The Rainmakers Company

Rainmaker Thursday
Value 2.0 The Next Level -

- Thick Value or Creative Destruction?

Date: 6th May 2010

Venue: Castle Hill House, Windsor.

‘Adding Value’ is fast becoming an over used, worn out corporate buzz word and it could be damaging your organisation.  It’s taking some organisations to crisis point – especially those that are not even aware of it’s true nature.

Simply ‘Adding Value’ is no longer enough to get the attraction you desire.

Consider:

• After pulling your belt in for over a year are you sure you are not on the extinct list or can you rebuild and flourish?
• Has pulling in your belt over the last 6 months killed your next big thing?

Every day it seems yet another product or service is being labelled as ’added value’ and laying claims that it’s now better than ever before or better than its rival!  But lets really think about this… what IS the difference between one ’new added value’ offering  to another? How would your organisation’s value truly stand up to comparisons?

• Research has shown that many customers think value is intrinsictly linked to money either as a ‘how much can I get for my money’ or ‘How little can I pay for this?’ stance.
• ‘Value’, in the opinion of some, has turned into the ‘Spam’ phrase of the corporate advertising, marketing and PR collateral as well as some of the corporate thinking and strategy.
• Somehow ‘value’ seems to have become lost along the way as more people view ‘added value’ as a standard that a company should be offereing and thereby no longer a true added value!

So how do you do something which is better than others and more importantly seen to be better, valued to be better and talked about as being the best?

As rainmaker Gary Sage said in a recent interview:

“The global financial storm has produced a global shift in awareness, not only have the rules changed – future sustainable business will need to understand that there is a new value equation out there – value 2.0 if you wish – achieving great performance will depend on truly understanding how to deliver and support this value.”

This session is for those wanting to understand the future of ‘Value’ today and it’s impact to organisations before it arrives!  Do Not underestimate the value of ‘Value’!

To be held under Chatham House Rule

Thought Leader:

Rainmaker – Gary Sage of SageHagan.

Gary Sage is a ‘Super Skiller’.  He is a gifted consultant and Communications Coach whose personal clients span the globe.  Gary has coached and conducted seminars and workshops on five continents to thousands of people and successfully taken his unique methodology into organisations from as diverse a background of; international banks to luxury goods manufacturers to multinational computer companies, to sole traders.

Cost: All refreshments and lunch are included. If you are multi-booking, you may be entitled to a group discount.  Please contact Chris on 0 845 0941044 for further details.

All prices listed above exclude VAT.

Next step – book now: Places are very limited so click the button now to secure your place.  Alternatively, this can be delivered in-house and tailored if required.

Day 1 Intermediate Course £770 + VAT

Day 2 Advanced Course £999 + VAT

Both Days (Intermediate + Advanced) Course £1769 + VAT

Dates: 3rd Monday and Tuesday of every month (subject to confirmation)

Venue: Foxhills Country Club, Ottershaw, Surrey.

Early Bird discount – 10% off for all tickets booked before 2nd Monday OTM

(Enter discount code: earlybird)

In life and negotiation there is always someone who has the advantage. There are those who appreciate value and seek to achieve greatness and there are those who take what is left and accept what they believe they deserve.
In the world of negotiation there are some primary archetypes; the Wise well connected Sages, the wiley old foxes, the predators and thugs, who usurp the lions share through sheer tyranny and force, the obstinate “petit tyrant”, the big deal wannabee, the systemic bureaucrat with all the rules and no idea, and then there are the unfortunate and clearly oblivious “prey”, the victims of “circumstance”.
In the overall scheme of things we need to consider the following summation; negotiation is a contest for the best deal and there is always someone who has an advantage.
The, have more, over have less, equation exists only in respect of the trading principles in negotiation, because negotiation is simply a controlled process with variables.
What is often a bit paradoxical is that although one party may walk away with the lions share, a great relationship should have formed if the “winning” party behaved like a good negotiator should.
Whether it is wealth or a carefully fashioned reputation for astuteness and resolve, winners use all their leverage in all of their negotiations while remaining gracious and calm.
Some corporate giants nurture and refine their adversarial culture and focus on a brutal albeit cunningly applied, “take no prisoners” approach towards negotiation. Many retailing giants carry things to great extremes to refine and create advantage, to the extent that they have purpose built negotiation centres crafted and fitted expressly to be uncomfortable for the counterparty. These rooms are specially built (covertly of course) to make it physically and psychologically uncomfortable for counterparties to deal with them while a deal that suits these “petty bullies” best is pursued. These are the joys awaiting those poor unsuspecting victims in pursuit of a win-win deal, a little bit of give (by us) and take (for them). This initial bit of “nuisance” is clearly proposed as being “for the greater good”. Sadly many believe that this makes it easier to achieve the much hoped for “foot in the door” with an implied prospect of good deal “later”. Or . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . perhaps not? Like tomorrow, “later” never comes!
The Business world is tough and we often find ourselves in front of seemingly cruel, overpowering organizations, and, on the face of things, powerful people, as we go about trying to succeed and do well, or sometimes just endure things through to the end of a bad period in our businesses.
Most of us have experienced this at some stage in our own life. As children, most of us had to deal with that overdeveloped, mature kid with a five o’clock shadow and bad-ass reputation that seemed to make him scarier than he was. The ladies among you will remember a similar person. All of you I am sure know what I mean; some kids were too scared to function and capitulated and there were those others as well, those that weren’t affected. Quantum science has an explanation for this but that is another discussion.
In day to day business, we may come across the table of someone from a giant conglomerate with gangs of obsessive legal specialists and a basement full of anxious accountants – each one programmed like a Doberman attack dog to rubbish our best offer and bully more concessions from us, just to “allow us to do that deal”. Often, we don’t really notice what we are dealing with but know that it is very powerful and very costly.
It often feels like we are held hostage to a system of “cooperation” and concession, of obfuscation and Machiavellian ego-mania, of legal and compliance requirements, and often we have little indication of what the true rules and real requirements are.
Well, – it’s time to change the rules.
Most training programs try to seduce you with the latest tactics, leaving people oblivious to the core principles, principles that beat tactics and tricks – hands down every time.
Unplugged delivers a negotiation management approach that balances the power and provides you with real advantages. From everyday political struggles to when we go face to face with, the conglomerate machine, that “monster under the bed” of the global marketplace. Learn why all goals really are achievable and why outcomes are not a good thing to focus a negotiation on.
No academic case studies, case studies are exercises that academics apply 20-20 hindsight to. No irritating role play exercises, no hallucinating hypothetical fall back position. No facile “tricks” on how to compromise, no useless nonsense like the “win-win” method. No academic Harvard Negotiation Project gobbledygook either. No popular tactical hypothesis and academic tactics.
In the Unplugged world of real negotiating, from the critical “raison d’être” to your goals and agenda, you will need to know how to script, prepare and design your approach. Begin to measure the compromise factors. Prepare your team to design, create and “effect” the plan, and carry out the negotiation.
Once the negotiation is “over” we show you how to debrief correctly and get ready for the next one.
The Unplugged Negotiation simulator is probably the most realistic negotiation scenario design and development tool available to date. There are principles, rules, and formulas that direct negotiation. It is these core components that make up the Unplugged system. The trick and tactics, testosterone bully, ego-fuelled approach is as pointless as the politically correct win-win approach.
All you need to know about how to become a Superior Negotiator is covered, starting with the Unplugged “first principles” of Negotiation, through to our “repatterning” model.