Don’t Go There

what the Secret Service can teach us about negotiating

Analytics, the search for patterns and meaning in data, played a big part in President Obama’s reelection. The president’s 54-person analytics team worked in a windowless room off the main floor at his campaign headquarters in Chicago. They called the room “The Cave.”

When the president would visit his campaign headquarters, the Secret Service wouldn’t let him go into The Cave because the room had only one doorway in or out. The Secret Service apparently doesn’t let the president go into rooms where there isn’t another way out besides the way in.

That’s an important principle to keep in mind in other contexts, such as when negotiating. When making proposals and counterproposals in a negotiation, you want to avoid going into a room where there isn’t another way out besides the way in.

You shouldn’t make a take-it-or-leave-it offer unless you’re prepared to accept that the other side may leave it. If you must get a deal done and you make a take-it-or-leave-it proposal and the other side says “no,” you’ve just found yourself in a room without a way out other than backtracking. If you’re forced to backtrack after making a take-it-or-leave-it offer, you’ll find yourself in a very weak bargaining position and you may not be able to get a deal done on favorable terms.

Just like the Secret Service guarding the president, before you make an offer in a negotiation, you need to plan ahead and think about what your next move will be in response to the different things the other side may do.