Skype negotiation

This week we practiced negotiation via Skype. In my opinion this was such a great idea since those kind of negotiations are very common nowadays in real business life. As it turned out, having group call was not as simple as it sounds.

Before the actual negotiation we got to prepare and come up with a strategy for it with our group. This really helped me to put my thoughts together. I was negotiating with Heikki in team Road and I think we pretty much smashed it. I am not going through the whole negotiation phase by phase. Instead, I am trying to sum up what I learned during the negotiation and what should I remember when next time participating in a Skype negotiation. The actual negotiation task was rather straightforward and the win-win solution was formed pretty easily. The main task of this negotiation simulation was to get familiar with the online negotiation so it didn't bother that the exercise was rather easy.

The very first problem that occurred to us was the difficulty of getting everyone into the same group call. I don't have that much experience with Skype so I still don't know why it did not work out but we never managed to get one person into our group call. Luckily there were two person negotiating in his group so the other one could make it.

In the very beginning I also noticed that it was hard to identify who was talking since I don't recognize everyone by their sound. Luckily Skype has this attribute that shows who is talking. I was also reminded that you should speak very clearly and you should not use too tricky sentence structures. It is better to keep your comments brief and clear. Use of comic and other jokes should also be considered carefully because since your lacking most of your non verbal communication the other parties might not get your joke and they might get offended. It is also beneficial to all to keep the length of the conversation at its minimum.

Difficulties with the network were also inevitable. Every now and then some sentences were lost because of bad connections and the delays with hearing the other parties' voice sometimes caused talking on top of each other which was frustrating.

What to bear in my mind when next time having a Skype negotiation:

- Make sure you have a stable connection
- Get a silent place with no background fuss
- Introduction of the people present in the beginning is necessary
- Keep your sentences brief and clear
- Don't talk too fast
- Use of chat recommended when presenting numbers for example
- Remember to summarize the current state of the negotiation every now and then
- Limit the use of comic

Please comment if you come up with things to add on my list :)

All in all, Skype negotiation can be a very frustrating experience but like with everything else practice makes you better. In the future you can not really avoid online group conversations so it is a essential to practice them. This was a good start!

See you next week!

Sanni