C-19 – ENGAGE asking people what’s driving a decision

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Part 7 Negotiating during C-19 – ENGAGE asking people what’s driving a decision

This is an adapted transcript from a series of videos I created to help people with practical advice to negotiate during the challenging times we’re currently facing due to COVID-19. – The VLOG can be viewed on LinkedIn HERE

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So what I’ve noticed is people’s drivers at the moment are obviously quite different to what they would normally be. And that’s causing a lot of confusion and frustration, and probably a heightened emotional sense in that discussion anyway.

Normally, you can read the play in the room, you can sort of predict what people would be driven by. And, when you’re doing your preparation before you go into the room, then often you will have thought about, okay, if I say ‘this’, they’ll probably say ‘that’. Now that will still work to a point – so we definitely need to do the preparation before we go into the room, trying to work out what are the scenarios that could deliver the outputs we want from this conversation.

But I think that it’s a time when we really need to talk about why people are asking ‘that’ question or why you’re saying no to that particular ‘thing’.

  • I talk about 15 seconds of pain: it takes 15 seconds from you thinking of an idea, to getting it from your head, to your heart, and then out of your mouth.

Now a lot of people would say that “I really hate asking that question anyway. So why would I feel any better about it during COVID-19?” You won’t, you won’t feel any better about it. It’ll still feel uncomfortable, a little bit horrible. However, it’ll get you practicing, so that when we get back to ‘normal life’ perhaps you might be a bit more confident to ask the questions that previously shied away from.

So, when you’re in a meeting, on a Zoom call or a chat or whatnot, and you’re having these negotiations and the other person is behaving in a way that you just can’t get your head around. And you find yourself thinking – “Why are they saying that?” Then I suggest you write down on your notepad, the full question you would like to ask. Maybe the question is:

  • What is driving this decision?
  • How can we work this out together?
  • Is there something that I can say or do that will change the outcome of this conversation?
  • Or are we just not going to reach agreement and we all need to go away and think about that. Do we each need some time to think it over?

Fear might be driving the decision

People are not doing things rationally at the moment, and I think that makes total sense because they’re coming from a place of fear, which is never a healthy place to come from, but the entire universe is coming from that place.

So if you can take a moment to actually turn it from being about ‘you and me’ to about ‘us solving the problem together’, because we’re all in this together. That might change the dial on the conversation.

 

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Investing in pushing through 15 Seconds of Pain, will give you greater confidence, and help you feel more capable to step up to more negotiations.

 

Good luck!

About Sam Trattles – Sam has built a career around negotiation – through marketing, brand, and sponsorship roles over 20 years. She builds capability and confidence in your people by creating strategies that deliver positive business results. Unlocking the value in all your deals. Sam is a straight shooter, she is practical and likes to share her knowledge to help others learn to love negotiating (or to at least, not to hate it). Because it’s worth a great deal.

 

C-19 negotiations – ENGAGE to negotiate part payments

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Part 6 Negotiating during C-19 – ENGAGE to negotiate part payments

 

This is an adapted transcript from a series of videos I created to help people with practical advice to negotiate during the challenging times we’re currently facing due to COVID-19. – The VLOG can be viewed on LinkedIn HERE

 

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The focus of this blog is about how do we have some of those really challenging conversations during C-19, but have shifted in light of some of the Government announcements. We now know that yes, for certain people and certain businesses, there is money coming, but there is definitely a lag from when it’s been announced to when it’s going to come into our bank accounts or offset tax etc – so you may need to go an renegotiate on that basis.

Knowing that money coming really does boy the market, obviously that’s intent, which is a great outcome from our Government. It also opens up an opportunity for us to have some conversations with different suppliers.

 

The first place is always to know your position.

Having a list of people that you owe money to and people that owe money to you, so that you can determine what is your current position. Where are you able to pay things? And where can’t you pay things?

Then it’s time to find out what’s happening with the people who owe you money? What’s their time frame?

So, sit down and getting that position, if you haven’t already, then make some calls and have some conversations.

