When aggressive voice tactics backfire

Aggressive voice tactics are deliberately used in commercial negotiations to put you on the back foot. When you are recoiling from aggression, you aren’t thinking clearly and it creates an opportunity for your negotiating counter party to gain the upper hand.

This is a story I usually use when lecturing about commercial negotiation.

The background is that a construction contractor had not been engaging within the completion of a building project in the manner that we knew would get the job finished. The team sent sub-contractors less and less frequently to site to resolve end of project defects, but by the time this meeting occurred, it had been going on for many months. We just weren’t seeing the drive we needed to see to get the job completed. As client we were holding a number of retention performance bonds that were due to be released back to the company on satisfactory completion of activities.

I had escalated the matter away from the on-site personnel, to the National Commercial Manager. We had decided that both parties should meet and I attended this meeting with my Project Manager and we had prepared well beforehand.

The Commercial Manager, a man, brought the Acting CEO, a woman, to the meeting with him. The Commercial Manager led the negotiation.

We discussed the background to the works for the Acting CEO who had been in the role only a short number of months, and would have been unaware of the detail of the background. The Commercial Manager proposed that the company had delivered the performance required under the contract and assertively requested the release of the performance bond that it should be paid back.

Then we moved to a discussion on the conditions for the return of the bond. In that conversation, it became clear that the Commercial Manager while understanding that there was a performance bond to be released, did not know the actual amount of the bond. When my Project Manager advised that the bond was $13.8m there was an audible gasp from the Acting CEO. They clearly had thought that the bond was smaller. For a moment there was an uncomfortable silence in the room, the Commercial Manager was for a moment quite embarrassed.

Discussion continued and I refused to return the bond on the basis that the conditions for release had not been met.

This triggered a further emotional reaction from the Commercial Manager, who clearly had not considered that we might refuse the request. The tone of his voice turned angry and he thumped the table and angrily demand the bond back.

When moments like this come, they are negotiation gold. If you can retain your composure, you get all the leverage!

At this point I paused and slowly and deliberately tuned my focus to the Acting CEO. When I locked eyes with her she looked deeply embarrassed at her colleagues behaviour. At that point I stood firm, being careful to not look at the Commercial Manager.

Addressing the Acting CEO, I explained our approach again in a calm, firm but conciliatory manner. I proposed that a better time to return the bond would be when a list of items had been completed (we provided a written list) and I then discussed with her the timeframes within which the tasks could be completed. She was in a  conciliatory mode. To confirm what would be realistic timeframes, she referred back to the Commercial Manager, but after thumping the table he did not lead the negotiation again.

We eventually got the job finished (months late) and paid back the majority but not all of the performance bond. Interestingly the Commercial Manager contacted me subsequently to apologise and was most attentive of our relationship in the time between this meeting and the final close out of the project some months later.

You are unlikely to experience aggressive voice tactics in your pay rise negotiation with your boss. If you do I would suggest you need to consider finding a new boss! However there can be tense moments and when they come it is often because the balance in the negotiation is shifting.