Chapter 7: SITE SELECTION How Do You Get There From Here?

CHAPTER 7

Site Selection

H OW D O Y OU G ET T HERE F ROM H ERE ?

AS IS TRUE OF INTRODUCTIONS , the location and conditions of the negotiation facility can have direct bearing on the outcome of meetings. Consequently, both sides must take great care to maximize their position during site selection. This isn’t always solely a question of psychological advantage but also one of cordiality and pride. Very rarely will the host company permit all, or even the majority, of the meetings to take place on neutral turf, since this reflects poorly on their ability to “hold up their end” of the deal. Hosts must host and visitors visit.

Projecting the Proper Image

Visitors will be incurring a fair amount of expense just to travel to the site, and it’s a reasonable expectation, even when they are selling, that the host company will provide a comfortable and convenient meeting facility. Visitors may also insist that the meetings take place in a major city that may not contain a host company office. Hosts may then be required to obtain facilities at additional expense. Some companies do “trade outs” with local purveyors or enlist the assistance of government agencies.

Whether an acquired facility or a company facility is used, it must reflect the host’s image as much as possible. If specific conference rooms aren’t available, the best office on site should be made over to accommodate the meetings. Don’t use employee dining rooms or a vacant storeroom as a substitute. There’s no point in putting on airs, but make the effort to promote a professional image. Hosts who take the attitude of “why go to such bother for a single meeting?” may find that it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Visitors may be called upon to provide the site for at least some of the meetings beyond the introductions. This will often be true when they’re in the selling mode and members of the host team don’t have local offices. In this case, any advantage the visitors get by using neutral turf is offset by the requirements of selling. Hosts will be assessing the quality of the hotel/meeting room as a means to determine the status and detail-mindedness of their potential business associates. Here again, extravagance isn’t necessary, but penny-pinching will send the wrong message.

Convenience, Conditions and Accoutrement

Every effort should be made to assure that the meeting facilities are convenient to all parties. Convenience is, of course, relative; a certain degree of communication should take place before the arrival of visitors in-country. The availability of ground transport, airport location, seasonal weather, road

conditions, schedule conflicts, and, in some cases, even curfew restrictions can influence how visitors view the host’s selection.

Besides the location, the physical conditions of the facility can make a difference. Uncleanliness, poor lighting, inefficient telecommunications, or excessive noise levels can greatly distract from discussions and even cause hard feelings. Room temperature, while comfortable for hosts, may distract visitors with too much or too little heat. And, as anyone who has visited the growing metropolises of the world can testify, air quality can bring negotiations to a standstill as visitors take ill. While not all of these inconveniences may fall under the host’s control, as much care as possible should be taken to correct them.

Accoutrements such as furnishings, copy machines, overhead projectors, computer links, electrical converters, window views, and, most importantly, comfortable chairs will all speak to the status of the host company. (Sumptuously appointed board rooms are as much about marketing as they are about meetings.) There’s little doubt that comfortable surroundings allow for concentration and therefore smooth negotiations—although some host teams do occasionally seek to make visitors (sellers mostly) uncomfortable. Luxury isn’t required, but err on the side of efficiency and serenity.

Neutral Turf versus Home Team Advantage

Long ago, skilled negotiators recognized the psychological advantage that comes from controlling the surroundings in which counterparts must operate. It’s not unlike the planning that the military uses when choosing the “field of battle.” Generals who can dictate when and where a battle will take place have already gone beyond the halfway point toward victory.

A visiting seller who must make all presentations at the host facility is at a distinct disadvantage. The host/seller gains no advantage at all when working at the visitor’s hotel, although it cannot truly be considered a minus, merely neutral.

While sellers assess their position, buyers will be working to undermine it by controlling or neutralizing the situation. By constantly making a visiting seller dependent on the host for basic needs and comfort (maybe even extending to food and drink), the buyer can seek concessions in return. It may even take the guise of pandering to the visitor’s every request. This approach, very much akin to “killing them with kindness,” is an effective one.

Visiting buyers are faced with another set of problems. They’ll often neutralize the host sellers “turf advantage” by insisting that meetings take place outside of host facilities. While there may be some additional expense incurred in this method (i.e., banquets, hotel meeting rooms), it will be an investment in potential price, delivery, or ownership concessions.

Responding to the Selections of Your Counterparts

MAINTAINING CONTROL As mentioned above, meetings should take place in a setting that’s mutually convenient for all parties concerned. Neither buyer nor seller has 100 percent say,

although it should be obvious by this point which of the two has the upper hand. Novice negotiators often make the mistake of allowing themselves to be drawn onto a field of battle slyly selected by their counterparts.