 

These conversations would probably be centered around:

  • “How are you doing?”
  • To get a gauge from the people that you owe money how strongly they are positioned at the moment – in light of workload, in light of everything, and in light of what funds are possibly coming their way as well.
    • If they are a debtor and they are doing positively, then great. That’s an opportunity to open the conversation about how you might be able to come to some sort of compromise together.
    • Perhaps an arrangement where you might pay this off over time, rather than if it’s a bigger invoice, then potentially you could chunk it down and give them a portion of it now, and give them the next portion and the next portion when ‘this payment’ comes in from the Government, or when ‘that supplier’ pays you, or somebody else gives you funds, etc.

 

Contribute what you can, now

If you can, definitely think about paying parts of things, rather than kicking the can down the road and not paying anything. Kicking the can puts you in a risky position and it also kind of disrespects the other person as well. Everybody is doing it tough right now. So being able to say to them, “Look, I really can only pay you 10% of this right now. Could that work for you?” It opens the door.

 

You’re being open, raw and honest. It’s very hard to, because we’re so used to having an “everything’s okay” mentality, but nothing’s okay right now. And that’s okay.

 

It’s about opening the conversation, it’s about not kicking the can down the road. It’s about finding out who’s doing well in your sphere, and then getting a true position. It’s about understanding if the position that you’re all faced with so that we can make things happen in stages.

 

If you are truly, truly in troubled waters, then you need to seek some serious advice from all the people that are in your advisory group, that are able to support you through this time, particularly your accountants, your key financial advisors, and I’m happy to help where I can, but I certainly think that they’re the first port of call for where your position is. If things are dire for you, then I’m really sad for that, because I do hope that the government stimulus’ can help people pull through.

 

For everyone else, the fundamental thing here is that pick up the phone, have the conversations, make sure those people know that they are going to get the money that is owed to them. It might have to happen in stages, but at least you’re in the conversation together, solving the problem as a unit. And everyone’s got a clear picture for when things are going to happen.

 

And you know, really just open your eyes to how a negotiation doesn’t have to be something that you hate.

 

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Collaborating with those who owe you money, or who you owe money to, will give you greater confidence, and help you feel empowered to negotiate a way forward during C-19, and you might learn to love negotiating along the way.

Good luck!

 

About Sam Trattles – Sam has built a career around negotiation – through marketing, brand, and sponsorship roles over 20 years. She builds capability and confidence in your people by creating strategies that deliver positive business results. Unlocking the value in all your deals. Sam is a straight shooter, she is practical and likes to share her knowledge to help others learn to love negotiating (or to at least, not to hate it). Because it’s worth a great deal.

C-19 negotiations – ACCEPT help, who’s on your team – you’re not in this alone

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Part 5 Negotiating during C-19 – ACCEPT help, who’s on your team – you’re not in this alone

This is an adapted transcript from a series of videos I created to help people with practical advice to negotiate during the challenging times we’re currently facing due to COVID-19. – The VLOG can be viewed on LinkedIn HERE

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Let’s make sure that we have the right team around us during a time when we are negotiating some pretty challenging things. I’ve been thinking about how isolated we are – in our heads, as well as in our physicality. So it’s important to identify who is on your team and who can help you through this?

 

Identifying your team members

I thought I’d lay out sort of five different areas where you can look to build your team from so perhaps get grab a piece of paper and write this down as you go.

 

  1. The first group is the people who help you, but you pay them.
    • Who are those people? An accountant, a financial planner, your insurance company, your telco, your electricity company.
    • All these people could be on your list of advisors, and they can help solve your problems.
    • Some of them can negotiate on your behalf. And some of them can actually just help you through the conversations that you need to have as well.

 

  1. The second group are those you collaborate with.
    • In my business, I collaborate with lots of other business owners on different projects.
    • If they’re doing poorly right now, how can I help them? If they’re doing well, can they help me?
    • Just by having a chat about who’s doing well and who’s not doing so well, can open up a conversation you can work through together to support one another.

