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Hello and welcome to the show. Today we're going to be looking at negotiation tactics for Nigerian entrepreneurs and how to get the best deal for your business. Now, I'm not going to do the whole thing of trying to culturally or contextually apply what it is that I'm saying over here on the podcast, because there are loads of episodes where I have done that already, especially the episode where I tackled the question on whether there's a uniquely Nigerian way to try and sell in Nigeria.
What is that tautology? OK, well, I know you get the point. So there's been an episode where I already tried to tackle that. Is there a way for selling in France that is different from selling in Nigeria that is different from selling in Ghana that is different from selling in Japan? So I've already tackled that. I've showed how sales principles are universal, but then the order in which we apply them, the things that we stress, the things that we emphasize, the things that we take out, how that is determined, how application of these principles are determined on a case by case, on a cultural basis.
So since I've already done that in previous episodes, we can assume, especially if this is your first time, sorry if you're a long time listener of the show, that you can take whatever advice or tactics or principles that we discuss here and apply them locally to your own context. If this your first time of listening to the show, you are still going to get something out of this episode or just know that there's a larger conversation that we've been having across the over 850
episodes that we have over here on the podcast so far. So there is juicy good stuff that you can refer to in the past so that you can learn about the the particulars you know. If you're curious about selling to a house a man, is that different from selling to an Ebo woman? Is that different from selling to a Yoruba teenager or whatever? So negotiation tactics. Now before we begin, I must confess these are just of my random thoughts and in no particular order.
So if you want a more systematic approach for negotiation, my recommendation actually is that you should follow a negotiations podcast. Because just like how there is a conceptual framework, there are principles, there's a process to sell and try to be persuasive in business communications. It's the same thing when it comes to negotiations. So selling is my speciality, especially personal sales, that is my unique Forte.
Negotiations is not. So if you want something much more systematic, something much more thorough, then you should be following podcasts that are based around negotiations. Now, if negotiation is not my specialty, why am I bothering to answer this question? Well, I'm I'm answering the question because you guys asked, and that's what I do over here on the show. I hop up. I answer questions that have been asked in the past, whether people have sent me DMS or whether questions that have been asked at live training sessions.
And I figured, OK, this would be a good one for the show. So it's a question that I've been asked before by one of you. So I'm answering the question. Yeah, so that's my caveat. After this, look for a good negotiations podcast and then follow How are you going to know a good negotiation podcast? Unfortunately, you have to follow a bunch and listen to them and just start with the one that catches your fancy. So long as the person is taking a systematic approach, stay away from people who say do this greatest hack, do this greatest tip, do this greatest trick.
Stay away from those folks. You get into a lot of trouble because you'll be trying to apply negotiations tactics without having a broader sense of what works and why and when it works because you're going to do something that is going to make you that's going to fall flat, like the negotiations taxing about using silence strategically. So you might listen to a podcast and they say do this one killer thing and win all your deals and talk as little and then remain silent.
Now if you are someone who is well versed in the art of negotiation, you're going to be able to know when and how strategically to use silence. But if you're a newbie and you listen to that episode and I think this is the key to making my millions, and then you show up, you say as little as possible and you keep quiet a lot, you might come across looking like an idiot. So that is why I say stay away from all these people who say this is the greatest hack.
This is the greatest tip. Follow this trick to triple your business in 2025, in 2020, whatever, he said. Look for people who have a system who are trying to break things down. Now, this is what a negotiation is. This is how negotiations work, works with these stages, you know, blah, blah, blah. So that's what you should be looking for. So yeah, so let me give you my my 2 cobalt or my two cents on on negotiations. So excuse me, what was I?
OK. Oh yeah. So let me just give what my opinions. I'm especially for those of you who in sales roles have customer facing functions and you have to negotiate with counterparts. So these are some of my thoughts for you guys. So First off, what is a negotiation? Different definitions, but in my own opinion, I would say that negotiations is when you're in that situation where you are at the that stage in the relationship or you're at that stage of the conversation where you guys are doing give and take.