For instance, visiting teams or solo acts who’ll be traveling to an unfamiliar locale will often turn over to their hosts all of the arrangements—from hotels to visas to meeting planning. This isn’t simply unwise, it’s foolish. Although this may release the visitors from the burden of certain preparations, it also leaves them vulnerable to the host’s constant influence. Uncomfortable (or over-priced) hotels that are inconvenient to meeting sites will weigh heavily on the attentiveness and time constraints of visitors, thus decreasing their effectiveness. Hotels and meeting sites may be selected far outside of major cities, thus making visitors dependent on hosts for transport and nonbusiness activities. Sometimes (more often in developing countries), visitors may even find themselves lodged at a hotel that’s owned by one of their host’s subsidiaries or family relations.

CONTINGENCY PLANNING The best way for visitors to maintain as much control as possible is to treat the host’s selections as suggestions. Find out their intentions in advance and check out the contingencies. Verify the need for having meetings at inconvenient times or locales and offer countersites and schedules. Visitors in the selling mode may find it difficult to insist, but claims of time constraints and flight schedules are effective countermeasures to a host’s claims of necessity. Regardless of how much planning the host does, visitors should always have up-to-date research on location and facilities, and they should never accept the host’s word as fact. A good map and an informed travel agent can often be effective negotiation tools. Hosts may also run up against insistent, well-informed visitors who’ll attempt to control every aspect of the meeting plans. Buying mode visitors with extensive negotiating experience can be extremely demanding. Their choice of a two-hour meeting at an airport hotel may be deemed insufficient for a sales presentation. (This let’s-get-down-to-business method is often used against business cultures that rely on extensive socializing.) Hosts may not be able to sidestep this schedule problem, but they can insist on making part of the process a meal that they host.

Besides eliminating the “raw” efficiency of the visitor’s schedule, the host will regain some control over the actual meeting process. Whether hosting or visiting, buying or selling, the key to site selection is to remember that, like the contract goal, it’s not unilateral. Allowing the other side a concession doesn’t require losing everything. Before site selection becomes an issue, have a preset plan and a number of contingencies. If you can’t choose the battleground, at least be familiar with the terrain.

The Envelopment Trap

ATTRACTIVE TRAPS A common technique used to influence negotiations is “envelopment.” Though most common in East Asia, it’s used by skilled negotiators everywhere and involves the subtle but constant control of the counterpart’s every moment, whether social or business related. It can run the gamut from the heavy-handed

methods of a Chinese tour of a cultural site, replete with “special guides,” to the London financier who miraculously secures tickets to a sold-out show. It can also take the less seemly form of choosing a meeting site in a remote area with limited communications and transport. It may even go so far as the casual hint that visa arrangements are contingent on the successful conclusion of the discussions. The message is clear—it’s time to pay for the hospitality.

HOSTILE HOSPITALITY Negotiators who find themselves being offered free hotels, endless banquets, chauffeured limousines, or excessive gifts are surely the targets of envelopment.

As they become more and more comfortable, they become proportionally more susceptible. The best way to combat this is to give every appearance that whatever is offered is also expected. Negotiators should never grant themselves the luxury of assuming that their counterparts are simply being nice. Refusing hospitality may be the mark of an ingrate but falling for its charms is a sure sign of naivete.

The strategy of envelopment is to shower the target with good will and then to withdraw it gradually in order to gain concessions. Envelopment is also a sure sign that the perpetrator has little to offer at the negotiating table and is relying on guile, rather than substance.

Visitors and Agendas

When multiple business contacts will be part of a visitor’s negotiating plan, it’s essential that agendas be carefully coordinated. Particularly in countries where socializing is a big part of business, many hosts may assume that they have free rein with their counterparts’ time. Because of this, visitors must make their time constraints (but not the reasons) clear prior to arrival, as well as throughout their stay. This doesn’t mean that hosts need to be informed about every aspect of the visitor’s schedule, only those related to discussions with the relevant host. (In fact, the less one’s host knows, the better for the visitor.) When multiple contacts are used, visitors are advised to allot a minimum of a full day to each company they wish to contact so as to avoid any appearance of slighting.

Hosts must keep in mind that not all visitors view socializing as part of negotiating and that they may offend their guests with excessive hospitality. Visitors may wish to carry on with standard length working days as if they were back home. Hosts should respect this wish as much as possible. Visitors should be wary of agendas that will result in fatigue, but at the same time, they should make every effort to accommodate their host’s wishes to be sociable. Communication about agendas, before and during negotiations, is the key.