 

  1. The third group are around your go to group, your advisors.
    • These are people you go to for any number of different reasons.
    • This could be people for a cup of tea, to have a sanity check.
    • People who are mentors or in that advisory role, a business coach or someone who you go to for a trusted conversation.
    • Whether you go to these people just for some mental health relief, a laugh or whatever it is that you need. Think about all the people that you normally would sit down and have a chat to, and give them a call. See how they’re going and if they can help you with certain things at this time.

 

  1. The next group I thought about was those people who’ve been through this before.
    • Now I know nobody has been through COVID-19. I’m not saying that. But we certainly have a number of stalwarts in our community that have been through this before.
    • Seek them out, ask them, you know, “what happened after the last recession?”, “what happened after the GFC?”
    • Some of these things are a long time ago, but there will be learning to know about – there are people around who can advise on that.
    • I know there’s lots of talk about Spanish Flu and all the innovation and amazing things that came out of the back of that, but I’m struggling to find how that helps me right now. So, it is interesting, but I would seek out people who have been through recovery before.

 

4A. Community members can also support you at this time.

  • There is information and guidance coming from all over the place, and people in all levels of Government are definitely offering a lot of services. So perhaps looking to that group as well.

 

  1. The final group, I wanted you to have a think about is your network.
    • There are a lot of people on LinkedIn or around our networks at the moment who are offering advice. There are webinars left and right. There’s so many of these that are free and people being super generous with their time.
    • Take them up on their offers of help – if there’s a particular skill that you need a hand with right now, try and track someone who has that skill.
    • Try and find 15 minutes in your day where you can ponder – you know what, I actually really need help with ‘this skill’ or ‘this thing’. Perhaps there’s somebody out there on LinkedIn, or through one of your other networks that you could ask for help from – then take it.

 

You know, for those of us who don’t often accept help, don’t be too proud right now. You can’t be, we need help. And there’s people who are not doing anything. They’re literally waiting to help people because everything’s out of their control.

 

If you are actually on the other end, that you’re really busy and you’ve got things you need to get through and it’s probably that you need to solve and things you need to negotiate. If you need a particular person to help you with that, look for them and say, Please, may I have your help?

 

We’re not very good at this as Australians, but it’s this is a one of those times where – if you need a hand from your mate, take it. Everyone’s in this together. So, you know, the overarching message here is you are not alone. If you need a hand with something, if I can do anything to help obviously reach out and send me a note.

 

 

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Known who is on your team and who you can accept help from, will give you greater confidence, and help you feel supported when stepping into a negotiation.

 

Good luck!

 

About Sam Trattles – Sam has built a career around negotiation – through marketing, brand, and sponsorship roles over 20 years. She builds capability and confidence in your people by creating strategies that deliver positive business results. Unlocking the value in all your deals. Sam is a straight shooter, she is practical and likes to share her knowledge to help others learn to love negotiating (or to at least, not to hate it). Because it’s worth a great deal.

C-19 negotiations – ENGAGE talking to an employer about your position

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Part 4 Negotiating during C-19 – ENGAGE talking to an employer about your position

This is an adapted transcript from a series of videos I created to help people with practical advice to negotiate during the challenging times we’re currently facing due to COVID-19. – The VLOG can be viewed on LinkedIn HERE

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If you’re in a position where you have to negotiate but are trying to avoid having a conversation with an employer about what’s the realities of how things are going to play out. Then this blog is for you.

I want to give you some ideas on things you can do to PREPARE for that conversation and then go and ENGAGE in it.

If you work for a big employer, it’s going to be quite different than a conversation with a business owner.

I will focus on the discussion with a business owner. To give you come context from their perspective – a few years ago I was talking to my dad, who is a small business owner and has been for 30 years. And I remember asking him, “what are you in the business of?”, and he said,

  • “I’m in the business of taking care of the livelihoods of 25 families in the Northern Territory”.

That really brought home to me how tough it is to be a business owner with staff.

