Creating Trust and Transparency in High Stakes Negotiations

Today Buyers Meeting  would like to welcome back Mark Bilgin, career negotiator and the author of Mastering High Stakes Negotiations. Mark will be joining BMP Radio for a regular podcast series – one that we’ve welcomed community input on. Today we will focus on the importance of trust and transparency in negotiation based on comments and feedback we received in response to a LinkedIn post shared last week.

Here is an excerpt from High Stakes Negotiations:

Trust and respect are two fundamental ingredients for any healthy relationship, including negotiations. Creating this trusted environment with the other party is imperative. Here are some ground rules I review before the start of the meeting. I even ask the counterparty to add any additional ones if he or she would like to create a fair and democratic environment right from the get go.

• One person speaks at a time.
• Show mutual respect.
• We expect to have a constructive, honest dialogue.
• Check your understanding by asking questions.

In this conversation we'll discuss:

If you can have either trust or transparency without the other, and which needs to come first.

If procurement is trying to strategically increase transparency/build relationships with our suppliers, how can do so while still minimizing risk?