Bottom line is I'm trying to get a favorable outcome for my deal. The other person is also trying to get a favorable outcome for their deal. So if you're in that process, then you actually are in negotiations. The reason why I'm using this definition, this functional definition, is because there are some industries where you get to the stage where someone says, OK, now it's time for negotiations, Everybody stand out. The lawyers are going to sit down and negotiate.
That happens in high stakes environments, complex deals, you know, like telecoms, oil and gas, blah, blah, blah. So there is that stage where Oga will say, OK, now we're done, the lawyers will handle negotiations and then everybody leaves. But for most of us, we are not at that stage yet. So for the average person, you sell catfish, you do wedding photography, you're a tailor, you're a business consultant, or maybe you're a retired police officer and you want to make you want to make some money by offering security, contracting services or whatever.
So for most people who are not at the big boy level yet or the big girl level yet, whenever you get to that stage of the conversation where you people are doing give and take and you're trying to see how can I make this thing work For me, even if that happens at the beginning of the relationship or towards the end of the relationship, you are actually are in a negotiation. You just haven't realized it yet because somebody didn't declare like, OK, we're at the negotiation stage.
So please use this functional definition. If you're ever in a situation where there's give and take and you're trying to look for favorable outcomes, you are in a negotiation. And by that definition, most Nigerian people, no matter the business you're involved in, you actually are negotiating more than you actually know. So that's the reason why this is important. So why should we be looking for favorable outcomes? We should look for favorable outcomes because that is what allows you to stay in business longer and also to provide the best possible services to your customers.
For those of you who keep cutting it close, your profit margin is Let's say your profit margin is 50K on every single product, but each time you go into negotiations you allow the person to take off half of that, and each time you're going back with profit margins OF25K. This is what you're doing. If the profit margin that is required to keep you in business and to pay school fees and to pay Nappa and to pay Internet and to pay everything and to provide enough money for rice and chicken at Christmas and at holidays.
If what you've calculated is 50,000 is what's going to allow you guys, that's 50,000 as a profit margin on each service or on each product. Sorry, excuse me, my throat. And yes, you're right, it's the sore throat. But apart from that, I've been having a bunch of speaking engagements back-to-back. So I think my voice is taxed at the moment. And I know I've said it on the podcast before, but I think I have to start paying attention to voice training and all that.
You know, all that whole thing of drink, warm water and lemon and do vocal exercises and things like that. OK, so was I yeah, favorable terms. So the reason why we need to look for favorable terms is because if truly, truly, truly 50K profit margin or every single item you sell is the profit margin that is required for you to maintain your shop, to pay your school fees, and also to put aside little something so that you and your spouse or you and your boyfriend and girlfriend can enjoy yourself every now and then.
Then every single time you take a hit on the profit margin and you collect 25K instead as profit instead of 50K. What you're doing is that you're giving yourself more work in the future, because if you take 25 now instead of 50, The thing is that extra 25 still has to come from somewhere. That extra 25. Remember, you have done the math and you need 50K to pay for your shop space, to pay for your sales boys and sales girls to pay for school fees, pay for Gen. pay for Christmas, holiday,
everything. So if you take a hidden of 25 K, that 25 K still has to come from somewhere. You still have to make it up somehow. You're still going to have to do the work in the future to get that extra income. So sometimes taking a hit is you're not doing yourself. You're not really doing yourself a favor like you think. You understand Times can be desperate, and every single change will count, but the more favorable terms that we can get,
the better. Now, how to get the best deal for yourself? First off, you need to know the terms and conditions under which you absolutely need to make things happen. Like I've said, you need to know your numbers. How much do you need to keep the shop running and things like that. How much profit margin do you need to be making on every single microwave oven that you sell, or every single cooking pots, or every single sorry,
every single baby toy, or whatever? You need to know what it is that you need to make things happen. You need to know the price or price terms work for you. What timing options work for you, what delivery options work for you and other expectations that are being made. Because sometimes you might stick to your guns and say, look, I'm not budging on the price, but you know it will give you a discount on the delivery and then you sign the deal only to discover that the delivery is out of state.