So, if you are avoiding having a conversation with an employer in the small business, please go and talk to them. They’re probably trying to work through how they can keep as many people as possible. And if you’re in a position to go and talk to them and help them solve the problems, then that will be once less brick on their shoulder that they’re having to carry at the moment.

It’s not always a case of ‘we have to let go five people and we’re choosing which ones’, it might be a case of, ‘how can we make this work with the 30 people that we have right here, based on what we know’, in our preparation is around how, what what’s available to us right now in terms of projects that are going to go ahead or aren’t going to go ahead.

For you it’s the case of doing your preparation, in terms of what’s your financial position and what can you maybe sacrifice, then you can take that as an idea to your employer.

 

What’s your position, is an important place to start.

 

If you can get a gauge on all your bills, all of your outgoings for X number of weeks, based on how much you have in savings, and the conversations you’ve been able to have with your accountant and with your bank, and your landlord or whatnot

Then, thinking about what if my salary was reduced by 50%, for three months, if my if it was zero, then what’s that going look like? If you can sacrifice a little for the sake of keeping a job, then you are going to be in a stronger position with this whole thing is over.

As a business owner, myself these days, I now understand how challenging it is to have to think well, who could I cut and it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. It’s just the isolation of making these decisions.

It boils down to that we shouldn’t shy away from having a conversation with an employer.

If you put yourself in a position to step up and say, “hey, I’m open to having a conversation about how I can help”. It just puts you in the place of leaning forward rather than waiting and sitting back and waiting for it to happen to you.

If you’re actually in the conversation, you might be able to influence it in some way. That’s not to say that it will work out positively for you. It’s just about empowering yourself so that things are not happening to you.

Lots of what’s happening at the moment in our world is out of our control. But, you know, we need to be able to hold on to certain things and be part of certain discussions that will make us feel more comfortable and confident that we are actually participating in what’s happening to us, rather than it happening to us.

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Knowing your position, then being part of the negotiation process, will give you greater confidence as you are an active participant, and help keep you calm when stepping into a negotiation.

 

Good luck!

 

About Sam Trattles – Sam has built a career around negotiation – through marketing, brand, and sponsorship roles over 20 years. She builds capability and confidence in your people by creating strategies that deliver positive business results. Unlocking the value in all your deals. Sam is a straight shooter, she is practical and likes to share her knowledge to help others learn to love negotiating (or to at least, not to hate it). Because it’s worth a great deal.

C-19 negotiations – ENGAGE but not via email

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Part 3 Negotiating during C-19 – ENGAGE but not via email

This is an adapted transcript from a series of videos I created to help people with practical advice to negotiate during the challenging times we’re currently facing due to COVID-19. – The VLOG can be viewed on LinkedIn HERE

 

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Let’s focus on how do we actually engage in the conversation with someone that we are negotiating with. So regardless of the times that we’re in, I always implore people not to negotiate by email.

 

There’s something about writing it down that just lacks any emotional attachment to it. Particularly when people responding in the negative – it’s very easy for people to just write out an email and send it through without thinking about how that will be received.

 

Whereas if we’re talking there’s no way you can do that, because I’m actually looking at you. For example, if I’m saying to you, “Hey, I’m really struggling right now, my situation is this, I want to talk to you about a solution that we can come to it together”. Then automatically, you’re able to read that person’s face. They might not give you very much, they might give you a lot – depending on how prepared they are for the discussion, or how well or poorly they are doing right now.

 

They may be struggling a great deal too. But by opening up the discussion you become a unit, you become to a team that’s working on solution together.

 

To be clear, I’m not talking about not documenting the discussion. Absolutely. We need to document the outcome, because we don’t want it to be ambiguous at the end.

 

Avoiding the conversation

If somebody says, “Oh, I can’t talk to you right now, just send it in an email”, then don’t send it an email with your position.

 

Only send an email that says, “Please let me know a time that works for you to set up a Zoom/Skype/etc chat? Because I’d like to have this conversation together.”

