Always invent options!

By Phy • April 30th, 2008

Story:

I bought 10 books from Amazon on Apr 14.  They were packed and shipped in four packages and supposed to arrive at my place on Apr 18 or 19 with the fastest shipment option avail on the site.  I waited and waited but they never arrived.  finally, on Apr 24 I decided to track the packages in my account.  (The shipment utility has this tracking features so their clients can track the packages.) The result was all of my four packages got to Osaka, Japan on Apr 18 and went nowhere further. I then decided to call the company in the U.S to find out what’s going on with my items; their advice was for me to call their branch in Japan, so I did.  Their staff in Japan told me they couldn’t locate my place without a “street address” which I’d never known of.

“I’ve bought stuffs on Amazon many times already,” I told them on the phone.  “Using the same address and other shipment options which were not as fast, I got the items delivered to me in about two weeks.”  Finally, the staff member asked me for my address again.  A few days later, the company called me only to tell they still couldn’t locate my place on their “map” and insisted I ask my landlord about it.  I became speechless, thinking to myself, “Ok, if that’s the only way out.”  My reply didn’t go the way I thought.  Instead I asked how come other shipment companies could find my place.  There was a moment of silence on the phone and eventually, the staff member asked me to hold on while she was trying to locate my place on their map.  “Is there a pagoda near your place?” she asked me.  “yes,” I replied.

“Do you know the name of the pagoda?” she asked the next question.  “Sorry, I don’t read Kanji,” I said.

“Do you know the name of any building near your place?”

“A gas station! There is a gas station near here!”

“Atta, atta!” she exclaimed in Japanese on the phone to herself, meaning something like “Gotcha” in English!  Without delay, she told me the company would deliver my packages asap.

My negotiation lesson:

I failed to invent options, which are necessary in negotiation!  Luckily, she asked me the second question: “Do you know the name of any building near your place?”  I should have said, “Ok, I will,” when she asked me to ask my landlord for the street address and added this, “And before I do that, would there be any other way you can use to locate my apartment?”

So, invent options for always in any negotiation we’re doing!  Don’t ask me how, if you’re interested, read Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury or The Power of A Positive No by William Ury.

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