The Negotiation Book: Your Definitive Guide To Successful Negotiating

2.5. HOW THE NEGOTIATION CLOCK FACE WORKS

The Negotiation Clock Face offers a visual representation of negotiation styles ranging from the toughest form of market manipulation through to high dependency relationships. Each stage around the clock face offers more complexity, more opportunity and more collaboration required. It helps us to understand and determine the most appropriate approach to negotiate, depending on your circumstances.

The clock face as a reference point, therefore, helps you to consciously adopt the appropriate approach related to what you are trying to achieve and the circumstances you face. It is not designed to be prescriptive nor does it suggest that your negotiation should take place at one particular point of the clock face. Many negotiations fluctuate depending on what stage the negotiation is at. The clock face, therefore, is not a process suggesting that you should start at one point and move sequentially to another, it is simply a model which highlights the different styles of negotiation available to us.

2.5.1. The negotiation environment

If we are going to control any negotiation we have to first understand the environment within which we operate. For example, imagine you are responsible for managing a particular customer on an ongoing basis. You feel that a relationship is going to serve your long-term interests, which requires you to build some level of trust and an understanding with your customer. However, your customer has significant market ...