The Morning Rant: Negotiating like The “Donald” Lesson 1 [Pete Bog]

This is not news, but Trump tends to polarize viewpoints. For years I thought of him as a guy whose personality got in the way of some very sensible policies. To some degree I still do, however he has successfully humanized and reintroduced himself to a lot of people over the last couple of years. Getting shot can do that.

The first step to learning to negotiate like The Donald is to remember who he is, a Real Estate Developer. He has made a fortune in one of the most competitive markets in the world by recognizing opportunities, understanding the path forward and negotiating that path. Does he have an enormous ego and get prickly when people mock him? Yes, so does Obama, and so does almost every member of the Press.

As a rule, Real Estate people hate the Press. Most Developers try to avoid the Media. They need a villain for every story and only by making their story heard will they prosper. Developers are always the villain. The truth is not relevant to the journalist’s goal of getting heard. If they had real talent and brains they would probably have been something other than Journalism majors. Maybe even Real Estate Developers. To his credit The Donald has developed a more subtle relationship with the Press. They are a tool, and he treats them as such. They know they are being used and as a result despise him and themselves even more.

One of the key lessons to negotiating like the Donald is to keep your opponent guessing. If you pay attention you will see that he runs the exact same playbook every time he sets out to accomplish something. He makes a brash claim or laughable statement. Say for example, “The US should own Greenland, it is our destiny!” Of course, the Danish hoi polloi, and the useful predictable press wail and scream. But with whom is Trump negotiating? How about in his first Campaign when he named Marco Rubio “Little Marco” or Ted Cruz “Lying Ted”? Why would he be so unnecessarily rude? How about when he muttered under his breath in the debate with Hillary “what a nasty woman”? Because he was not negotiating with the Danish government, his Primary opponents or Hillary. He was negotiating with the people of Greenland, and the in the other examples with the voters. He was demonstrating his product, that is the US to the inhabitants of Greenland, and himself to the voters, while distinguishing that product from the competition. In these examples the competition is an inattentive Danish government, and his political opponents.

Apply this same lens to the Tariff Hoopla. Same playbook. Same application.

posted by Open Blogger at 11:00 AM

| Access Comments