Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator, is a book about principles of negotiation. Chris Voss worked for the FBI for over twenty years, and was the FBI lead international kidnapping negotiator for fifteen years. Some would say that he is “decent” at negotiating. Just kidding, Chris Voss may be the best negotiator on earth, and has saved many lives while he was working for the FBI. Each chapter of his book describes another part of his strategy, and each chapter begins with a real life hostage negotiation. Since most, if not all of these principles apply to sales, I felt that this would be a great book to write blog posts about. I think any of my fellow classmates who see these posts will find them very interesting. At least, I hope they will.
Before we get into the book though, something needs to be said about the title. Never Split the Difference. What does it mean? Well, as a hostage negotiator, Chris learned very quickly that the typical “logical” negotiating style would not work in his profession. Not only are people emotional beings, but Chris had to negotiate with human lives where the hostage-taker held all the cards and Chris had nothing. There are no “lets meet in the middle” situations with kidnappers. Chris had to somehow get kidnappers to give him their hostages, or otherwise lives would be in danger. Thus Chris Voss titled his book “Never Split the Difference” since compromise was never an option.
When it comes to compromise and sales, Voss has something very insightful to offer the reader through a short example. Suppose a husband and wife are going out for a nice evening and have dressed up for the occasion. The husband wants to wear black shoes, while the wife wants him to wear brown shoes. Since compromise is clearly the best option, the husband wears one black shoe and one brown shoe. Chris points out that this is clearly the worst outcome, since both parties are dissatisfied. Both of them would have been happier with either the brown or black shoes. Sales is in a similar vein, since it’s better to persuade the other party to enjoy an agreement you want rather than compromise on one.
BoweryJE22
This is a great read! I’m excited to read each of these posts about this book!
I think the compromise principle is very interesting, especially since what I always here is that compromise is so important.
I have watched a few YouTube videos by Chris Voss but have not read his book yet! This principle suggests that compromise is not always the best solution, and it is possible to achieve your ends without the other “losing.”