ingrained desire to be liked (Chapter 10).
Share your stories and questions
As you bring these insights back into your business world, you will encounter new experiences. We'd love to hear your stories about how you've applied the concepts, and what you achieved. To get in touch or share your thoughts or your personal stories on playing the Invisible Game, please send Gaby an email at [email protected] or contact Kai via [email protected].