And so delivery is going to cost more than you thought. So we actually need to know all these things. So we need to look inwards and figure out a whole bunch of stuff first before we start negotiating. Because some people are negotiating and putting themselves in an unfavorable position, and they don't realize that they're putting themselves into a favorable position until the end of the month. When you start tallying up the books and you look at your bank account and your bank account is not accounting and The thing is not making sense.
So this is how it happens. So we need to do some homework and know what is good on our own end, first of all, before we start negotiating with people. Then we also need to discover what terms work for the counterpart, what pricing, what timing, what other expectations are they looking for. Because The thing is, if we know what it is that they're trying to get, if we know the real thing that they're trying to get, and we can help them do that, then we're able to make get a deal that can make everybody happy.
If we know what truly, truly they're searching after and we help them provide that, it avoids the amount of shifting that we have to do on our own. And so that's the reason why having qualification and Discovery conversations are important. For those of you who are new to the show. Discovery conversations are conversations around the problem. What kind of problem are they trying to solve? Blah, blah, blah, What specifications would they need?
All these sorts of things. Then what's the other one? Qualification, qualification, conversations or questions around the person. You need to have a sense of who this person is. You need to know the sense of what problems are they facing or what goal are they trying to achieve and how your product or service can help. So we need to have, do all of this, have all these conversations. By the way, you can't be having these conversations when you guys had the negotiation.
All these conversations must have been had at the beginning, which is the reason why I keep on stressing over here on the podcast that the Big Three are absolutely critical to your business success. And the Big Three are prospecting, running out to look for people who might be interested so you can do business with them and then qualification and then discovery. So you run around, You look for people. Where can my market come from?
Where can my daily bread come from? So you wake up in the morning, Is the Heavenly Father. My life is in your hands. I'm about to head out today. May you bless the work of my hands. And then you hit the streets or you hit the Internet or whatever. So that's prospecting. Then you start having conversations with people and you try and figure out who is this person. What problem are they trying to solve? Let's see, what kind of exam can I use?
OK, since I already said microwave, let me see. OK, let me stick to microwave. Let's see what I can think of. So microwave. That's what you sell. You sell kitchen appliances. So now that you're talking to someone, you need to have a conversation with Madam before you start negotiating on the microwave oven. You need to. You don't have a chat with her. What does Madam do? Share housewife, Does she work? What's the size of a household?
All these questions are not just small talk when you ask them about question of size holds household. It's important because it determines the kind of size of oven that will be adequate to her. Because microwave orphans and some of these are plans. They come in terms of liters. Yeah, they come in terms of liters. I know some of you might sound surprised, like liters. What does liters have to do with microwave ovens? But this is how it works.
They measure the cooking capacity of this thing in liters. What that means is a microwave oven of this size can only take containers that that are large enough to accommodate 5 liters worth of of food or something. So that's how they're measured. 1 litre. OK, no one litre is kind of small. Let me just guess. Let me say 5-10, you know, and on and on all the way up to like industrial kitchen type microwaves. Like those huge huge huge ones.
So that's the reason why you should be engaging in all these small talk. Because if Madam has a small family, just Madam husband and they have one baby, then OK, you might not have to stress instead of haggling too much on the 20 liter microwave and looks like she's not budging on the price. You might just look Madam, you know what? Really it's a small family, just both of you and then baby instead. You know this 20 liter microwave, just be looking at this five liter one and this five liter one.
It means your your price spot on. No need to negotiate anything and you might be able to make a good deal there and save yourself some margins. So you've recommended a lower product for Madam. It meets her needs and you didn't have to continue haggling on the 20 liter one and then start discounting so that she can buy that one. So this is the reason why qualification and Discovery conversations are really important. So who is she?
What does she do? She a housewife? Does she work? How many children is it that she has four children and then seven other people live in their house? OK, in that case maybe A5 litre microwave is not going to work because we're going to microwave a goosey for a House of what did I say? I said four children, four children plus husband and wife. That is 6 + 7 relatives living in the house, uncles and aunties. So 6 + 7 is 13.
