The importance of knowing why your counterpart is meeting with you!

Proper preparations before going into any kind of negotiation whether discussing a business deal or resolving a conflict is absolutely key. Yet I would argue that most people tend to, at best, spend a couple of minutes before the meeting reading up on some key material before meeting the counterpart, paving the way for a sub-optimal deal. And while there are many topics in the preparation phase that are highly important to analyse, one in particular is very often overlooked:

WHY is your counterpart meeting with you?

To put it in some context, if you for instance are representing a bubble gum manufacturer and you’ve been requested to attend a meeting discussing a potential frame agreement with a large grocery chain you need to ask yourself why the grocery chain specifically have invited your company. There are several competitors out there, so why your company? Is it because of the fantastic range of flavours offered, competitive prices or fast delivery times? Or maybe a combination of the three? It will of course be a best guess (pro tip: unless you upon accepting the meeting invitation ask if you may enquire as to why they reached out to your company) but it should form the basis of your argumentation in the meeting. Getting it right will make your counterpart feel like they came to the right place, their assumptions have been confirmed. And let’s face it, most of us likes to be right. So by reinforcing those assumptions you are much more probable to reach a successful outcome of your meeting.