Chris Webber, founder of Foxleigh Commercial Performance, flew to the US recently to meet with clients in Chicago. It was his first visit to the city. On the flight, Chris thought he would connect with the locals and watched The Founder on Netflix, which portrays the story of Ray Croc, the powerhouse behind the global phenomenon of McDonald’s, headquartered in Chicago.
Ray was a salesman struggling to succeed until he came across the McDonald’s brothers and their innovative restaurant. They served an excellent-quality burger in a matter of moments. It was unbelievable to Ray, and even more incredible was his discovery that they had no interest in expansion. This was his chance!
The story follows Ray’s journey as he established the restaurant chain internationally and secured wealth. However, the film comes to a stark ending and shows how he makes a deal to exclude the McDonald’s brothers from the franchise, even opening a restaurant next to theirs, thus putting them out of business.
The message seems to glorify ruthless negotiation tactics and the relentless pursuit of profits as traits to be admired. Chris, however, saw something different and perhaps more concerning for today’s business leaders. Today, businesses are connected and interdependent. Even the tough competitors are collaborators. Apple, Samsung, and Sony are all fierce rivals in the smartphone market, but they each supply and purchase parts from each other. Conflict spills over and can have far-reaching effects.
Chris realized that the clients he works with are negotiating deals with long-standing relationships with partners that need to breed success. He also discovered that an unforgiving and unrelenting approach results in bad feelings and the need to “get even.” When you are too harsh in negotiations, you are setting yourself up to be a victim next time, making all your deals increasingly tricky until you no longer have any power and are free to be exploited. There is an additional risk from a zero-sum win/lose approach to negotiation. When partners rely on each other to unlock value, leaving your partner annoyed after tricky negotiations reduces the likelihood that anyone achieves what they had hoped for.
Foxleigh has experienced similar issues with clients in the past, where terms were inserted in the contract to incentivize the purchase of more significant volumes of products with improved discounts, only to see these terms left redundant. The reason was that the buyer left the deal with the intention of buying as little as necessary because of feelings of disappointment in how they were treated.
At Foxleigh, they advocate a balance of results and relationships. Webber advises, “At the end of a deal, you want your partners to be proud of the work accomplished and ready to unlock its full potential. That way, you retain power and can replicate it in the next meeting. ” You need to help your counterparts walk away with integrity, respect, and a feeling that you are tough but fair. The world is not a zero-sum place where there are winners and losers. These negotiations are complex and nuanced. Microsoft, for example, changed its fortunes under Satya Nadella when he adopted a partnership approach to industry partners and took the business to a new level. Chris recommends following this lead and building partnerships.
Foxleigh specializes in creating relationships and collaborating with clients to change not what teams do but how they do it, building partnerships and performance simultaneously. For more information, check out www.foxleigh.net!
Published by Anne C.