 

Yes, we are negotiating, however, what we’re doing is having a conversation about:

  • This is the situation I’m in
  • What’s the situation you’re in?
  • And how does that come together?
  • Can we come up with a solution that works for both of us?
  • And what’s fair and what’s reasonable in this insane time that we’re living in? Because what was fair and reasonable two weeks ago is absolutely not the same today.

 

Then, so that you can put one foot in front of the other, be clear about what’s going to happen next.

Additional work and subsequent discussion

One thing to also think about is, that person may not be able to answer you straight away. This might cause you some anxiety or some tension, so go into the discussion thinking Okay, I’m here to have a discussion about ‘this’. But, say to the person,

  • “I appreciate that you may not have had time to think about what the solution might be. So, what I would like to do is just talk about it together, and then give you some time to go away and think that through. Perhaps we can have a conversation in the next day, two days, or whenever the timeframe will allow for it.”

 

So, then it’s not a rush. Everybody is doing one thing next. That way you can get on to your list of other things, focussed on doing just one thing next.

 

For me, in the beginning of lock down I found one of the biggest challenges was knowing which ‘one thing’ can I could do next. I was running a bit helter skelter, but then I just asked myself what’s the one thing I can do. Then every time I stopped doing one thing, and put that to one side, then I moved on to the next thing.

 

Thinking about the whole picture can cause a lot of anxiety as there’s so many things we could do. But which one do we do next? So narrow your focus, make sure that you’re not negotiating by email if at all possible and then just reaffirm what’s going to happen next so there’s limited ambiguity and move on to doing the next one thing.

 

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Removing email from the negotiation process and narrowing your focus, will give you greater confidence, and help keep you calm when stepping into a negotiation.

 

Good luck!

 

About Sam Trattles – Sam has built a career around negotiation – through marketing, brand, and sponsorship roles over 20 years. She builds capability and confidence in your people by creating strategies that deliver positive business results. Unlocking the value in all your deals. Sam is a straight shooter, she is practical and likes to share her knowledge to help others learn to love negotiating (or to at least, not to hate it). Because it’s worth a great deal.

C-19 negotiations – ACCEPT the need to negotiate, with Debtors

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Part 1 Negotiating during C-19 – ACCEPT the need to negotiate, with Debtors

This is an adapted transcript from a series of videos I created to help people with practical advice to negotiate during the challenging times we’re currently facing due to COVID-19 – the VLOG can be viewed on LinkedIn HERE

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In this crazy world that we’re living in, I am struggling just like a lot of other people to work out how do I actually practically help people. So, what I’ve decided to do is take what I know from a strategic perspective and deliver that in a series of short videos that can help you with practical implementation for immediate impact.

It’s very sad and trying times, and if you overlay that with the fact that most people hate negotiating, I can’t imagine the trauma that some people are going through at the moment on that front. To that end, I’m also open to having zoom calls discussions with anybody if there’s something specific that I can help you with. Please do reach out.

I’m sure you’ve had to have a lot of discussions that have made you feel very uncomfortable at the moment and well done if you’ve actually delivered those, because it is such challenging experience and one that we don’t relish at all, particularly if it’s about having to let people go.

For those not comfortable with negotiating I wanted to start with a focus on what’s the first step – that is simply to ACCEPT that you will make a [series of] phone or video calls to start the negotiation ball rolling.

How do we actually get to a place before we can go and have the negotiations that we need to have at the moment. To be in a position to ACCEPT you have to do this, it helps to know the actual position you are in.

 

A focus on debtors

I’m going to focus on debtors – take out a big piece of paper or whiteboard and lay out the actual current position.

  • who are all the people that you owe money to, and
  • who have to pay you,

This is the reality, the current position.

So for the people that have to pay you, called each of them and see where are we at. Ask them,

  • “Where are you at? What are you experiencing right now?”

Now making those phone calls can be terrifying because the outcome can mean that you can pay your bills or not pay your bills. But, knowing is better than guessing. So I think one of the things for you to take away from this is – please accept that you are going to have to make some of these phone calls that are not comfortable, but if we’re open to them then people can actually solve problems together which is really the fundamental on how we’ll all get through this.