Yeah, so trying to microwave a goosey for 13 people in A five liter microwave oven, I mean, that's gonna be stressed. You have to be putting in small container, small container, small container. So in that case, yeah, you might have to continue having discussion about the 20 liter microwave. So I had to put one big bowl there and that's enough to microwave a goosie for the whole household. Then again, if you've been asking questions, those kind of questions you get, you gauge the size of a household and you know that she works and she works in Access Bank and, you know, stuff like that, you might figure out that, OK, this Madam, she might have some money, she's not willing to let up, but she might have some money because after all, she's a banker.
And look at her household, 13 people. You know, if you're a Papa, you can't have a household of 13 people. So these are the things that give you the context, give you the background, give you the confidence to be able to negotiate. And that's the reason why I keep saying that the Big Three are the foundation to business success. So prospecting. Who am I going to do business with? So shine your eyes, whether online or in real life.
Say your prayers. Shine your eyes, Go forth and try to prosper. But make sure you're talking to the right kind of people. Because if you're selling microwave ovens, but you keep on talking to people who are security guards. By the way, I am not saying that security guards are bad people. I'm just saying that security guards probably cannot afford to buy microwave ovens, at least not brand new microwave ovens where they can buy them second hand from the market or something.
But I'm not saying you sell microwave ovens. We have to look at the certain kinds of people that should be running across. But then again, all human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. We're all worthy of respect and we all have value. So I'm not saying that people who can't afford your products or services are less than. I'm just saying be realistic. Who can do business with you? Look for those people accordingly.
When you find them, start having conversations with them around who they are and the problems that they're trying to solve. They will help you in negotiations later on. Now also, trying to discover what is important to your counterpart sometimes involves you doing some research and that is made easier these days by the GPTS, you know, CHA, GPT, Gemini, blah, blah, blah. You can hop on there and research market rates, competitor pricing, industry standards, you know, stuff like that.
So you don't go in there blind. So if it's a big negotiation, like I was in the business centre earlier, I went to go and print out some training material, that's because my my printer packed up. It didn't pack up, it's just old. It's obsolete because I've had it since university. The thing was working so I didn't bother. But then you know, all these people now they keep on making updates and changing this and changing that and so the computer doesn't work with anything anymore.
So it's just that. So I went to a business centre, not far from where I am to print out material for a training session I was going to be doing. And then there was this fellow there who was putting together a proposal and the proposal was for what's it called, Electrical. I can't remember. I shouldn't have been violating the guys privacy. But The thing is, from where I was sitting, I saw the tally at the bottom and I saw 20
something M and I'm like that's some good money, 20 something MI like to make a killing that that big, you know, I mean. Put a quote. Now I'm collecting 20 M on top so I saw 20 MI say OK, all business is is brussing. So I started trying to read the proposal over the guy's shoulder. But unfortunately my children broke my glasses. I was without my glasses so I couldn't get the full scope when we long and short is boys and girls are making good money in this country, in Abuja, in Lagos, you name it.
That people that are making good money putting out good bits. So OK research. Yes, that's what I was talking about. Now somebody like that who is selling electrical components something something, something I didn't get the whole detail selling to Oracle property developers and all these sorts of people. Now that kind of guy, before he goes for the negotiation, it will help because you put together your proposal and what you put there is you put 20
something M and that's your that's what you're hoping for. It would also not be a bad idea to go online Google, Bing, all these whatever try and get a sense like OK competitors how much are they selling. You want to be sure that you're within a certain range because for the specs that you have put if you put all that thing for 20 something M, but it's something that your competition wants to jump down to. I don't know, 15 M or whatever,
That's going to be a hard sell because legitimately during the meetings somebody can say, look, you know what, I'm tired of this conversation. You've been saying 20 something. MCI will show you. Now look at this one. This is the invoice that somebody sent me. You can see here, can you see it 17 M So I think I'll just go to 17 M people. If you've done the research ahead of time, you know what market rates are and you know why the market rates are different, then you can now go into that whole thing of trying to differentiate to say that,
OK, yeah, This 17 M, yes, yes, it happens that people that do that. But did you ask them about this capacitor, this regulator, this, which, this, whatever, Because it's not just a matter of 16 M and you know, whatever. We need to ask about this component. This is how this effects that project. This is how that affects that project. If you skimp on this and on that, it's going to affect the final product here and affect the final project here because of this and this and that and that.
