(Continued from page 25) This individual, who was usually sharp as tack, just couldn’t seem to understand what I was saying. He had a couple of his associates in the room with him watching this, and when I looked over at them, I saw that embarrassed, “I wish I weren’t here” look.

This confirmed that there was a playing dumb game going on. So I got up, went over to the other side of the room, grabbed a flip chart that was there, brought it back to where we were, and proceeded to clearly and unambiguously lay out the exact nature of what I was proposing right on the flip chart.

It’s usually fairly easy to obfuscate when you’re hearing something. You can misunderstand the words and you can misunderstand how things go together, because it’s not all in front of you.

However, once it was clearly outlined on a single sheet of flip chart paper, if he didn’t understand it, he would be suggesting, in the presence of his subordinates, that he really was dumb, and he wasn’t about to do that.

He quickly said, “Oh yes, now I understand,” and moved on to the next subject. I made the sale pretty much at the level that I had proposed with only minor concessions.

I must say, it was fun watching the playing dumb tactic self-destruct so completely.

A really good Negotiation training program is just what the doctor ordered to improve your profitibility.