We are all familiar with the police shows where a suspect is being interrogated and there is a good cop and a bad cop engaged in psychological warfare with the suspect. That sort of good guy-bad guy is pretty obvious.

However, when you are negotiating, it may not always be so obvious that you are facing a good guy-bad guy. For example, the end-user buyer really likes you, your products and your services, while the professional buyer is being the difficult party. This may not be a tactic at all. It may just be the reality of the situation. On the other hand, it may absolutely be a tactic.

I do a negotiation training programs for buying organizations, and you would be amazed how often in the negotiation seminar role plays that the end-user buyer and the professional buyer will get together in advance and agree on a good guy-bad guy role. Thus, you are placed in something of a quandary.

On the one hand, you always want to have a good guy on your side in the customer’s organization. On the other hand, you don’t want to fall into the good guy-bad guy trap. The essence of the good guy-bad guy strategy is to try to con you into making concessions to the good guy in return for the psychic comfort of not having to deal with the bad guy.

Since it is often difficult to tell whether this is a tactic or not, the best way is to choose a strategy that protects you on either side. (Continued on page 8)