So you'll be well armed if you have done your research ahead of time going into the meeting. So don't go in there blind. So do some research. That's the beauty of the Internet. It's not just for, you know, watching all those silly videos on on Facebook, by the way. You people that watch videos on Facebook and on Tiktok. Why do you guys stay in public Like you're in the bank while down on the queue and then you're just playing Tiktok videos, you know, full volume.
Like, you guys are disturbing us. We're here because we're trying to reverse transactions and everything and you're just blasting Tiktok all over the place. So if you're one of those annoying people, please stop it. Or at least use your earphones when you're playing your Tiktok videos in the banking hall or at the cyber cafe. So yes, that's why we have those things, so we can do research as well. Now, another reason why you should try and figure out what people want out of the deal is because if you go into a deal,
I'm telling you guys now, if you go into a deal and you, you extract everything from the other person, you get the person's lifeblood. You go out feeling like, ah, correct, I made a good deal. But The thing is, now that person is angry. That person is sour. That person feels robbed. It's not going to be a good experience for both of you because for now, the person might take it because you know he's he's down and he might just take it.
But rest assured, he's not going to do everything with his full chest like he would have done if you walked out of it. Out of it feeling like, OK, Mima, there's something that I got, there's something that I could put inside, put in my pocket. So it's not a good to a good idea to walk in and try and rob everyone and make them feel bad. One example that I heard in a different podcast was there's one guy that had where's this guy Donald Trump.
So that Donald Trump Trump Tower, you know, that's his. His like his. It's like that's his big thing. Trump Towers. You know his office with gold and all that. But apparently there was another development that he wanted to acquire and build, but the people refused to do business with him. And on this podcast I found out the back story. The reason why The reason why they didn't want to do business with him was because years before when levels were not pure, Donald Trump did some business with his people and typical Donald Trump fashion like the guy as in he he taught him a new one as in he, he, he did the Donald Trump thing.
He made sure that he got the best deal possible for himself and he didn't give a hoot about who who or what these people were about. Later on now you know ground is level. These other people have mature. You know they're too they're now players in the space and then they have this property development And for them was a big thing was like, oh, this guy like we are not selling to you. No. And they didn't sell to Trump.
There's another rival developer that they sold to instead, And that was pretty much the back story. Like you. Again, it's not you. And they went for somebody else. So walking into deals feeling like I'm a bad guy, I will collect everything. I will drain their lifeblood from them. Generally not a good idea. It works out now. It doesn't always pan out them for the future, then for negotiations. Another thing we should be paying attention to is no unprincipled concessions.
And on principal concession, if you're the first time, first time listener of the show and on principal concession is this, you're talking with someone, You say A, they say B, you say 2005, they say 2000. If you're making a concession in one place, you should be asking for something else. The example that I typically give over here on the podcast is, let's say you're selling, let me see, what can I say, computers. You're selling computers and you're negotiating with central bank, OK, no, Let's say you're negotiating with your children's primary school, don't want to buy computers.
So you say, look, school, you don't want to buy 100 units and we're pricing each of these units at how much are computers these days off? I don't know. OK, let me just say 150 K So if you want to buy 150 units, so if I buy 100 units and we're pricing this thing at 150 K, you will start negotiating. You say 150 K they say no, we can't do 150K, we can do 140K. If you cave in at 140 K, what you can do is say OK, no problem, 140 Ki can sell it to you, but I now can't sell you 100 units.
Again, if we're doing 140K per computer instead of 150, instead of buying 100 units, you guys, you must buy minimum 130 units. So that is what we mean by on principal concessions. You have taken a hit on, you have made a concession in one way, you get them to make a concession the other way. So what you have lost on unit price, hopefully you can make up in volume. So that is like the classic thing about on principle concessions.
You say A, they say B, it's OK, no problem, BB it is. But if I'm giving it you are B humor, you must do C and that's the whole idea. So no on principle concessions. So under no circumstances must somebody say, look, I can't do this thing at 25. I'll give you 2/3 for you to just say, OK, 2-3 and then leave it like that. Then the operational concessions, not a good idea except. But anyway, we've done the podcast episode about discounting.
