to consider only the interests of those at the negotiation
table. You have to beware of “behind the table” or “Level
II” players—that is, parties that are not directly involved but
who can help implement agreements they like and block
ones they don’t. You can’t disregard them even when
you’re talking to a CEO. There could always be someone
whispering into his ear. At the end of the day, the deal
killers often are more important than the deal makers.
Think back to the prison siege: it was almost ruined
because one bit player on our side was not totally on board.
That’s what our use of calibrated questions in Ecuador
avoided, and that’s why José’s case was a home run.
It only takes one bit player to screw up a deal.
A few years into private practice I’d lost sight of the
importance of assessing and influencing the hidden
negotiation that happens “behind the table,” and I paid a
substantial price.
We were closing a deal with a big company in Florida
that wanted negotiation training for one of its divisions.
We’d been on the phone a bunch of times with the CEO and
the head of HR, and they were both 100 percent gung ho on
our offering. We were elated—we had what we thought was
total buy-in from the top decision makers for an incredibly
lucrative deal.
And then, as we were figuring out the small print, the
deal fell off the table.
It turns out that the head of the division that needed the
training killed the deal. Maybe this guy felt threatened,