A negotiating team becomes a necessity when negotiations deal with vast issues and talks last for days or even weeks. Each negotiator has the task of familiarizing himself with another point of the contract and become an expert in a given matter. In addition, team members play complementary roles. The harmonious cooperation of all people is to contribute to obtaining a beneficial agreement for the company and success.

Determining the number of people who make up the negotiating team depends on several issues, namely:

• the complexity of the subject matter of the negotiations,
• the amount of data to be analyzed,
• the size of the opponent’s negotiating team.

Before starting negotiations, you should contact a representative of the company with which we will conduct talks. Both teams sitting at the negotiating table should be equally numerous. Thanks to this, it is assumed that they have the same starting position – no one has more strength resulting from numerical superiority.

In the literature, it is stated that the optimal number of people that make up the negotiating team is 5 members. However, it should be realized that in negotiations on a complex problem, we are dealing with the existence of an informal team dealing with conducting additional analyzes, creating alternative solutions, preparing scenarios for the course of the meeting.

In the classic, five-person negotiating team, negotiators should appear, performing the following roles:

• leader – is responsible for the course of the meeting, distributes tasks for other negotiators, plans the order of speakers, supervises the concessions made, has the most extensive decision-making powers and it is he who influences the conclusion of the final contract, observes and controls, speaks only when the situation requires,
• protocol officer – deals with taking notes from the course of the meeting, records all arrangements, proposals and concessions, quotes fragments of statements of individual negotiators, makes summaries of subsequent stages of negotiations,
• listener – observes the course of conversations, remembers the statements of negotiators, draws attention to non-verbal speech, emphasizes issues and problems that someone mentioned, and which were omitted in further negotiations,
• critic – has the task of noticing the disadvantages of the solutions proposed by opponents, criticizes their behavior, way of speaking; his cynical attitude allows him to see important details that could be forgotten,
• controller – evaluates the results of the meeting, evaluates the proposals of the opposing team, warns when the demands of the other party go beyond the limit of concessions.

The selection of members of the negotiating team is carried out by the leader. It is he who chooses people who will perform individual roles.

In addition, experts from given fields can sit at the negotiating table: engineers, lawyers, translators, mathematicians, physicists or surveyors. People with extensive knowledge in a specific area can also join the informal negotiating team and advise negotiators conducting talks during breaks.

Performing individual roles will require negotiators to have appropriate personality traits. For example, a leader must be composed, imperious, resistant to stress. It should also react quickly in emergency situations. In turn, the protocol is characterized by meticulousness, accuracy and divided attention. The listener must have developed interpersonal skills and intuitively read non-verbal signals transmitted by the opponent. The critic is an unbeliever who does not trust people and sees a flaw in everything – so he has a pessimistic attitude. The controller has an analytical mind and in a few moments is able to analyze even intricate issues. In addition, he looks at the world in a rational way.

When selecting individual members of the negotiating team, the leader shall pay attention to whether:

• they can work in a team,
• are composed,
• submit to the general interest,
• they do not care about paying attention to themselves,
• can control their emotions,
• are resistant to stress,
• have a moderate propensity to risk,
• have the ability to think quickly,
• freely establish new interpersonal contacts.

When creating a negotiation team, you also need to pay attention to choose people you trust. You have to rely on negotiators and believe in their abilities. You also can not blame them for minor failures, which will certainly appear in multi-stage negotiations. After all, the most important thing is the final result – a favorable agreement and fruitful cooperation with the contractor.

Source: https://poradnikprzedsiebiorcy.pl/-stworz-skuteczny-zespol-negocjacyjny

Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.