So listen to the discounting episode and you'll see how that can be part of your business strategy. We're already 30 minutes, so I don't want to go on for too long. Then let's see. Oh, price anchoring. That's something I forgot. Set your price anchoring at a reasonable level because Nigerians like to hack away or whatever figure you give. I run to some folks. I went to school with some Indians, so I hear that Indians are like that too.
That is just the principle that if you tell them 5K, they'll say 5K, how then they'll price you down to three. So it's just the principle. I also run into some Egyptians and they say that that's the way their culture is. So it's not like the UK where people pay sticker price or America where they sticker price. There's some cultures where it's just it's it's like it's a sport, it's part of the game. So in Nigeria it's a given sticker price, There's no sticker price except if you walk into the shop.
But if you're not selling in Ikeja City mall or something like that, just know that if you say 5K, you don't want to say 3. It's just the principle then, the most price. So set your price anchor high. Because if you say 3K and the price is down to three, why not just start off the conversation at 10K and maybe they'll try and price it down to seven. So put yourself in a good situation from the beginning. That's the whole thing about price anchoring.
So don't anchor low, anchor high, Start the conversation high. But of course, do your research ahead of time. Know where you fall within the market. Know how you can justify your bid. Then let's see. Ask questions whenever something is unclear to you. Don't be shy. Some people think it's unprofessional or it's somehow to ask questions. But don't be shy. Ask questions. If you don't understand this. Ask a question. If they're asking on this concession, this concession, you know, go ahead and ask, like back to the laptop thing.
If the school keeps insisting 140K140K, you know, go. If you don't understand that The thing is exasperating you go ahead and ask like OK, principal, like I really told you, now you know how this thing is, you know Niger is and you're still saying one like this 140 KS of like 140K. You might you might find out that they're trying to pressure up you 'cause they have an alternative bid, you know, in that case, if you think it's too sneaky or whatever, just walk away and leave.
But I'm also find out that the reason why the guy is asking 440K is because maybe they're cash strapped. In that case you guys might start talking payment plans like OK, you know what, I can't give you this thing I wonder. And 40K. But we can come up with the payment plan. You only have 140 K per units. No problem. I'll deliver the full 100. You paid 140K, the balance of 10/10 K per all the other units. This is how we'll do it.
When parents pay next time school fees, you raise me 25%. When they pay the next one, you know you raise me another 50%. You know. So payment plans. So ask. Ask questions. It will, you know, like the good book says, asking you shall receive. When you ask. You get more information, and with the more information you have, you'll be able to. You'll be able to see where the land is, the lay of the land. I'll be able to know how to make make decisions.
Now. OK, finally, let me just say two things since we're over 30 minutes. Take notes, get feedback on contentious issues. Too many people go into negotiations and you're not writing anything down. You will shout, shout, shout, shout, shout. You quarrel, shout, but shouting numbers up and down. You finish. You shake your hands. You think you guys have agreed but the thing was this. Lots of shouting. Lots of things were said, but nobody was writing anything.
So take notes. You take notes. You will shout back and forth. You like, OK, this is the price. Write it. You shout back and forth. Delivery date, You write it, you shout back and forth. Warranty. You write it. You write everything down. And then get feedback on the contentious issues. If you guys spent 30 minutes quarreling on price and you ended up writing in your book 5002, ask the person before you guys leave the meetings.
OK, so this 5002, we've agreed by like there's no changing. Like when you come back next week, it's 52. You won't come and tell me something else because it's 52. We've agreed say yes, it's 5/2 per unit. So take notes, don't be a secretary, and then write everything down. You know, it's stenographer. Just highlight the main issues. The reason why this is important is because if you guys are going to drop a contract later on,
this will make sure that there's no quarrel because you said that look, you were there. Now I asked you should we call? You were there at this meeting too. I showed him that. Now he said that there's no problem. So you why you will chase him out now. You guys cannot change him out now this is what we agreed. You show them your notes, hopefully they have their own notes too. If italies, then you guys can drop your paperwork, you drop the invoice and then you come over here with the the transaction.
