Together, we are mighty - working together to make a deal successful

Everyone wants their project to succeed, their deal to go through, their offer accepted. But I often get asked ‘How do you make sure the deal gets across the line and that it’s a good deal for both parties involved?’

My answer… It starts with building and maintaining an environment of trust and honesty between the stakeholders. 

It’s a lot harder to achieve a good deal where parties may have different and often conflicting interests, but the focus needs to be on what can be achieved when both parties involved aim to be successful together.  

‘Mutual Honesty’

It starts with both parties understanding and agreeing with the following statements:

1. It’s OK to protect and further their business interests while at the same time...
2. It’s OK to find common ground with the other party.

After all, if you didn’t have common ground, why did you come together in the first place?

This mutual honesty forms a great foundation for building a collaborative environment where both sides feel secure and valued.

 

‘Win-Win Mindset’

With the above understanding in mind, both parties should aim to adopt a cooperative approach - After all, it’s in everyone’s best interests if both parties get along but it's easy to forget that we are figuring out how to do business together, not harm each other. This mindset ensures that both sides are working towards mutual benefits, rather than competing against each other.

 

‘Be honest about your redlines’

Working towards mutual benefits doesn’t mean that you’ll never disagree with each other or that you have to agree to everything. Being frank and honest about redlines—where you do not want to go—is absolutely essential. You can’t expect someone ‘not to go there’ if they don’t know where ‘there’ is!

 

But if you both understand what are the wins you can achieve together, you actively pursue your own side's win while helping the other party achieve theirs.

 

I believe this leads to parties establishing a relationship of trust.  

‘The Trust’

By this time you’re partners in the deal. Remember, trust is fragile and must be maintained so you actively have to work on  it for it to continue.

There’s two parts to this trust that create a dependable and trustworthy relationship:  

• Communication and alignment of intentions:

Knowing what your partner is aiming for and what they are trying to avoid. Try to  help them on the way. Sometimes things don’t pan out the way you had planned but make sure your partner in the deal knows this - "I am confident you’re not trying to damage us and do not intend to do so even by accident"

 

• Demonstration of reliability:

This isn’t a ‘smile, agree and then forget fest’! Each partner must be committed to doing what they have promised - "I not only expressed alignment but I followed up and delivered on the commitments that I made"

It’s this trust that allows the deal to weather the storm and come out of the other side. Build on the trust and any deal should be achievable.