Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It

TJ, who worked as an assistant controller at the Washington
Redskins, put that lesson to work while he was taking my
negotiations class.
The economy was in the toilet at the time, and Redskins
season ticket holders were leaving in droves to avoid the
cost. Worse, the team had been terrible the year before, and
off-field player problems were alienating the fans.
The team’s CFO was getting more worried—and cranky
—by the day, and two weeks before the season was to start
he walked by TJ’s desk and slammed down a folder full of
paper.
“Better yesterday than today,” he said and walked away.
Inside was a list of forty season ticket holders who
hadn’t paid their bills, a USB drive with a spreadsheet about
each one’s situation, and a script to use when calling them.
TJ saw right away that the script was a disaster. It began
by saying that his colleagues had been trying to call for
months, and the account had been escalated to him. “I
wanted to inform you,” it read, “that in order to receive your
tickets for the upcoming season opener against the New
York Giants, you will need to pay your outstanding balance
in full prior to September 10.”
It was the stupidly aggressive, impersonal, tone-deaf
style of communication that is the default for most business.
It was all “me, me, me” from TJ, with no acknowledgment
of the ticket holder’s situation. No empathy. No connection.
Just give me the money.
Maybe I don’t need to say it, but the script didn’t work.