Negotiation Plan

Negotiation Plan

Regardless of the significant strides that the economic world makes in terms of better services and increased profits, business interactions are still not at par. Every organization has a task to create proper strategies that benefit all parties involved. Therefore, a negotiator plays a major role in business undertakings as he or she balances the odds of winning or losing among parties. This essay focuses on the negotiation process between a Human Resource Management Software (HRMS) company (Zoho Recruit), and a negotiator. It evaluates all the necessary steps a negotiator plays in ensuring a successful negotiation process in a business setting.

HRMS are processes that liaison information technology services with human resource management to obtain effective organizational staff. Zoho Recruit is a HRMS tracking organization that provides diverse hiring solutions for corporate human resources, temporary workers, and staffing agencies (Zoho Recruit, 2020). Amidst a rapidly globalized economic industry, all organizations ought to have a software or technology that makes their hiring process easier and faster. Moreover, Zoho Recruit, and other companies alike provide services that help businesses quench the aggressive competition for resources such as laborers in the current industrial settings.

The commodities under negotiation in this process are the services offered by Zoho Recruit. These HRMS are essential to all organizations with human resources. Therefore, the primary reason for this negotiation is to convince Zoho Recruit to reduce its prices per worker. Moreover, the negotiation intends to convince Zoho Recruit into providing a longer free trial for its consumers.

In such a negotiation, parties involved include the negotiator (me), the Zoho Recruit management board, and both our legal teams. According to Lewicki, Barry, and Saunders (2015), it is essential for a negotiator to know that all parties involved in the process can either win or lose. It is in very few cases that both parties get exactly what they had bargained for. Therefore, a negotiator ought to have all the facts about the people and organizations involved to increase their chances of success.

Queensland Government (2020) contends that an effective negotiation has outlined key issues or factors necessary for both parties. In this case, the negotiation process would have multi-issue needs, since it involves the price reduction of Zoho Recruit’s services, a free trial for consumers, and time constraints. Lewicki, Barry, and Saunders (2015) state that such a multi-issue case would most likely follow an integrative rather than distributive strategy. Integrative strategies are often more challenging, as a negotiator has to consider both the process and context of the negotiation. However, successful integrative processes lead to a respectable relationship between parties, and, at times, a win-win negotiation (Staff, 2020).

To determine the key issues in a negotiation, Lewicki, Barry, and Saunders (2015) assert that one has to analyze all possible factors that may need decision-making. Also, a negotiator must undertake extensive research on the organizations they want to work with. They ought to use their previous knowledge, or expert opinions, to make viable choices on the key issues. For instance, I would have to check Zoho Recruit’s finances, market size, profits, and goals to gain insight on the organization’s key issues.

Consequently, all key issues have core interests from both parties. To identify the core interests at stake for these parties, a negotiator must understand that such factors can vary from the tangible to intangible. Moreover, these interests have to be substantive, process-based, and relationship-based (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2015). In the negotiation, money is the key interest at stake for Zoho Recruit in all issues. Reducing the prices for HRMS services would cause many changes to the organization. These include possible salary deductions for the first few months of the new regime. Also, increased free trials, and the time for these trials also delays the opportunity for Zoho Recruit to make immediate profits. However, the company ought to look at the long-run financial profitability of the offer.

Before the initiation of this negotiation process, I had no prior relationship with any of the staff in Zoho Recruit. Therefore, it would be difficult to initiate a negotiation with Zoho because every organization fears including foreign entities or strangers into their regular activities (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2015). According to Malhotra (2015), a negotiator ough to take control of the negotiation before it begins. By creating conducive professional relationships with Zoho Recruit preparatory to the negotiation process, one can to prevent hostility or mistrust.

It is critical for negotiators to outline all their targets and opening points to prevent issues of confusion during the process. Lewicki, Barry, and Saunders (2015) aver that all targets should be difficult but achievable, verifiable, and specific. For instance, my target for Zoho Recruit is to reduce its prices and increase free trial time for new consumers to increase the industry’s market incentives. Although this business plan is risky, in terms of profit making, with sufficient strategizing, Zoho Recruit would gain more profit in the long-run. The opening bid for this project is a 2 month HRMS free trial for consumers followed by a $1 monthly subscription. The opening bid ought to be the best possible outcome for both parties. Therefore, if Zoho Recruit does not contend to these demands, I may have to relatively increase the price to attain a win-win situation (Malhotra, 2015).

Lewicki, Barry, and Saunders (2015) assert that the negotiator needs to ascertain the needs, goals, issues, targets, and limits of the negotiating parties. Just like all organizations, Zoho Recruit aims at making sufficient profits, increasing their market size, and improving the organization’s credibility. Limitations the organization faces are other alternatives that seem better than the proposal. For instance, Zoho currently charges $25 per user monthly. Opting for the proposal may be a big leap that they may fail to take.

The key points of protocol in the process included the agendas and scope of these plans. In the agenda, all the core issues were packaged separately to ensure that they are dealt with in the best manner. The limit points in the negotiation included string opposition from some managers in Zoho Recruit. These managers feared defeat from competitors and lack of confidence from employees. If the deal failed for any reason, alternatives such as reducing the free trail time would suffice. However, a negotiator must be willing to walk away if they receive intense hostility. In such a case, I would implement the proposal in other HRMS providing companies.

The negotiation process makes business interactions more practical and thorough, thus reducing the communication crisis in the business world. The products offered by Zoho Recruit would help mature and upcoming business in their human resource department. Therefore, the negotiation process would have numerous long-run benefits to Zoho since it would increase its market range. Moreover, many organizations would move to using Zoho for its effective and less costly options.

References

Chebet, W. T., Rotich, J. K., & Kurgat, A. (2015). Negotiation skills: keys to business excellence in the 21st century? European Journal of Research and Reflection in Management Science, 3(3). 23-31. Retrieved from https://www.idpublications.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Negotiation-Skills-Keys-to-Business-Excellence-in-the-21st-Century.pdf

Lewicki, R., Barry, B., & Saunders, D. (2015). Essentials of Negotiation 6th edition. New York, NY: MacGraw-Hill Education.