Secrets to successful e-mail negotiations
By Julie Sturgeon • Bankrate.com

It's no surprise that when Harvey Anderson was assistant counselor at Netscape, he used e-mail to work out a complicated licensing deal between his firm and Sun Microsystems.

But e-mail negotiations are no longer the private purview of high-tech executives. Fran Seegull at Novica.com, Champ Covington at Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists and Steven Rothberg at CollegeRecruiter.com -- ordinary small-business people outside Silicon Valley's aura -- rely on this avenue, too.

In fact, e-mail negotiation is now mainstream enough to warrant workshops and book chapters at major universities. Studies show e-mail offers rocky relationships a neutral ground, brings the built-in stall tactic preached in the finest seminars, and makes log-rolling -- negotiating several items as a package -- a cinch. Better still, it is a leveling factor. Managers who aren't necessarily proficient in negotiations can get in an equal word among the big boys.

"E-mail eliminates puffery," says Anderson, now chief operating officer of Flywheel Communications in San Francisco. "Others more readily see through posturing."

Yet the art of e-mail negotiation is more complicated than many people think, says G. Richard Shell, professor of legal studies and management at Pennsylvania University's Wharton School of Business. "Most mistakenly believe this is the same as negotiating face to face," he says.

Reactions to unintended cyber slights flame hot, since detachment dulls the fear of confrontation that keeps humans on polite behavior. And as Covington, who relies on e-mail banter to sell book promotion services from Austin, Texas, knows, it's harder to push a decision when the buyer stalls.

Experts say these drawbacks can be eliminated by following a few ground rules.

Establish pre-electronic rapport
E-mail negotiations automatically banish 93 percent of the conversation form we're familiar with, says Susan Onaitis, author of Negotiate Like the Big Guys. A lack of body language and vocal tones leaves parties with blunt, flat and sometimes misunderstood words. That's why experts like Michael Morris, associate professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, stress rapport.

To measure rapport's influence, Morris asked a group of MBA students at Stanford and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago to hammer out a contract using e-mail. Half the participants were required to phone their counterparts for a five-minute conversation to break the ice; the others jumped straight to the exercise. The schmoozers did significantly better.

"Without a cushion of trust, if you said something by e-mail that strained the receiver's credibility, the receiver thought, 'You're just lying to me,'" Morris explains. Superficial chit-chat paved the way to cutting each party some slack.

Seegull, vice president of business development at Los Angeles-based artistic shopping portal Novica.com, used e-mail to bring National Geographic on board in only the fourth such business deal in the magazine's 114-year history. She followed her get-to-know-you call with data-rich e-mail details.

"E-mail is easier to ignore than a phone message," she says. "But once I had their attention, my electronic press kit could be forwarded internally within National Geographic."

Don't e-speed too far ahead
After the initial sally, negotiators must resist the urge to skip to numbers.

Morris suggests the first written note specifically address the other party's values, reason for wanting the deal, and aspirations for the final agreement. As you toss suggestions across bandwidths, consciously ask for feedback on ideas. Phrases such as "thanks for your flexibility in working with me on these points" or "we are making great progress together" are crucial.

"You say a lot of things in an electronic conversation," he points out, "that would be awkward face to face."

However, Onaitis, a sales and marketing trainer in New York, cautions against crossing into wimpy. She scrapped kow-towing phrases like "I think" and "maybe we should" from her typed conversations after they led to an assumption she would give on certain issues.

And she downplays the popular notion that e-mail communication fails at conveying emotion. "It does," she says firmly, "just not the right one."

Rothberg, president and founder of CollegeRecruiter.com in Minneapolis, admits he authors a misunderstood e-mail every few months as he works out advertising deals at his site.

"They infer I'm angry or frustrated when nothing could be further from the truth," he says. "My e-mail length was merely short."

Humor is a hard electronic sell
Some users look for ways to counter the dryness of e-mail, but veteran online negotiators warn that humor in all forms typically crashes.

Because emoticons can appear unprofessional, Morris advises executives to wait until the other person resorts to them before dragging out the symbolic smiley face, multiple exclamation points and all-caps emphasis.

Rothberg discovered the more sophisticated version of placing words in brackets balances his fun-loving personality, the cold written word, and the still colder business protocols.

"But when you suspect a misunderstanding, pick up the phone," he says. "E-mail negotiating is a convenience, not a litmus test."

Clarity demands e-mail specificity
E-mail negotiations often play to varied audiences, so use bullets, outline guides, and numbered lists to stay focused.

Copy each point you reply to as a reference point. Break lengthy e-mails into separate sends. And remember that visual hints that are taken for granted in person are missing.

"If I simply read that the first paragraph needs to be revised, I'm annoyed because I don't know which of the 50 different memos you mean," Morris says.

Rothberg insists all documents, whether one page or 50, arrive as word documents via e-mail rather than fax, FedEx or unchangeable PDF. This allows each party to pull out Microsoft Word's highlight or redline feature to flag revisions.

"Otherwise, I lay the fax side by side with my original and hunt for changes. It takes forever," he says.

He also insists on printing the final version for signatures on his end.

"I had instances when the other guy switched terms after we agreed orally, and I didn't catch it," he explains. "This way, no one sneaks in something."

Celebrate your electronic success
No matter the outcome, always wrap up the talks with a celebratory mood, such as "It wasn't easy, but we found a way to make this work!"

"Just avoid the victory dance where you forget yourself and hastily confide, 'I never thought you'd make that offer,'" says Morris.

And always throw in a few references to future business. This advice certainly saved face for Onaitis.

She recently ended a deal with the message, "I will understand if, for business reasons, you need to look elsewhere for someone more within your budget and guidelines. I trust this won't affect our current working relationship."

"No matter the answer, I left them feeling as if we belonged in some sort of partnership," she says.

Julie Sturgeon is a freelance writer based in Indiana.

-- Posted: July 20, 2001