By talking and working together there might be a hybrid solution – rather than ‘yes or no’. There might be a way to keep working together on a lesser amount, or working on something else (skills transfer), rather than winding things down altogether.

So, just know that, yes, you have to have these conversations, but it doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as it feels from the outset, particularly if you hate negotiating. It is likely that you’re not going to have to do a lot of negotiating at the moment, we just need to have the gumption and back ourselves that we can make the phone calls, the rest is about working together to find a solution (as we’re all in this together).

 

How much can you deal with each day

On that point, we really need to take care of our mental health and capabilities so please make sure that once you have a picture of what the actual position is, that you prioritise the discussions you have to have. Check in with yourself and talk to your network of people who can help you, or reach out to me and my team for support.

Determine how much you can handle, if you have to have three conversations today. How can you be ready to make those calls or have those discussions or can you just do one of them first and check in with yourself then go from there.

Before you make those calls or have those conversations, know that if it’s with big institution most of them are in a position now where they’ve got information on their website to help you know what to expect from the discussion.

So, if it’s a bank, telco, electricity company, etc, etc, then it’s likely that they already have it laid out for you. Now if you have to make the phone call that follows that up, then it’s about. Yes, you need to ACCEPT that you will make that call but once you get there, whilst it’s a bit clunky because people don’t have their systems and processes and training done, so it’s not as neat and tidy scripting as we have become used to, BUT it won’t be a hard and heavy negotiation.

For example, with my bank they’ve laid out on their website that this is the interest rate that they’re going to drop to, these are the terms of business loans, etc, etc. And then the information I’ve been able to get from my accountant, as an extra overlay, that has given me the confidence to make them phone calls and say “right, I’ve read everything, now what do I actually have do to, to make that change happen”.

 

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Ensuring you give yourself some time to think and accept the task you have ahead of you, will give you greater confidence, and help keep you calm when taking the first step.

 

Good luck!

 

About Sam Trattles – Sam has built a career around negotiation – through marketing, brand, and sponsorship roles over 20 years. She builds capability and confidence in your people by creating strategies that deliver positive business results. Unlocking the value in all your deals. Sam is a straight shooter, she is practical and likes to share her knowledge to help others learn to love negotiating (or to at least, not to hate it). Because it’s worth a great deal.

C-19 negotiations – PREPARE arm’s length discussions, rent or lease negs

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Part 2 Negotiating during C-19 – PREPARE arms distance negs – rent or lease

 

This is an adapted transcript from a series of videos I created to help people with practical advice to negotiate during the challenging times we’re currently facing due to COVID-19 – the VLOG can be viewed on LinkedIn HERE

NEW INFORMATION – Here is Kate Carnell, Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, explaining C-19 commercial tenancy arrangements new code: https://www.facebook.com/ASBFEO/videos/647970252689718/

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It’s really crappy time at the moment, obviously, because there’s so many BIG conversations that we’re having to have. And they’re draining, it’s really taking it out of us. So please make sure you are taking good care of yourself and reaching out to the people you need to, to support you in these challenging times, when you’re making difficult decisions and having LOTS of difficult discussions. If I can be of help, please do reach out.

 

This piece is focussed on preparing for a complicated negotiation – in particular an arm’s length negotiations. Where you are not negotiating directly with the ultimate decision maker.

 

This example is in the case where you have to negotiate with a landlord, whether that’s for your work premises or for your home.

 

The reality is you’re not benefiting directly from the Government and banking institution’s current stimulus packages at the moment. So, you’re going to have to have a conversation with your landlord or your real estate agent.

 

But to be in a position to negotiate, the landlord too has to have had a conversation with their bank to know what their position is. With so much going on, your landlord may be dealing with their own negotiations and not been thinking about this discussion yet.

 

Everyone is in this challenging situation so your landlord shouldn’t be unreasonable or should not be closed to this conversation when you raise it. BUT be patient and be prepared that it might take a few conversations to work something out together.

