(Continued from page 7) Don’t ever accuse the other team of doing a good guy-bad guy, because if it isn’t one, you will offend them. However, if it really is a good guy/bad guy tactic, you are almost always better off actually conducting the negotiation with the bad guy.

If the good guy offers to be the intermediary between you and the bad guy, that becomes more of a tip off that it might be a strategy. Make it perfectly clear that you would be delighted to deal with the bad guy at any time. If the good guy absolutely insists on being the messenger, then treat the whole situation like an authority limits tactic that we discuss in the negotiation seminar and let them be the messenger. Just don’t ever give anything away in return for the psychic comfort of not having to deal with the bad guy.

Now, don’t forget that you can use good guy-bad guy yourself when you are selling in a team. As we point out in our negotiation skills training program, sometimes the unexpected works best. For example, let’s say you and your boss are going together to try to close a sale. You could plan in advance for a good guy-bad guy.

In such a situation, what the customer would expect is that you are panting to make the sale and your boss is the bad guy. The trouble with that is that it is expected. So sometimes try the reverse.

Let your boss be the good guy and you be the bad guy. For example, when they steer the conversation around to your boss and push for a real big price concession, you might have the boss turn to you and say, “you’re closer to the situation.

Can we do that, all things considered?” At which point you could then be the bad guy and say no or give a very small concession. Since this type of behavior is so unexpected, it will have more credibility.