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- Introduction to the Thirty-Six Stratagems
The Thirty-Six Stratagems, also known as the Thirty-Six Strategies, refers to thirty-six ancient Chinese military strategies. The phrase originates from the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the book was compiled during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is a military treatise based on China's outstanding ancient military thought and rich experience in struggle, and is one of the cultural heritages of the Chinese nation.
- Negotiation Leverage in the Thirty-Six Stratagems
Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao
During the Warring States period, the seven powerful states—Han, Zhao, Wei, Qi, Chu, Qin, and Yan—were known as the Seven Warring States. Among them, Qin and Qi were equally powerful and hostile to each other. Zhao was allied with Qi, while Wei was allied with Qin.
Once, Qin sent troops to attack Zhao, and Zhao sought help from Qi. Based on intelligence, Qi did not directly attack Qin but instead sent troops to besiege Wei, diverting Qin's attention. As a result, Qin had to split its forces to support its ally Wei. This two-front deployment weakened Qin's combat effectiveness and ensured Zhao's safety. This is the famous stratagem of "Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao."
The essence of this stratagem is that attacking Wei could send intelligence unfavorable to the opponent's interests, while rescuing Zhao protected one's own opportunity to close a deal—killing two birds with one stone. Qi did not directly attack Qin because it believed the cost of a direct confrontation between two great powers was too high, so it chose a low-cost and effective method.
2.1 Intelligence as Leverage
The story of Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao vividly illustrates the importance of intelligence in warfare! Similarly, intelligence plays a significant role in negotiations.
How can intelligence be used as leverage in business negotiations?
In fact, both buyers and sellers play dual roles, with their identities changing depending on the counterpart. Therefore, both sides have three types of leverage: competitor information, professionalism, and experience. The difference lies only in the direction of use.
Buyers need to throw information about other sellers at the seller to exert pressure. At the same time, buyers use their professionalism and experience to verify the quality of the seller's products, the proposed price, and the added value. Sellers, facing pressure, must try to remove obstacles one by one, such as providing in-depth analysis of competitors' information to prove that their own products are more suitable.
Real-Life Case: Price Negotiation When Buying a TV
A couple went to buy a TV. They asked the shopkeeper, "How much is this TV?" "It's color, you decide the size, 3,300 yuan," the shopkeeper said. The couple immediately said, "3,300! We visited two other stores last week. Same specifications, same brand, none of them were 3,300. Yours is the most expensive. Other places are all 3,200."
Scenario 1:
At this point, the shopkeeper might think, "This couple has done market research; I probably can't hold the price." So, the shopkeeper sold the TV to them for 3,200 yuan.
The couple used intelligence as leverage to pressure the shopkeeper into lowering the price. Although their intelligence might not be true, it still effectively pressured the other side.
Scenario 2:
The shopkeeper calmly said, "I really admire you two. You're so serious about buying a TV, doing market research everywhere. You could be experts now! But you don't know the real situation. Display TVs can be cheaper, so the 3,200 yuan TV you heard about is definitely a display unit, not a new one. Our industry has a rule: anyone who violates this pricing rule will be fined 500 yuan. He wouldn't rather be fined 500 yuan than give you a 100 yuan discount." The couple began to doubt themselves after hearing this and finally bought the TV for 3,300 yuan.
This shopkeeper was very calm, quickly used counter-intelligence, and made the couple accept his counter-intelligence, thus persuading them. Of course, the couple could have asked to check the TV's serial number to counter the shopkeeper's intelligence, but it depends on who is better at using intelligence as leverage.
Intelligence, as the first leverage in negotiation, is of great significance. Intelligence can create pressure on the other party, effectively achieving the goal of persuasion. Mastering intelligence means holding the key to negotiation success; the sufficiency of information directly affects the persuasiveness of the negotiation; correct, valuable, and authoritative intelligence can bring heavy pressure to the negotiating opponent and increase persuasiveness; moreover, only by effectively using intelligence can one know the enemy and know oneself, and win every battle.
2.2 Time as Leverage
Repair the Road by Day, Sneak Through Chencang at Night
The story of "Repair the Road by Day, Sneak Through Chencang at Night" comes from Han Xin's battle of "Crossing the River by a Ruse." In war, to gain time, he outwardly sent a large number of troops to repair the road to Shu that had been destroyed, but in reality, he had already sent troops to quickly reach Chencang. Han Xin used the time difference to deceive the enemy with appearances, causing them to misjudge and ultimately lose the battle. The brilliance of this stratagem lies in using false appearances to cover the truth, making the opponent misestimate time, thereby winning time for oneself.
Application of Time as Leverage in Business Negotiations
In business negotiations, both buyers and sellers have their own time leverage, and they can use it to gain advantages.
- Contract overdue: deliberately not signing, waiting for the buyer to make an offer before negotiating.
- Factory overproduction: delaying orders, waiting for the buyer to show strong interest in our products before quoting.
- Anticipated panic buying: ordering early, insisting on not lowering the price until the customer has an urgent need, then closing the deal with a discount.
- Discovering the other party's main intentions: guiding the customer to discuss the product; the longer the discussion, the easier it is to close the deal.
- When the seller is eager to end the negotiation, place an order when they offer the best terms.
- Purchasing when the seller is under performance pressure.
Real-Life Case: Buying Fruit
Generally speaking, you can buy the cheapest fruit when the stall owner is closing up.
The reasons are as follows: First, at closing time, the fruit stall owner is in a hurry to go home and, after a day of work, is very tired and lacks fighting spirit, with no time or patience for bargaining. Second, the fruit at closing time is no longer fresh; if it doesn't sell, it wastes effort and cost, and selling it means an increase in the day's performance. So, you can fully use this time factor and go shopping at closing time.
Time is the second basic negotiation leverage after "intelligence." Time can create negotiation pressure, urgency, and a sense of crisis. Many negotiation cases use time techniques as leverage.
Therefore, negotiators should be good at using time leverage in life, especially in business, to obtain the best trading conditions. It is essential to learn to grasp the right timing, because in the negotiation process, when to raise an issue and when to make a commitment will affect the negotiation outcome to a certain extent.
2.3 Authority as Leverage
In ancient times, a poor man, Jia, and a rich man, Yi, were neighbors. One day, Yi's family was renovating the roof, and the removed soil fell into Jia's yard. It happened to rain that day, and the fallen soil made Jia's yard muddy. So Jia said to Yi, "Neighbor, you're renovating your roof, and the soil from your roof has accumulated in my yard. Can you deal with it?" Yi said arrogantly, "So what? The mud will drain away naturally, and the sun will evaporate it." Jia said angrily, "How can you talk like that?" "What can you do?" Yi said. "Then I'll sue you in court! The official is my friend."
Finally, Jia said to Yi, "I'm telling you, if you don't solve this problem within two days, I'll give you my life!" Hearing this, Yi quickly sent people to solve the problem.
Negotiators can use courage to create authority. During negotiations, if you have enough courage and can measure and bear the possible consequences, you can force the other party to make concessions with the determination not to fear a breakdown in negotiations. This is also a manifestation of authority turning weakness into strength.
Using location can also create authority, such as choosing our workplace as the negotiation site, thereby putting pressure on the other party as a guest.
Additionally, telling the negotiating opponent about our decision to purchase from other manufacturers can also create authority pressure.
In summary, authority leverage comes from the negotiator's adaptability and creativity in negotiations. It can take different forms as the situation changes, adding weight to the negotiator's position.
If intelligence is concrete leverage and time is leverage for choosing the right moment, then authority is leverage created and derived. Authority leverage has the characteristics of creating value, being full of change, and turning weakness into strength.