 

YOUR PREPARATION

The first step is to PREPARE yourself for the conversation, thinking through what you want before you go into a negotiation means you can be clear on what you’re asking for, and why it makes sense:

 

What are your circumstances:

In the most succinct way possible note down your situation and where that leaves you financially. Also note anything that is pending, such as the gap period from any monies that are coming to you, eg from the Government, and when your rent is due.

 

What are you asking for:

Ensure you are clear about what you’re asking for (and that it’s reasonable).

 

A rental reduction to zero for three months – is probably unlikely that people are in a position to do that – but if they have owned the property for a long time, then they might be able to offer you something significantly reduced (as they may have a small mortgage).

  • If they can do that, what does that mean for you? Is there a percentage you could contribute?

 

If you’ve been in the same rental property for a really long time, 10 years plus for example, there’s a chance the conversation with the landlord would be very positive.

  • You may want to ask them if they have already paid off their mortgage and are in a position to give you a big break.

 

What is the percentage saving off the rent that will truly help you?

  • What does that mean for you? For some people it’s actually going to mean the difference between saying or having to move out.

 

As a property owner, you’re going to want to keep somebody in the house paying something, rather than lose them and have zero rent coming in.

 

So, if you look at it from both angles there’s actually upside for everybody here, and everybody’s going to have to take hit.

 

YOUR APPROACH

It’s important that you note down your thoughts and perhaps a little script to help you step through the negotiation.

 

The conversation may be something along the lines of:

 

“Have you had an opportunity to speak to your bank yet to see what benefits are available to you from the current stimulus package that’s being offered?”

 

  • Starting out the conversation around have they had a chance to have that conversation yet because everyone’s got so much going on shows empathy.

 

Response options – “YES, NO, NOT YET”

 

  • Depending on where they are in the process, the conversation is about working together to see what the knock on effects of their discussions might be.
  • If they have had the conversation, they may have been able to secure a reduction in home loan rates, or are they may have been able to hold over the mortgage on the property you lease or rent for a number of months (meaning they will pay zero dollars for 3 or 6 months).
  • If they haven’t had the conversation yet, ask them to do so and set up a time for a follow up discussion.

 

Based on how they went with their bank, it’s about discussing:

  • What are they able to offer to you, and what you’re trying to achieve – what’s possible and what’s fair.
  • It’s opening a dialogue to have a reasonable conversation.

 

If they tell you “I’m in the same boat as you, I lost my job, so I can’t help.”

  • That’s not really a truth, as a mortgagee they can do a lot, but as a renter you don’t have that direct line of site – so you may want to guide them by talking through what you’ve heard is available from the Government and the banks.

 

Not on email

Now sometimes you can’t actually have that conversation directly with the person straight away, it may need to start on an email. This is unfortunate because I really hate having to negotiate an email, so send an email, but keep it as minimal as possible:

  • “Are you open to having a conversation about what’s possible in terms of the rent that’s due on [this date]”, then just open the conversation.
  • Don’t just throw everything into an email and hope for the best.

 

This approach sees you throwing it all open and having given no options or given too many options, perhaps, makes it as easy as possible for it to just become a conversation.

 

A conversation, by the way, is what negotiating is all about in the everyday world, away from the craziness that we’re experiencing right now.

 

Timing

The timing for this conversation will be dependent on where you are in terms of your rental cycle. So bear that in mind you may not have to have this conversation this week, it could be something you can put off for two weeks but if it’s not, then you know where you are based on your prioritised list of things that you need to deal with next.

 

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Ensuring you think through all those steps before you go and actually have the conversation, will give you greater confidence, and help keep you calm when taking the first step.

Good luck!

 

About Sam Trattles – Sam has built a career around negotiation – through marketing, brand, and sponsorship roles over 20 years. She builds capability and confidence in your people by creating strategies that deliver positive business results. Unlocking the value in all your deals. Sam is a straight shooter, she is practical and likes to share her knowledge to help others learn to love negotiating (or to at least, not to hate it). Because it’s worth a great deal.