“Which Personality Should a Negotiator Believe: The Phone or Email Version?” Consultant Asks

Feb. 17, 2010 - PRLog -- One of Dr. Gary S. Goodman’s most puzzling negotiations involved what seemed at the outset to be a simple matter of confirming some consulting dates.

A prior client contacted him by phone and left a voice mail expressing interest in doing a customized seminar. He phoned back promptly, and he says they had a very upbeat and detailed chat, during which he indicated his calendar was better for booking, sooner than later.

His follow-up email offered a set of dates about five weeks away, and he awaited an overnight check to secure the time slot; a check, that after a week, didn’t come.
That forced him to write an email expressing concern, which wasn't responded to, either.

Not appreciating business mysteries, he phoned and had another nice conversation.
But that led to more silence.

Who was he to believe: the positive and definite phone personality or the elusive email enigma?

“This is not an easy question to answer,” according to Goodman, who teaches “Best Practices in Negotiation” at UC Berkeley Extension and UCLA Extension.  

“While some folks are easier to sell through one medium versus another, there are also people that are better at dissimulation by phone or by email,” he observes.  

Complicating the interpretive process is the fact that many people are awful writers and know it, so their missives sound stiff and strategic, or they avoid putting paws to keyboards, altogether, fearing they'll make an indelible mistake or embarrass themselves.

In short, we could wait forever for them to write a responsive email.

Sometimes, people suffer from phone fear, a sort of situational shyness or performance anxiety that makes them sound evasive or overly cautious. Thus, the human voice isn't a reliable conveyor of all of the facts we'd like to know at a given time.

Goodman notes we can't say, "Trust email, because if you get a commitment in writing, you're set!" Nor can we say, "You can always tell if someone is lying over the phone!"

Perhaps the rubber meets the road with a Dun & Bradstreet expression that he has used frequently as a negotiation touchstone: "The deal isn't made until the money is paid."

Once that check is in hand, providing it's a good one, we might be able to relax, feeling at least one part of the negotiation is over. That is, until we receive that next set of voice and emails that seem to point in opposite directions.

Goodman’s class, “Best Practices in Negotiation” is set for February 20, in San Francisco. For information, follow this link: http://extension.berkeley.edu/cat/course1524.html or Goodman can be contacted directly at: gary@customersatisfaction.com or at (818) 970-GARY (4279).

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Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top-ranked negotiation speaker, telemarketing speaker, and customer service speaker at Google, and a distinguished, sought-after sales speaker, motivational speaker, and attorney. President of Customersatisfaction.com, he is a frequent TV and radio commentator and the best-selling author of 12 books and more than 1,700 articles that appear in 25,000 publications. President of Customersatisfaction.com, Gary conducts seminars and speaks at convention programs around the world. His new audio program is Nightingale-Conant's "Crystal Clear Communication: How to Explain Anything Clearly in Speech & Writing." His web site is:http://www.customersatisfaction.com, and professional speaking, seminar, and consulting invitations can be addressed to:gary@customersatisfaction.com.