Then overall, I'll say focus on value. Don't focus on price. Sometimes these conversations end up being about price too much. And sometimes price is not the only thing you should be focusing. You should be trying to get a sense of what people find value valuable. I say you can deliver that because when it comes to price and other positions that people take in negotiations, you find that sometimes there's a difference between the position somebody takes and the thing that they actually find valuable.
Now, as a young lawyer, this was a lesson I learned the hard way because I was fresh in Kano and I was with a law firm and I was supposed to handle a a a land matter, Not really a land matter. It was an eviction matter because the tenant was refusing to leave the hotel. Our client owned the hotel. The the fellow on the other side was refusing to leave the hotel. So my boss couldn't make make it and he had me go and represent him.
So I went there now and you know, I was fresh out of law school. I was feeling like a family lawyer, so I wanted to show my value. So I got there. I can't remember whether I was emotional or hearing. But by the time we were done, I walked to the other lawyer on the other side because when we're in law school they kept on telling us about how you need to be cool with people on the other side, You know, be friends, like your clients are quarreling.
It doesn't mean you 2 have to quarrel. And it makes sense because if you as a lawyer are cool with the other lawyer, you guys can sit down reasonable heads and you can you can figure out something that works. So I was trying to flex my creative muscle now sure that I'm a correct guy. Like I finished from over you, so I know book and I'm a good lawyer. So I went to the other lawyers, struck up a conversation, try and figure out what was going on and everything seemed really reasonable from my own end.
And what I agree with the other lawyer was, look, this thing is relatively straightforward. We've been in court already on this matter for several months. So if I convince my principal to let go of the action, you guys just enter into an undertaking that you'll be out of the property in three months. And the other way I said, ah, correct, no problem, we should can't. And then we left. By the time I go back to the office, my orga was waiting for me and my orga exploded.
Who gave you authority to do this? Who gave you the authority to do that? As he gave me a severe washing anyway it turns out that and this is where some of the cultural things come in. It turns out that in that Yoruba community in in Kano the our client who owned the hotel is like he's a he's an Edborn in the Yoruba community. Edborn is Big Brother. Yeah Big Brother name put it that way or senior brother. So I born senior brother.
So he's like a senior brother. He's like a big boy. He's, he's he's a guy within the community, the other fellow, the tenant who's refusing to believe the plot is kind of like an upstart and put it that way. And so in me going to make concessions on behalf of Ebon, Ebon was now losing face to the upstart. So it was somehow like last last at the end of the day, instead of the little miscreant to be humiliated, it was ebon, our clients.
It was the senior brother who now lost face at the end of the day. And so I learned a very, very important lesson that day. First of all, the agreement that I negotiated was thrown out, as in my clients rejected it. I received the washing down. But the most important lesson that I learned that day was this. Sometimes people take positions and it's not about the position because if you look at things on the face of the paper it looked as if my client wanted this miscreant out of the property.
But it wasn't just I wasn't just about the mystery and leaving the property. There was also an element of pride there. He also didn't want to lose face. And yes as a young lawyer I thought that was it was I thought it was irrational, like he's a hotel. I need to make money. If this guy has been there for already eight months and this thing is just dragging, dragging out, alright, just get rid of this guy and then get somebody else to to to what's the word to rent out my property so I can make money.
But it look like my principal was fine with the way things are because he didn't want to lose face. So that's what I mean by people have positions, but positions and interests are not always the same. So I thought the position was get this guy out and it was tied into commercial interests. Get this guy out. Let me rent somebody ready to somebody who's going to be paying. But you know, there was a difference. So focus on what people find valuable, focus on what their interests are.
Sometimes the price and the position is not just the main thing. So if you can play to more people's values and interests are, then you might be able to come out with positions that everybody is unhappy with at the end of the day. So sorry for this very unusually long episode. Connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. Now connect with me on WhatsApp. The name is Tavishima Ayede.
Sorry, On LinkedIn, yes, I was going to spend most of my time. The name is Tavishima Ayede. I am the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of my name and e-mail address from the link. We're currently listening to this episode. So thank you very much for your time and attention. Remember to look for a podcast that is dedicated to negotiations, because what I do is sales, and I've only given you some rambling ideas about how I would approach some of these things as a sales professional.
So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.