Negotiating by Email

Should I Click Send? – The DOs and DON’Ts of Negotiating by Email

Email is a double-edged sword when it comes to negotiation. It can be highly effective for purposes of clarity in moments of confusion. Conversely, an emotive and all too hasty click of the send key can have disastrous consequences. Your mode of communication while negotiating should try to serve both the short-term and long-term goals you have identified.

So when IS it appropriate to use email in a negotiation?

Transactional negotiations: email is more suited to negotiations where there is no requirement to establish a relationship going forward. It can be an advantage in these circumstances that emotion and bias are removed from communications.

Information exchange: email communication works well when large amounts of factual information (price lists, terms etc.) need to be exchanged and negotiated. It makes it easy to ensure that both sides have access to exactly the same documents and can study them ahead of any discussions.

Language barrier: if one or more of the negotiating parties is operating in a language that is not their mother tongue, emails help to remove language disadvantage and gives each participant time to ensure they understand communications to respond effectively.

When is it NOT appropriate to use email?

When Trust Matters: written communications are a poor medium for building trust between two parties. If a successful long-term outcome requires trust and cooperation, then face-to-face meetings or at a minimum teleconferences are an essential investment.

The DOs

Ask questions: this is a much more natural part of verbal communication than written. In studies, email negotiation participants invariably spend too many words justifying their own position, and not enough asking questions that will help them to understand the other party’s needs and priorities.

Pause before responding: in moments of irritation it is easy to fire off a negative or attacking email, and it is much more difficult to retreat from that position with someone who is not in front of you. If communications do become contentious or difficult, wait before replying and ideally ask someone who is not directly involved in the negotiation to review your reply before sending.

Reciprocate in tone and length: responding to a “hi Karim” with “Dear Mr. Smith” or replying to a lengthy, detailed email with a curt “we cannot go above £100,000” will unnecessarily generate bad will. Match your communication style to that of your counterpart and remember that what seems efficient and succinct to you may seem curt to someone else.

Intersperse emails with phone calls: negotiations purely conducted by email have a low success rate compared to alternative methods. A blended approach is often better, using a phone call, a conference call or even a face-to-face meeting at regular stages in the process.

Summarise: send frequent summaries along the lines of “this is where we are so far”. This will ensure that all participants have a common understanding. If you are the one providing the summary it also gives you the opportunity to frame the issues in your own terms using language helpful to your cause.

Make the first move: the first email sent will establish the tone and anchor objectives for the subsequent discussion.

Keep your language positive: in the early stages of a trust-building meeting you would (possibly without realising) be sending verbal and non-verbal cues that reassure your counterparty that you want the outcome to be positive and fruitful for them as well as you. In an email you need to insert some written cues to do this job for you, using language such as “outcome that works for everyone” “solution that creates value for all parties”.

Agree clear roles in the team and stick to them: this is no different from a face-to-face negotiation. Your spokesperson should be the person composing emails with the rest of the team providing input and agreeing content.

The DON’Ts

Don’t click ‘send’ in anger: It is easy to derail an email negotiation with a hastily drafted mail in a moment of irritation. Pause for breath and if possible sleep on it before composing an answer.

Don’t let your ‘cc’ field get out of control: Agree at the outset who the negotiating team is and only put these people in copy. Your counterpart needs to know whom they are dealing with and who sees what they write and you should expect the same courtesy from them.

Don’t write anything you can’t defend: remember that unlike verbal communication, emails are a permanent, indelible record of a conversation. Avoid engaging in speculation, threats and half-truths; they can come back to bite you in ways that are very painful.

Don’t ramble: ensure your spokesperson is someone who has a clear written communication style. Make sure your key points are always prominent in your mail and not buried beneath a mound of superfluous information.

Use extreme opening with caution: research shows that extreme openings too early in an email negotiation can have a detrimental effect. You do not necessarily need to abandon this element of your strategy but do think carefully about how you use it. The ‘shock and awe’ impact of an extreme offer by email is not tempered by the effect of the non-verbal cues in a physical meeting and your counterparty’s indignation can often be amplified by emails being forwarded around their organisation.

Karim Davezac is Managing Director of Merindol Negotiation